Date of Award
12-2009
Degree Name
Master of Science in Nursing
Department
Nursing
First Advisor
Dr. Mary Ann Stark
Second Advisor
Dr. Linda Zoeller
Third Advisor
Dr. Kieran Fogarty
Access Setting
Masters Thesis-Campus Only
Abstract
Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is a life-changing disease that affects over 24 million people in the United States and is associated with life-threatening complications including neuropathy, retinopathy, and kidney disease. African-Americans experience 90% more nontraumatic lower extremity amputations than their Caucasian counterparts. It is incumbent upon the primary care provider/s (PCP/s) to implement evidence-based practice in an effort to monitor for early signs of complications.
The purpose of this master's thesis is to test the effectiveness of a nurse facilitator to enable best practice in a clinic setting. The research question was: Does a nurse facilitator intervention increase the performance of the comprehensive annual foot exam with monofilament testing by PCPs for African-American patients with Type 2 DM?
A quantitative pretest and posttest intervention study was performed followed by a retrospective chart audit to determine the frequency of foot exams for patients diagnosed with DM. A statistically significant difference in the incidence of comprehensive foot exams performed between Phase 1 (pre-intervention) and Phase 2 (post-intervention) was found. The findings supported the nurse facilitator intervention in this study.
Recommended Citation
Raine, "The Role of The Nurse Facilitator: Increasing the Performance of the Comprehensive Annual Foot Exam in African-American Patients with Type 2 Diabetes" (2009). Masters Theses. 295.
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses/295