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An Executive Summary Highlighting a Doctor of Nursing Practice Project - "Empowering Families Through Online Access: A Digital Toolkit for Adolescent Substance Use Support"
(2025-07-15) Woodlief, Ashlie Kennedy
Adolescent substance use disorder (SUD) is a critical public health concern, often resulting in long-term cognitive, emotional, and social consequences. Families navigating adolescent SUD face significant barriers, including limited access to comprehensive, accessible, and stigma-free resources. This Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) project aimed to address this gap by designing and implementing a community-specific, evidence-informed website toolkit for families in Carteret County, North Carolina. Guided by the PRECEDE-PROCEED model and King’s Theory of Goal Attainment, the project engaged interdisciplinary partners to develop a digital platform offering crisis intervention contacts, legal and therapeutic support links, educational materials, and peer-guided strategies.
Outcome measures included quantitative engagement tracked via Google Analytics and qualitative feedback collected through online surveys. Although engagement rates partially met initial targets, analytics revealed sustained user interest, high interaction with critical resource pages, and positive qualitative feedback. Identified barriers included limited survey participation and initial site visibility, informing future enhancements. This project demonstrates how nurse-led digital interventions can bridge service gaps, align with national health objectives, and offer scalable models adaptable to other rural and underserved communities. By leveraging technology and interdisciplinary collaboration, the resource toolkit empowered families with accessible tools to support adolescent recovery and familial resilience.
The Era of Mega-Verdicts: The Efficacy of Malpractice Insurance Risk Assessments
(2025-07-15) Traci Espenship
The U.S. spends about $55 billion annually on the medical liability system, with nearly 10% of healthcare costs dedicated to insurance and defensive medicine. This highlights the urgent need to address the increasing severity of malpractice claims, as defense costs have skyrocketed due to excessive verdicts. Malpractice insurance carriers, such as the project site, that provide insurance for this type of defense, use loss control measures to minimize the financial impact on the insurance company. This project had three aims: to examine the efficacy of the project site’s risk assessment process in providing its clients with evidence-based solutions to mitigate risk exposures that could lead to a claim, to identify common recommendations that were implemented, and to identify the barriers organizations face in implementing recommendations made by the insurance carrier. The Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) improvement model was used to develop a new internal process and deploy a post-risk assessment questionnaire to gather data related to the process. A response rate of 59.4% (n = 32) was achieved, and all survey respondents reported that the risk assessment increased their self-efficacy. All but one noted that the recommendations would be implemented, with the reason for non-implementation being a lack of resources. Using these findings to support the risk assessment process can have significant implications for closing organizational gaps. Increasing the focus on patient safety and implementing evidence-based recommendations can reduce preventable harm to patients, enhance the organization’s risk profile, and lower unnecessary spending on claims defense by both the organization and insurance carriers.
Remaining relevatn in changing health care organization: RDNs must listen up or lose out!
(Nutrition Today, 2024-01) Craven, Kay; Drillious Gay; Jason Foltz; Kathryn M Kolasa
Although this paper's primary audienceRegistered Dietitian Nutritionists (RDNs) working in ambulatory clinics , it highlights ways that RDNs can play a role in the transition from fee for service (FFS) to value- based care (VBC) payment models. RDNs should be identifying and promoting the services they can provide to ensure quality health care for patients. In this paper we describe VBC as it is presented in dietetics literature. We also describe how RDNs in our Family Medicine Practice demonstrate their value as a member of the expanded interprofessional ambulatory care team providing quality care, reducing costs, and providing an exceptional experience for the patient. We call on educators of dietetics students, interns, and professionals to teach the necessary interprofessional skills to be successful in VBC models of care.