The Creation and Implementation of a Provider Education Manual in Primary Care

Abstract

The Doctor of Nursing Practice project was designed to assist nurse practitioners (NPs) with evidence-based treatment of common acute illnesses in primary care and assess patient satisfaction with care. The project site was a federally funded free clinic in North Carolina without access to evidence-based practice online resources for reference while treating patients. This Doctor of Nursing Practice project included an educational manual of common acute illnesses with treatment guidelines, allergies, alternative therapies, and discharge instructions. The participants included three NPs, a project site champion, and an office manager at the project site. The project site champion worked alongside the NPs to ensure the use of the manual with appropriate patients and answered questions about the manual. The implementation period was over eight weeks and utilized the Plan-Do-Study-Act framework, assessed every two weeks. The manual was updated from feedback during the Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles. A final survey was sent to the participating NPs at the end of implementation. Overall feedback concluded that the manual was helpful in practice and improved evidence-based practice knowledge and the NPs were eager to continue using it to treat their patients. The patient satisfaction survey was implemented at the beginning and end of implementation and concluded that satisfaction with care, perceived wait times, likelihood to return for care, and satisfaction with the provider improved over the eight-week implementation period. This project supports using an educational manual in the clinic to improve the provider knowledge base and patient satisfaction.