Date of Award

Spring 2024

Document Type

DNP Project

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

Department

Nursing

Committee Chairperson

Cheryl Schlamb, DNP, CRNP

Committee Member

Jacquelyn Owens, DNP, CRNP-BC

Abstract

Women whose newborns are admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) are at an increased risk to experience feelings associated with Post-partum Depression (PPD) than women whose newborns are not. The screening of this population is imperative for early identification and dissemination of community resources as a source of early intervention. The purpose of this project is to increase the number of screenings performed on the new mothers at the bedside of their NICU admitted newborn and deliver the screen to the NICU Social Work department for early intervention, and resources. This quality improvement project used a six-week retrospective pre- and post-implementation design. The pre-intervention data demonstrated an incidence of 70% (n=14). An in-depth education session on PPD was conducted and laminated, and card-sized copies of the Edinburgh postnatal depression scale were disseminated to the NICU staff. Post-intervention data was collected over a 6-week period resulting in a decreased incidence of 44% (n=4).

Download

Share

COinS