Date of Graduation

Spring 5-19-2017

Document Access

Project/Capstone - Global access

Degree Name

Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)

College/School

School of Nursing and Health Professions

First Advisor

Chenit Ong-Flaherty

Abstract

Performing health screenings on patients is a potential way to prevent or even identify health issues that may have not otherwise been apparent. In recognition of the importance of this matter, this CNL aims to improve and increase the percentage rate of depression and cervical cancer screenings by addressing barriers that have hindered staff from performing these health screenings. This CNL project took place at a health clinic located in the marginalized community of San Francisco. The health clinic’s primary focus is to foster care to the underserved population—homeless, uninsured, LGBTQ, people of color—and provide them with qualitative patient care. According to the organization’s policy, these preventative health screenings must be performed on every patient of the clinic. However, because this is a small clinic with limited staff and resources, and due to the taxing demands of each of the staff members, they lack efficient performance in EHR consistency and the process of health screening expectations.

The generation of baseline data shows that in the last year 51% of patients were screened for depression and 14% of patients were screened for cervical cancer. Therefore, a goal of this project is to ensure staff follows a consistent screening process each time a patient is seen in the health clinic. Education awareness of the problem and visual cueing—a Reference List, Visual Signage, and an EHR Flowchart List—were used to prompt and remind staff that health screenings should be performed. This method was implemented over a three-week period and as a result, preliminary data showed that 54% of patients were screened for depression and 22% were screened for cervical cancer. This is indicative that after post- implementation, there has been a slight increase of screenings within the three-week study due to effective strategies that were utilized to reduce barriers and promote staff compliance and efficiency.

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