Date of Award

Fall 11-10-2023

Document Type

Scholarly Project

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

First Advisor

Robin Kirschner, EdD, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, CNL, CNE

Second Advisor

Tiffaney S. Randolph DNP, APRN, ACNP-BC

Abstract

Practice Problem: Cervical cancer screening with Pap is the recommended standard practice for women aged 21 to 65. The project aimed to increase low cervical cancer screening rates at a primary care clinic.

PICOT: The PICOT question that guided this project was: (P) In women 21 to 65 years old in the primary care setting (I), does proactive pre-scheduling of cervical cancer screenings (C) compared to current standard practice (O) affect cervical cancer screening rates (T) over eight weeks?

Evidence: The evidence strongly supported improving cervical cancer screening among the targeted population. Studies showed that Pap smear screening reduced the incidence and mortality of cervical cancer.

Intervention: Evidence-based intervention of screening eligible patients during triage included proactively offering a Pap, scheduling future Pap appointments, and providing gynecology referrals per patients’ preference to women 21 to 65 who needed screening.

Outcome: The intervention of a proactive screening approach demonstrated a clinically significant increase in cervical cancer screening rates at the practice site.

Conclusion: A structured system of identifying patients in need of cervical cancer screening and implementing a proactive scheduling system improves patient compliance with cervical cancer screenings.

Comments

Scholarly project submitted to the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Nursing Practice.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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