Degree Name
Nursing Practice, DNP
Publication Date
9-29-2026
First Advisor
Sandy King
Second Advisor
Alisha McAfee
Abstract
Suicide remains a significant public health concern, emphasizing the importance of consistent and evidence-based suicide risk assessment in outpatient mental health settings. The purpose of this Doctor of Nursing Practice quality improvement project was to determine how the provider’s implementation of the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scales (CSSRS) according to the recommendations of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration would impact the confidence and the rate of completion of suicidal screening tools (Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scales) compared to current clinic policy in an outpatient mental health clinic for over twelve weeks. This project used Lewin’s change model and PDSA as the implementation framework. PI used a quasi-experimental pre-post design for over 12 weeks. The sample included six providers (n=6). Data were collected using the Zero Suicide Workforce Survey (ZSWS) before and after the intervention. The results of the two-tailed Wilcoxon signed-rank test at an alpha value of 0.05 were V = 0.00, z = -2.23, p = .026 for the difference between pre-intervention completion and post-intervention completion. The results were not significant at the .05 level, χ2(1) = 2.67, p = .102, for post-intervention confidence. The project stipulates the importance of standardized suicide risk assessment, provider education, and adherence to evidence-based suicide assessment practices in an outpatient mental health care clinic.
Rights Management
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Recommended Citation
Bode-Oloye, Anuoluwapo, "Quality Improvement Project: The Impact of Proper Utilization of Suicidal Ideation Screening Tools" (2026). Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects. 381.
https://arch.astate.edu/dnp-projects/381
