Degree Name
Nursing Practice, DNP
Publication Date
9-28-2026
First Advisor
Lisa Drake
Second Advisor
Alisha McAfee
Abstract
Obesity is frequently associated with mental health concerns, yet these conditions may remain under identified when mental health screening is not consistently incorporated into medical weight-loss care. At the project site, fewer than 2% of patients who are overweight or obese were identified as needing mental health services, demonstrating a practice gap in screening and referral. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to evaluate whether targeted mental health screening education improved provider confidence. The aim was to increase confidence in conducting mental health screening among nurse practitioners in a medical weight-loss program. The Stetler Model provided the theoretical framework, Lewin’s Change Theory guided practice change, and the Plan-Do-Study-Act framework guided implementation. A quantitative, quasi-experimental, one-group pretest-posttest design was used with seven nurse practitioners. The evidence-based intervention included standardized education on mental health screening, the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, interpretation of screening results, and referral processes. Provider confidence was measured using Grundy’s five-item Confidence Scale. Mean confidence scores increased from 15.14 (SD = 4.22) pre-intervention to 24.29 (SD = 0.76) post-intervention. A paired-samples t test demonstrated a statistically significant improvement, t(6) = −5.96, p < .001, with a very large effect (d = 2.25). Limitations included the small sample size of seven nurse practitioners, use of a single clinical site, and reliance on a self-reported confidence measure, which may limit generalizability of the findings. Findings demonstrate that targeted education can substantially improve provider confidence and support translation of evidence-based mental health screening into medical weight-loss practice. Continued education, standardized screening, and evaluation of screening and referral outcomes may support sustainable practice improvement.
Rights Management
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Recommended Citation
Bennett, Sherri, "Quality Improvement Project: Determining Impact of Mental Health Screening Provider Training" (2026). Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects. 397.
https://arch.astate.edu/dnp-projects/397
