Degree Name

Nursing Practice, DNP

Publication Date

8-5-2024

Upload Date

2024

First Advisor

Linda Latting

Second Advisor

Beverly Clark

Abstract

Individuals with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) are at increased risk for oral health conditions such as periodontal disease. Moreover, there is an established bidirectional relationship that has been well documented in the literature among periodontal disease and T2DM. However, oral health is rarely being discussed with patients who have T2DM from the primary care setting. The objective for this Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) project was to bridge the gap in this area by assessing the efficacy of implementing an educational program to promote education and awareness in individuals with T2DM who are at risk for periodontal disease. This Quality Improvement (QI) project was carried out through a charity clinic that serves indigent patients and consisted of a single educational course. Moreover, 20 patients who participated were asked to fill out a pre-educational survey questionnaire to assess baseline knowledge and then the results were compared to post educational surveys. The data from the pre and post educational surveys, along with age and gender, were analyzed with the software from Intellectus Statistics. Moreover, a two tailed paired t-test was used to analyze the data and revealed statistically significant results (p = .003, 95.00% CI) for the educational intervention. Consequently, the findings for this project align with the current literature, which indicate that patient education programs increase knowledge from baseline. Healthcare teams are in a prime position to screen, educate, and empower patients with T2DM in many areas including oral health.

Creative Commons License

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

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