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A Brief Educational Intervention to Enhance Nurse Practitioners' Knowledge, Attitudes and Skin Cancer Counseling Behaviors

Background: Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States and is a public health concern. There are over 5 million new cases of keratinocyte skin cancer (KC) (previously known as non-melanoma skin cancer) and over 65,000 new cases of melanoma annually in the United States. Skin cancer is highly preventable, although prevention methods are not commonly practiced. Nurse practitioners have a key role in educating and encouraging patients to practice skin cancer prevention methods. Purpose/Aims: The purpose of this project was to determine whether a brief educational video can improve nurse practitioner knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors regarding skin cancer and skin cancer prevention counseling. Methods: A single subject pre-test post-test design guided this project. Participants completed an online pretest assessing skin cancer knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. Following the pretest participants were given access to the video intervention. The intervention included information about skin cancer and published guidelines about skin cancer prevention counseling. Changes in knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors and satisfaction with the intervention were assessed through a post-test. Results: A total of 30 eligible Arizona nurse practitioners completed both the pretest and posttest surveys. There was a statistically significant increase (p=.000) in knowledge from 64.17% on the pretest to 87.5% on the posttest. Attitudes about skin cancer and skin cancer counseling were fair on the pretest and significantly improved (p=.000) on the posttest. On the pretest, nurse practitioners had poor attitudes regarding skin cancer prevention counseling practice behaviors. These attitudes favorably increased (p=.009) on the posttest. Self-reported practice behaviors also improved significantly following the intervention (p=.000). Participants' attitudes regarding the intervention were generally favorable. Conclusions: A brief educational intervention offered online to nurse practitioners is highly effective for improving their knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors regarding skin cancer and skin cancer prevention counseling. The intervention is feasible to administer and is acceptable to nurse practitioners.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/623149
Date January 2016
CreatorsGoodman, Hope Ann, Goodman, Hope Ann
ContributorsLoescher, Lois J., Loescher, Lois J., Pacheco, Christy, Anderson, Chrys
PublisherThe University of Arizona.
Source SetsUniversity of Arizona
Languageen_US
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext, Electronic Dissertation
RightsCopyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.

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