First Advisor

Suit, Louise

College

Rueckert-Hartman College for Health Professions

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice

School

Loretto Heights School of Nursing

Document Type

Thesis - Open Access

Number of Pages

66 pages

Abstract

Problem

Rural community mental health centers (CMHC) can be spread across many counties with various locations and programs. Physical isolation and professional diversity often create a perception among staff of poor interprofessional collaboration (IPC). A strong need exists in such settings to use up-to-date internet technology to manage collaboration, as mandated by the Institute of Medicine and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.


The Capstone practice question is to discover if, for staff from all sites of a mental health center who volunteer to participate, does the creation of an online asynchronous monthly journal club lead to improvement of perception of interprofessional collaboration (IPC)?


Purpose

This project intended to demonstrate that, given an online venue to discuss subjects of mutual interest among staff at a CMHC, a perception of improved IPC would be achieved.


Goal

The goal of this project was intended to evaluate the usefulness of an online journal club for improving staff perception of IPC at a rural Community Mental Health Center.


Objective

The objective was to identify if there was improved perception of IPC among participating staff within three months as measured by a comparison of pre-test/post-test aggregate mean scores for the Index for Interdisciplinary Collaboration (IIC) instrument.


Plan

In order to measure this objective, all staff of a rural CMHC were invited to participate. 32 participants were given a pre-test survey, using the modified Index for Interdisciplinary Collaboration and 20 completed the post-test . One journal article was uploaded into GoogleDocs every month for three months and sent to all participants with a request to comment. At the end of the three month pilot, the identical survey was sent to all participants and results were analyzed.


There was a statistically significant improvement of 2.8% in pre-test and post-test aggregate mean scores; however, other factors may have influenced this score. Further research into the effects of a Journal Club on IPC is indicated.

Date of Award

Spring 2016

Location (Creation)

Colorado (state); Denver (county); Denver (inhabited place)

Rights Statement

All content in this Collection is owned by and subject to the exclusive control of Regis University and the authors of the materials. It is available only for research purposes and may not be used in violation of copyright laws or for unlawful purposes. The materials may not be downloaded in whole or in part without permission of the copyright holder or as otherwise authorized in the “fair use” standards of the U.S. copyright laws and regulations.

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