Staff Education to Improve Medication Compliance in Older Patients in Home Settings

The Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) project was a staff education intervention intended to improve medication adherence at a long-term care facility. The practice gap identified was that staff lacked current evidence-based knowledge in medication compliance. The project addressed whether educating staff on medication compliance would increase knowledge. The purpose of this project was to increase knowledge with the overall goal to improve patient outcomes. Planning strategies included undertaking a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) assessment of the organization’s readiness. The project involved creating and implementing an in-person 60-minute presentation. Eighteen nursing staff voluntarily participated in the education intervention, including nurses, aides, and caregivers. The education program included teaching content, PowerPoint presentations, organization’s readiness assessment, Organizational Readiness for Implementing Change (ORIC) tool (National Institutes of Health [NIH], 2016), and a 10-question multiple-choice pretest/posttest. The results indicated a significant difference between the pretest and posttest means. The posttest mean was higher (60) than the pretest mean (49.5). The mean difference of 10.5 demonstrated a significant increase in staff knowledge. Recommendations include offering ongoing staff development programs. The potential implications for nursing practice are that the project may improve medication taking and patient-centeredness for staff and patients. Staff education is valuable because it promotes positive social change by addressing health care disparities and improving older patient care, equity, and quality care, regardless of patients’ backgrounds