Date of Award

2019

Document Type

Capstone

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

Committee Chair

Kathy Williams

Abstract

Lack of acute-care hospital non-psychiatric nurses’ confidence and competence with suicidality has been reported in the literature. Evidence supports multi-modal education to increase recall and improve outcomes. The theory of self-efficacy included concepts of confidence as well as competence and served as the project’s theoretical underpinning. A descriptive design was utilized to examine the effects of an education intervention using various methodologies addressing suicide risk factors, prevention, management, and safe care on nurses’ perceived level of self-efficacy. Methods included a pre-test survey, an education module intervention, and a non-matched post-test survey. The survey used consisted of 11 of the original Suicide Competency Inventory (SCI) statements arranged across three scales. Convenience sampling was used with 26 participants in the pre-survey and 40 in the post-survey groups. A shift toward positive responses was observed for nine statements (range 0.2% to 34.2%). Non-psychiatric nurse positivism concerning competency to treat/care for suicidal patients was 2.141 times more likely after completing the education module. Chi-squared testing revealed statistically significant improvements with the most significant increase in the nurses’ perceived competency scale 2 = 14.513 and p< .0001. Multi-modal education regarding suicidality can improve nurses’ self-efficacy in caring for suicidal patients or those at risk for suicide to promote better outcomes and improved safety.

Creative Commons License

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

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