Perceptions of Telehealth Among University Primary Care Providers
- Author (aut): McKernan, M. Katherine
- Thesis advisor (ths): Nunez, Diane
- Contributor (ctb): College of Nursing and Health Innovation
Since the start of the COVID 19 pandemic there has undoubtedly been an increase in social distancing orders, isolation, and overall general stress. The current outbreak has been proven to have a heavy impact on issues involving mental health. Social distancing mandates contributed to isolation, which in turn caused a surge in psychiatric disorders, either newly onset or exacerbating preexisting conditions (Torales, et al, 2020). Due to significant alterations in daily life, an increase in physical inactivity has already been proven to lead to deterioration of cardiovascular health (Pecanha et al, 2020). Stay at home orders have prevented otherwise healthy people from keeping up their daily exercise and eating habits, contributing to a heightened amount of mental health and hypertensive related issues.<br/>In addition to these health concerns, the pandemic has put stress upon pharmaceutical management practices. Drug utilization surges have led to an impact on patient care and management which requires careful measures to be taken to reduce the inflow of sick patients (Badreldin and Atallah, 2020). A global drug shortage has been a result of these drug utilizations. Understanding the alterations in the usage of specific medications such as prescription psychotropics, antihypertensive drugs, and antidiabetic agents can aid in population management and drug shortages.
Purpose: Implementation of a postpartum depression (PPD) screening while using evidence-based interventions to improve depressive symptoms, enhance breastfeeding (BF) self-efficacy, and strengthen the mother-infant dyad (MID).
Background and Significance: PPD is highly prevalent among women living in the United States and threatens the physical and psychological health of MIDs. Many of these women go undiagnosed and without treatment, further worsening symptoms and outcomes. This has inspired world healthcare leaders and organizations to address maternal mental health among postpartum women.
Methods: A 12-week evidenced-based project consisted of two-sets of participants including mothers and staff. A comprehensive maternal support program guided by an informational pamphlet (IP) and implementation of PPD screening using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale served as the two-part intervention for this project. Goals were to decrease PPD, enhance BF satisfaction, and strengthen the MID. Comprehensive maternal support encompasses interventions proven to meet the project goals and includes tailored BF education and care to maternal needs, social support by peer/family involvement, skin-to-skin contact during BF, emotion-regulation strategies, and availability of community resources.
Outcomes: The BSES-SF scores did result in statistical significance based on an alpha value of 0.10, t(3) = -2.98, p = .059, proving a positive effect was seen in breastfeeding self-efficacy post intervention. The results did not show statistical significance (t(3) = 0.60, p = .591) in regard to pre and post-depression scores. However, the mean pre-score (M =3.50, SD 3.11) did decrease post-intervention (M =2.75, SD 1.26) and exemplifies clinical significance.
Conclusion: The outcomes of this Quality-Improvement project showed improved scores for depression and BF self-efficacy post-intervention. This demonstrates the value in screening for PPD using a validated screening tool and instituting comprehensive maternal support guided by evidence-based practice in a community setting.