The Effect of Postpartum Depression Screening Education for Postpartum Nurses

Author

Shecarra S. CookFollow

Campus Location

Dallas Campus (Online)

Date of Award

10-2021

Document Type

DNP Project

Department

Nursing

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice

Committee Chair or Primary Advisor

Lawrence Santiago

Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor

Ugochi Irikannu

Third Committee Member or Committee Reader

Catherine Northrup

Abstract

Depression affects about 13% of pregnant women and about 10% of women after childbirth. Some cases are so severe, the mother may even commit suicide. If left untreated, postpartum depression (PPD) affects both the mother’s and the infant’s health as well as their quality of life. The gap in clinical practice is that currently, patients only complete a postpartum depression screening tool during their 6-week follow-up appointment with their OB/GYN, leaving a gap in PPD detection and care during the immediate postpartum period. Postpartum nurses are not usually given specialized training in postpartum depression. The purpose of this study was to educate postpartum nurses on postpartum depression indications and symptoms, as well as the use of a validated screening instrument. The study was limited to email delivery of a PowerPoint presentation due to the limits imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The study used a pretest/posttest design to determine if the education program increase knowledge of the nurses on PPD. The target sample was 30 postpartum registered nurses; however, only 19 postpartum nurses participated in the demographic survey, 12 postpartum nurses took the pretest, and 7 completed the posttest. While results showed no statistical significance due to small sample size, a slight increase in knowledge did occur based on posttest scores. Recommendations include expanding the methods of delivering education to include in-person group education with more focus not only on knowledge gain but nursing self-efficacy and actual change in practice. This would add more validity to the efficacy of nurse education.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Cook, Shecarra S., "The Effect of Postpartum Depression Screening Education for Postpartum Nurses" (2021). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 407.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/407