Campus Location
Dallas Campus (Online)
Date of Award
2-2025
Document Type
DNP Project
Department
Nursing
Degree Name
Doctor of Nursing Practice
Committee Chair or Primary Advisor
Kristine Skalsky
Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor
Tonya Sawyer-McGee
Abstract
Depression is a common phenomenon. Depression and suicidality are a problem on university campuses. This quality improvement Doctor of Nursing project aimed to establish the importance of routine depression screenings within a college health clinic. The purpose of this project was to determine if implementing routine depression screenings at a university health clinic will or will not increase the number of counseling referrals when compared to the absence of depression screenings in place within an identified timeframe. This protocol screened for depression in college-aged students and suggested care to those students who screened positive. It also led an interprofessional team to review the literature and to assist in decreasing undiagnosed depression cases on campus. Postimplementation counseling referrals were calculated to assess the success of this project. For this project, a quantitative, exploratory design through a retrospective chart review was utilized at a 4-year university campus student health center. The students were screened for depression utilizing the Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2) screening form and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) screening form. If the result showed a positive screening for depression, the student was referred to the on-campus counseling center. The results of this project confirmed a need for routine depression screenings at on-campus medical clinics. During an 8-week timeframe, there were 441 total eligible participants: 94 students who screened positive on the PHQ-2 screening and 79 students who screened positive on the PHQ-9 screening and were referred to the on-campus counseling center. There is a need for depression screenings on college campuses. The results of this project confirmed the need for sustainability in the future to combat depression in college students.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Hanigan, Shelby, "Improving Outcomes of Depression Through Implementation of Depression Screenings at a College Health Center" (2025). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 859.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/859