A Staff Educational Initiative to Improve the Use of Childhood Obesity Guideline Recommendations

• Main Author: Louque, Kris Kuhlmann
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: ScholarWorks 2018
• Subjects: childhood; obesity; Nursing
• Online Access: https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/4933; https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6212&context=dissertations

Obesity affects one out every six children in the United States, which places them at risk for other chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and continued obesity into adulthood. Considering military children are more likely to enter the Armed Forces than their civilian counterparts, an increase in obesity among military families decreases the number of potential future military recruits who are physically eligible to serve. Despite this growing epidemic, providers report a lack of education and a low self-efficacy in the treatment of this condition. This doctorate of nursing practice study addresses this educational gap by attempting to improve participants knowledge within a military setting regarding the clinical practice guidelines for the assessment, prevention, and treatment of childhood obesity through an one hour educational inservice. The educational project was guided by the principles of the chronic care model and used the theories of adult learning in the formation of the inservice. The content was derived from current evidence and the clinical practice guidelines endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Twenty-seven participants attended the 1-hour educational inservice program and 24 completed a 9 question pretest and posttest knowledge survey (p<0.00). Analysis of the data from this educational inservice found a significant improvement in participant knowledge between the pretest and posttest surveys. These findings suggest that it is feasible to offer a 1-hour inservice which can promote social change by significantly improving staff's knowledge about the clinical practice guidelines on childhood obesity.