Journal
NURSE EDUCATOR
Volume 46, Issue 2, Pages 101-105Publisher
LIPPINCOTT WILLIAMS & WILKINS
DOI: 10.1097/NNE.0000000000000849
Keywords
differential diagnosis; doctor of nurse practice (DNP) program; nurse practitioner students; objective structured clinical examination (OSCE); online/hybrid education; physical assessment
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Funding
- Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) [D09HP29969]
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The project found inconsistencies and deficiencies in DNP students' ability to make a differential diagnosis, indicating the need to explicitly teach APRN students differential diagnosis skills.
Background: Advanced health assessment is a required course in advanced practice RN (APRN) education, essential to providing the foundation for differential diagnosis (DD) skills and the ability to formulate a plan of care. Problem: Feedback from clinical preceptors revealed that our doctor of nursing practice (DNP) students struggled to make a DD. Approach: This educational quality improvement project collected data from 7 cohorts of DNP students in either the Family Nurse Practitioner or Adult Gerontology Nurse Practitioner program to evaluate their readiness for clinical practicums and to inform necessary curriculum revisions. Outcomes: Data revealed that students' ability to identify 3 DDs correctly during the summative health assessment objective structured clinical examination was inconsistent. Qualitative data revealed students lacked understanding on how to use results from the physical assessment to formulate a DD. Conclusion: The findings of this project corroborate those from the literature that suggest we should teach APRN students DD skills explicitly.
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