Implementing Child Maltreatment Prevention into the Clinical Setting: an On-Line Learning Tutorial for Advanced Practice Nurses

Abstract

Child maltreatment in the pediatric population is becoming more prevalent in today’s society and is being seen more frequently in the primary care setting. Universal prevention of child maltreatment plays a significant role in nursing practice. The American Academy of Pediatrics set forth guidance for pediatricians to practice when assessing a pediatric patient for maltreatment; however, such guidance is not available for advanced practice nurses and little to no training is provided in the clinical setting. In order to accurately identify the child who is a suspected victim of maltreatment, advanced practice nurses must possess the ability to assess, evaluate, refer, investigate, and provide appropriate outcomes for the child and his/her families. The purpose of this Doctor of Nursing (DNP) project was to create an on-line learning tutorial for advanced practice nurses regarding the prevention of child maltreatment in the clinical setting. The goal of the on-line learning tutorial was to address the crucial role advanced practice nurses have in the prevention of child maltreatment and promote the well-being and safety of children. This project used a quasi-experimental, one-group, pre-test/post-test design to determine the effectiveness of an on-line learning tutorial related to child maltreatment. The pre-test and post-test would determine the inferences on the effect of the intervention by examining the differences in the pre- and post-test results. This study provided significant evidence demonstrating that an on-line learning tutorial on the implementation of child maltreatment prevention in the clinical setting was an effective means for increasing knowledge of nurse practitioner graduate students on child maltreatment. The results demonstrated a significant increase in the test scores of the participants after viewing the on-line learning tutorial, indicating the tutorial was effective.