Educational Presentation to Increase Primary Care Pediatric Provider Knowledge on Deployment Stress in Preschool Aged Children

Abstract

Background: Military preschool children are more inclined to experience negative outcomes when faced with multiple military deployments. Civilian providers lack knowledge of military culture resulting in missed opportunities to screen, assess and offer anticipatory guidance to counter deployment stress. Purpose: The purpose of this DNP project was to determine if an online educational presentation of deployment stress symptomology in preschool children would increase primary care pediatric provider knowledge of deployment stress. Methods: An online educational presentation was sent via email to a convenience sample of pediatric primary care providers employed at United Community Health Centers. Included were a pre-test and post-test to evaluate provider knowledge gain. Results: A one group pre-test and post-test analysis of the mean scores were conducted. Only 33% of participants completed all materials. Due to the low response rate (N=2), there is no statistical data inferring the beneficial use of an online educational presentation to increase pediatric provider knowledge of the signs and symptoms of deployment stress in preschool children