Date of Degree

12-2019

Document Type

Doctoral Project

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

Program

Nursing

Advisor

Holly Cassells

Advisor

Cassandra Shipman-Wadley

Abstract

Background: Childhood obesity and overweight have increased health burdens on health care systems, and contribute to chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, asthma, and cancer. Childhood obesity is very complex for healthcare providers to manage in primary care settings.

Purpose: To improve childhood overweight and obesity approach and management in a selected primary care practice (Clinic A) in a large east Texas urban community.

Objectives: 1. Increase the percentage of children and adolescents ages 2 to 19 years seen in Clinic A, who received adequate weight management and obesity counseling, to 75%. 2. Increase the number of referrals to the weight management care team and improve the referral process in the patient population ages 2 to 19 years.

Intervention: The quality improvement project was an educational and practice intervention aimed at improving the primary care practice’s obesity management including providers’ provision of obesity guidance to patients and their parents using the Fifteen-Minute Obesity Prevention Protocol (FMOPP).

Results: Objective 1, post-intervention, 90% of 20 pediatric children with BMIs over the 85th percentile had obtained adequate weight management and obesity. Objective 2, post-intervention, the rate increased dramatically such that 75% of children with BMIs over the 85th percentile received referrals to Texas Children’s Hospital.

Implications for practice/Conclusion: The FMOPP was effective and worked for Clinic A patients. The initiatives should be validated and then implemented in all pediatric practices. Continuing to reinforce the approaches used in this project would benefit a community where obesity is an epidemic.

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