Date of Award

2021

Document Type

Project

College/School

College of Nursing

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

Project Mentor

Therry Eparwa

Readers

Timothy Firman

Abstract

For the last hundred years and to this day, one of the most important diagnostic tools in medicine has been the electrocardiogram (EKG or ECG). The decision to pursue a life-saving intervention, or not, may be heavily based on the interpretation of the results of a diagnostic test. With the weight of impacts to outcomes, one would think there would be ample, if not excessive, time and effort given to teaching practitioners how to interpret an ECG. Unfortunately, with each graduating class of physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants, all of whom have within their scope of practice to interpret ECGs and act upon them appropriately, there are more under-prepared professionals in the field (Burns et al., 2020). Due to the discrepancy between importance of ECG interpretation and subsequent preparation, a novel learning application was created in an effort to improve one’s ability and confidence to interpret ECGs. In a quasiexperiment design, a cohort of Seattle University fourth-year DNP students were asked to participate in a six-week program utilizing this novel learning application. Each participant’s ability to interpret ECGs, as well as confidence in their preparation and ability, was assessed before and after the intervention. The results demonstrated utilizing the novel learning application increased overall confidence and ability to interpret ECGs. Additionally, it was found that individuals improved their scores significantly post intervention.

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