Date of Award

Fall 2022

Project Type

Thesis

College or School

CHHS

Department

Nursing

Program or Major

Nursing

Degree Name

Master of Science

First Advisor

Pamela Kallmerten

Abstract

Background: Ophthalmology, the medical field dedicated to the human eye and visual system infrequently uses nurses due to a lack of nursing knowledge about ophthalmology.

Local Problem: An ophthalmic microsystem in the Northeastern United States is experiencing increased demand for services and decreased access to their retina section. The microsystem does not utilize nurses in the clinic because of education and training barriers. The specific aim of this quality improvement (QI) project is to increase nursing knowledge about ophthalmology from baseline to an overall passing score of 80%.

Methods: This QI project sought to see if registered nurses could improve their knowledge of ophthalmology over four weeks with asynchronous, virtual learning modules derived from texts provided by the American Society of Ophthalmic Registered Nurses. Participants completed learning modules about anatomy and physiology of the eye, ophthalmic assessment, and ocular manifestations of systemic illnesses.

Results: Eleven volunteers completed all aspects of this QI project, including an assessment to set a baseline pre-intervention score, with a mean score of 42.54 out of 100 (SD=7.1, Range=0-100). They also took a post-intervention assessment, with a mean score of 77.81 out of 100 (SD= 13.1, Range = 0-100). This QI project found that the mean test score change was statistically significant (P<0.05).

Conclusions: Asynchronous virtual learning has the potential to improve ophthalmic nursing education. The utilization of this modality to educate nurses as a member of the ophthalmic services team is a viable option to possibly alleviate constraints on patient access to retinal services.

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