Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Doctor of Nursing Practice

Major

Nursing

Date of Defense

7-12-2023

Graduate Advisor

Elise Schaller

Co-Advisor

Roxanne Reid

Committee

Elise Schaller, DNP, MHA, APRN, CPNP-PC

Roxanne Reid, DNP, MSN-Ed, RN

Thuylinh Pham, MD FAAP

Abstract

Problem: Screening for Social Determinants of Health (SDOH), including food insecurity (FI) should be done on a regular basis at a child’s pediatrician. Many children in the state of Missouri do not have a pediatrician or do not regularly see their pediatrician and are therefore never being screened for FI.

Methods: This observational descriptive quality improvement (QI) project utilized a prospective observational analysis to implement a voluntary FI screening tool in a pediatric only urgent care. The project sampled pediatric patients aged two days to 21 years of life. All participants were given local resources after completing the screening. The project included a staff education phase, implementation phase, and data collection and analysis phase. The project used plan-do-act-study method to evaluate limitations.

Results: 261 families were screened over a one-month period with 33% of the screenings being positive for FI. Two two-tailed, independent t-tests were performed to assess a correlation between a child being food insecure and the child seeing a pediatrician in the last 12 months. The results were not significant with p values of 0.98% and 0.52%

Implications for Practice: A FI positivity rate of 33% suggests screening for SDOH should be done outside of a child’s pediatrician and families should be better connected to resources when they do screen positive for FI.

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