DNP Graduate to Present Practicum at International Conference

Would new mothers and their families be better able to recognize the symptoms of postpartum depression if they received additional education on the condition before being discharged?
 

When Yvette Rolle, DNP, MSN, RN, CNE, OB-RNC asked this question in the Doctor of Nursing Practice program at Chamberlain College of Nursing, she had no idea the answer would take her all the way to South Africa.
 

Dr. Rolle, an assistant professor on Chamberlain’s Houston campus, has been selected to give an oral presentation at the 27^th International Nursing Research Congress for the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI). The conference will be held July 21-25, 2016 in Cape Town, South Africa.
 

More than 900 nurse researchers, students, clinicians, and leaders are expected to attend the conference this year to hear the latest in evidence-based research that impacts the nursing industry.
 

Dr. Rolle’s presentation, “The Effectiveness of Facilitated Web-mediated Postpartum Education and Discharge Instructions,” comes out of the practicum project she completed in the DNP program.
 

As a long-time obstetrics nurse and educator, Dr. Rolle often observed that not enough attention was paid to the psychological health of postpartum patients. She decided to design a program that incorporated additional education and screening for postpartum depression and then evaluate its impact on patient outcomes.
 

“I hoped that the promotion of symptom recognition would empower the patient and their family to seek help if they started to recognize the symptoms,” she said. “And in that way, they could avoid the complications associated with postpartum depression.”

Dr. Rolle recruited 70 postpartum patients for her project. Half of the group was given routine, postpartum discharge instructions. The other half was given web-mediated education on the condition in addition to the routine instructions – meaning they used smartphones to watch YouTube videos or visit a website.
 

When surveyed on post-partum symptom recognition, those who had web-mediated instruction in addition to routine instruction scored much higher. By the end of her project, Dr. Rolle had patients requesting to be a part of the study.
 

In the DNP program at Chamberlain, students learn the process to submit an abstract, as well as to apply for a grant. Dr. Rolle’s advisor, Donna Taliaferro, Ph.D., RN encouraged her to disseminate her findings. While initially, she thought of submitting it to a local publication, she decided on a whim to shoot for Sigma Theta Tau International instead.
 

“This was the very first time I had gone through the process of submitting an abstract,” she said. “I never expected that it would be accepted. When I got the congratulatory letter, I had to keep pinching myself.”
 

Rolle gives credit to her advisor, Dr. Taliaferro, who critiqued the abstract for her DNP project. Rolle sent the exact abstract from her project to STTI, without changing one word.
 

“She facilitated my successful completion of the program and kept me moving forward,” Dr. Rolle said. “She was a good motivator. After I was finished, I sent her a message and said ‘I have you to thank for this.’”
 

Prior to her presentation in South Africa, Dr. Rolle will also present her findings to both student nurses and registered nurses in the Caribbean nation of Dominica, her country of origin. 

By Molly Mattison