| Learning Objective #1: Describe a method of increasing clinical nursing scholarship | |||
| Learning Objective #2: Describe an advanced practice role for nursing |
The aim of this collaborative practice with chronic hepatitis C patients is to increased quality patient care through clinical research and to provide a clinical practice site for a nursing faculty. The setting is an academic medicine outpatient clinic connected to a liver transplantation program. Patients are referred to the Hepatitis C Clinic with a treatment plan by the hepatologists. Patients then undergo the screening, treatment, and evaluation process by the clinic staff that consists of a medical director, part-time nurse practitioner/faculty, clinical research coordinator, and medical assistant. This team has developed a standard office visit and lab test schedule for all patients on treatment. Common nursing problems related to treatment of hepatitis C virus infection have been identified through the review of the literature and day-to-day care of patients. Standardized instruments have been selected to measure treatment problems that commonly occur such as depression, fatigue, and side effects. This model has been applied to the problem of patients discontinuing pegylated interferon and ribavirin treatment due to side effects with an improvement from 8 out of the first 20 patients (40%) to 3 out of 24 currently (22%). Algorithms have been developed and are now being tested for the use of cell line stimulants to decrease the need for dose reductions during treatment. The database developed in this clinic will be used to answer numerous clinical questions. Through such a systematic process of treating patients and measuring outcomes, knowledge will be gained about factors that affect the efficacy of treatment and how to impact the patient’s response to treatment.
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