Abstract

Early and consistent prenatal care (PNC) is essential to preventing adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes. Despite the recommendations made by the World Health Organization and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, childbearing women with health disparities living in rural settings are at an increased risk of experiencing inadequate PNC compared to their urban counterparts. The literature search suggests that limited access to PNC, childcare during the PNC visit, health care provider's perceptions of patients, and provider mistrust are barriers to early and consistent PNC. Growing research is placing a call to health care providers to implement interventions that are culturally sensitive using health literacy. Navajo childbearing women with health disparities living in rural Arizona are reflective of the childbearing women with health disparities globally. A quality improvement project using an eight week community based education campaign was conducted focusing on improving patient health literacy regarding early and consistent PNC, increasing the number of PNC visits, and reducing preventable harm to Navajo women receiving PNC services in a rural Northern Arizona health care setting. The results demonstrate the need for improved culturally-based health literacy regarding preventative health seeking behaviors. The eight week community based education campaign did not have a significant impact on the number of PNC visits. Future research is needed in order to determine the correlation between health literacy and the number of PNC visits. Keywords: prenatal care, health disparities, rural setting

Description

A community education campaign was developed and implemented in an off reservation community that focused on the promotion of early and consistent prenatal care to Navajo women. Concepts from The Navajo Wellness Model were combined with evidence-based practice guidelines associated with the advantages of early and consistent prenatal care in creating an educational modality addressing key barriers to early and consistent prenatal care. The educational modality was distributed throughout the off-reservation community.

Author Details

Adrien J. Gupton, DNP, RN, FNP-C,CNM

Sigma Membership

Lambda Omicron

Lead Author Affiliation

Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA

Type

DNP Capstone Project

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

Descriptive/Correlational

Research Approach

Mixed/Multi Method Research

Keywords:

Prenatal Care for Underserved Population, Health Disparities, Rural Setting

Advisor

Doshier, Sally

Second Advisor

Eddie, Regina

Degree

DNP

Degree Grantor

Northern Arizona University

Degree Year

2019

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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Review Type

Faculty Approved: Degree-based Submission

Acquisition

Self-submission

Full Text of Presentation

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