Provider Knowledge of Tickborne Diseases

Tickborne diseases have increased in incidence in recent years as well as new tickborne diseases have been discovered. These increasing numbers show the importance of well-educated health care providers to adequately diagnose and treat these diseases. The purpose of this DNP scholarly project study was to determine the effectiveness of an educational presentation for primary care providers over tickborne diseases in Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The educational presentation was given at a local nurse practitioner conference and knowledge was determined via a pre-test, post-test, and 6-week follow-up email. Few research articles are available over this subject and the articles that have been done are limited in their scope to Lyme disease and mostly endemic areas of Lyme disease. A total of 30 participants were at the conference and participated in the study. On average, participants scored 33.33 points higher on the post-test than on the pre-test which was a statistically significant difference. Due to the lack of responses to the six-week follow-up email, statistical analysis of that data was not possible. These findings from the pre and post-test indicate that education of tickborne diseases for healthcare providers is beneficial. Further studies over tickborne disease knowledge and treatment practices in Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Arkansas should be completed to gain further insight into current practices and should include multiple tick diseases