An Educational Initiative for Family Nurse Practitioners to Detect Melanoma Skin Cancer

Background Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer in the United States. Melanoma skin cancer is the deadliest form of skin cancer. In the United States, the rates of melanoma skin cancer continue to rise more than any other type of cancer. Local Problem Nurse practitioners play an important role in early detection of skin cancer; however, minimal time is spent on dermatology training in current nurse practitioner programs to sufficiently prepare nurse practitioners to identify melanoma skin cancer. Early detection of melanoma skin cancer leads to decreased mortality. Methodology There were approximately 75 family nurse practitioners eligible to participate. The potential participants were asked to complete the online demographic survey and a pretest questionnaire. After intervention, the participants were asked to complete a posttest questionnaire. Intervention A web-based educational tool regarding identification of melanoma skin cancer was developed. The family nurse practitioners viewed the web-based educational module regarding melanoma skin cancer. Results A comparison of pretest and posttest means from the questionnaire was analyzed using a t test. Thirty-three family nurse practitioners showed statistically significant improvements in knowledge after the educational intervention. In addition, confidence increased in their ability to detect melanoma skin cancer. Conclusions This project has shown that a web-based educational module can improve family nurse practitioners' ability and confidence to detect melanoma skin cancer. This educational module was statistically effective and provides an educational framework that can be adopted by other healthcare organizations to improve nurse practitioner knowledge surrounding melanoma detection.