Jordan Dudley, a Doctor of Nursing Practice student who works with gastrointestinal patients as an acute care nurse practitioner, noticed a concerning trend at her work: delays for colonoscopy procedures that often caused longer hospital stays as well as increased costs and risks.
Through Dudley’s research, she discovered high rates of poor bowel preparation for inpatient colonoscopy procedures. Dudley initially suspected that inpatient nurses were not adequately pushing the preparation, but she quickly discovered that wasn’t the case.
“The nurses realized the significance of the preparation,” she says. “It’s just that you can’t force a patient to do it, no matter how much you push them.”
Dudley plans to distribute an illustrated booklet to a new group of inpatients and measure its impact. The booklet emphasizes the importance of bowel preparation and includes visuals to show patients what to expect.
For her efforts, Dudley was recently recognized with the Nurse Practitioner Healthcare Foundation/Proctor & Gamble Gastroenterology Scholarship Award for her “extraordinary nursing practice leadership, outstanding academic achievements, and excellence in caring for the gastroenterology patient.”
“It was validating to know that I’m on the right track,” Dudley says. “It let me know that I’m making a difference for my patients in the long run.”
