Date of this Version

7-30-2020

Document Type

DNP Project

Comments

Medication adherence has been defined as the process by which patients take their medications on how they are prescribed (Ruppar et al., 2015). Medication nonadherence has become a critical healthcare issue. Several interventions have been tried to increase adherence. Therefore, the objective of this review is to assess if a structured educational program directed to providers and staff could increase medication adherence among patients who are prescribed lipid-lowering medications for primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease. The gathered evidence led to the development of a quality improvement project. Three databases were screened to answer the clinical question, and six articles were included in the review. The educational programs ranged from 90 minutes of training up to 2-day educational sessions. The programs included scientific updates, clinical guidelines, feedback, and communication skills. Five out of the six studies found a significant increase in medication adherence after the intervention. Even when different approaches were used, it is feasible to create an educational program targeting providers and their staff to increase lipid-lowering medication adherence.

A Quality Improvement (QI) project was implemented in a local Primary Care practice. The project was designed as a pre-post intervention survey. The purpose of the QI was to increase the skills and awareness of the provider's staff to increase the patient's adherence to lipid-lowering medication. After the educational intervention, there was an improvement in staff knowledge, awareness, and skills to assess, educate, and engage patients to promote patients' adherence to lipid-lowering medication. More research is needed to prove the efficacy of different types of intervention targeting providers over medication adherence in other chronic conditions.

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