BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 X-WR-CALNAME:EventsCalendar PRODID:-//hacksw/handcal//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York LAST-MODIFIED:20240422T053451Z TZURL:https://www.tzurl.org/zoneinfo-outlook/America/New_York X-LIC-LOCATION:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZNAME:EDT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 DTSTART:19700308T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=2SU END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZNAME:EST TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 DTSTART:19701101T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=11;BYDAY=1SU END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT CATEGORIES:College of Nursing and Health Sciences,Thesis/Dissertations DESCRIPTION:College of Nursing and Health Sciences DNP Defense – Stephani e Bettencourt Title: The Impact of an Educational Intervention on Psychiat ric Nurse Practitioners’ and Psychiatric Clinical Nurse Specialists’ K nowledge and Confidence to Prescribe Esketamine DNP Student: Stephanie Bet tencourt Date: Wednesday, April 22, 2026 Time: 3:00PM ZOOM: dhoffman@umass d.edu Committee: Dr. Christine Saba Rezendes, DNP, AGCNP-BC, ACNS-BC Dr. V alerie Seney, PhD, MA, LMHC, PMHNP-BC Dr. Gulcan Bagcivan, PhD, RN Abstrac t Recurrent depressive episodes and suicidality remain a major issue in th e psychiatric field, despite current treatment options. Suicide remains th e tenth leading cause of death in ages fifteen to thirty-four in the Unite d States (Mann, J.J., et al., 2021). Oral medications can often be ineffec tive, leading to Treatment Resistant Depression (TRD) (U.S.N.L.M., 2024). A relatively new N-methyl-D-asparte (NMDA) receptor antagonist, esketamine , has demonstrated an ability to rapidly reduce symptoms with minimal side effects, and produce faster recovery periods in those with TRD (Hannan & Kennedy, 2022; Mann, J. J., et al., 2021). This DNP scholarly project aims to address the lack of knowledge and confidence regarding esketamine, by implementing an online educational intervention regarding the NDMA recepto r antagonist esketamine. The educational intervention was provided to a co nvenience sampling of Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners and Psychiatric Clin ical Nurse Specialists with full prescriptive authority in New England. A Wilcoxon signed-rank test comparison was used to analyze pre and post inte rvention self-rated levels of knowledge and confidence collected from pre and post surveys after completion of recorded educational intervention. Se lf-rated pre-intervention knowledge levels (Mdn= 2.00, M=2.87) were noted as significantly lower than self-rated post-intervention knowledge levels (Mdn= 5.00, M=5.73). Self-rated pre-intervention confidence levels (Mdn= 1 .00, M=2.27) were noted as significantly lower than self-rated post-interv ention knowledge levels (Mdn= 5.00, M=4.73). Results obtained illustrate a positive effect from implementation of an educational intervention regard ing increasing knowledge and confidence of esketamine and potential increa se in future treatment utilization.\nEvent page: https://www.umassd.edu/ev ents/cms/college-of-nursing-and-health-sciences-dnp--defense---stephanie-b ettencourt.php X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

College of Nursing and Health S ciences DNP Defense – Stephanie Bettencourt

Title: The Impact of an Educational Intervention on Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners’ and Psy chiatric Clinical Nurse Specialists’ Knowledge and Confidence to Prescri be Esketamine

DNP Student: Stephanie Bettencourt

Date: Wed nesday\, April 22\, 2026

Time: 3:00PM

ZOOM: dhoffman@umassd.edu

Committee:

Dr. Christine Saba Rezendes\, DNP\, AGCNP-BC\, ACNS-BC

Dr. Valerie Seney\, PhD\, MA\, LMHC\, PMHNP-BC

Dr. Gulcan Bagcivan\, PhD\, RN

Abstract

Recurrent depressive episodes and suicidality re main a major issue in the psychiatric field\, despite current treatment op tions. Suicide remains the tenth leading cause of death in ages fifteen to thirty-four in the United States (Mann\, J.J.\, et al.\, 2021). Oral medi cations can often be ineffective\, leading to Treatment Resistant Depressi on (TRD) (U.S.N.L.M.\, 2024). A relatively new N-methyl-D-asparte (NMDA) r eceptor antagonist\, esketamine\, has demonstrated an ability to rapidly r educe symptoms with minimal side effects\, and produce faster recovery per iods in those with TRD (Hannan & Kennedy\, 2022\; Mann\, J. J.\, et al.\, 2021). This DNP scholarly project aims to address the lack of knowledge an d confidence regarding esketamine\, by implementing an online educational intervention regarding the NDMA receptor antagonist esketamine. The educat ional intervention was provided to a convenience sampling of Psychiatric N urse Practitioners and Psychiatric Clinical Nurse Specialists with full pr escriptive authority in New England. A Wilcoxon signed-rank test compariso n was used to analyze pre and post intervention self-rated levels of knowl edge and confidence collected from pre and post surveys after completion o f recorded educational intervention. Self-rated pre-intervention knowledge levels (Mdn= 2.00\, M=2.87) were noted as significantly lower than self-r ated post-intervention knowledge levels (Mdn= 5.00\, M=5.73). Self-rated p re-intervention confidence levels (Mdn= 1.00\, M=2.27) were noted as signi ficantly lower than self-rated post-intervention knowledge levels (Mdn= 5. 00\, M=4.73). Results obtained illustrate a positive effect from implement ation of an educational intervention regarding increasing knowledge and co nfidence of esketamine and potential increase in future treatment utilizat ion.

Event page: h ttps://www.umassd.edu/events/cms/college-of-nursing-and-health-sciences-dn p--defense---stephanie-bettencourt.php

DTSTAMP:20260409T165320 DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260422T150000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260422T160000 LOCATION:ZOOM SUMMARY;LANGUAGE=en-us:College of Nursing and Health Sciences DNP Defense - Stephanie Bettencourt UID:db17b0d1cdfb20eab90f2873103ff7a1@www.umassd.edu END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR