Increasing primary care nurse practitioner student confidence in select therapeutic musculoskeletal injections: A pilot study

Background

Musculoskeletal conditions are commonly seen in outpatient settings, where many advanced practice nurses (registered nurses with additional graduate education and training) are filling the gap of primary care provider shortages globally. Family nurse practitioners (FNPs) are the most common advanced practice nurse type in primary care settings in the U.S. Therapeutic injections are recommended in a variety of knee and shoulder musculoskeletal disorders to provide short to moderate term improvement, but are underutilized in primary care, due in part to lack of provider comfort and training. Literature is limited regarding primary care nurse practitioner student training on therapeutic musculoskeletal injections. The purpose of this project was to increase family nurse practitioner (FNP) student confidence in providing therapeutic subacromial bursae shoulder and knee joint corticosteroid injections.

Methods

A pre/post design was used to evaluate participant confidence in knowledge and skill performance before and after an in-person workshop intervention focused on subacromial bursae shoulder and knee joint therapeutic injections.

Results

Twenty-four graduate nursing students training to be FNPs in a Doctor of Nurse Practice (DNP) program at one school of nursing participated. All knowledge and skill confidence change scores were statistically significant (p < .001) after the intervention. Most participants reported they were more likely to perform an intra-articular knee and subacromial bursae shoulder injection after the intervention.

Conclusions

Therapeutic corticosteroid injections are an important skill for advanced practice nurses in primary care. An in-person, experiential procedure workshop can increase the confidence of FNP students in therapeutic subacromial bursae shoulder and knee joint corticosteroid injections.