Routine Depression Screening Increases Identification, Diagnosis, and Management: Part 2

How can clinicians increase their screening for depression and major depressive disorder?

Psych Congress Network connected with Susan Montgomery, DNP, FNP-BC, assistant professor, University of South Alabama, Mobile, and Lauren Sharp, FNP, NextCare Urgent Care, to dive more deeply into their study “Improving Screening for Major Depressive Disorder” published this year in the Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners.

In Part 2 of this video Q&A, Dr Montgomery and Nurse Sharp discuss the importance of shared decision-making between patient and clinician, areas of future research, and key takeaways clinicians can keep in mind when treating depression.

Missed Part 1 of this conversation? Find it here. Visit our Major Depressive Disorder Excellence Forum for more expert insights!

Read the Transcript

Susan Montgomery, DNP, FNP-BC: Hello. I'm Dr. Susan Montgomery. I'm a family nurse practitioner and also an educator. I'm an assistant professor at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama.

Lauren Sharp, FNP: Hello. I am Lauren Sharp and I'm a family nurse practitioner and staff provider at NextCare Urgent Care in Dumfries, Virginia.

Psych Congress Network (PCN): Can you elaborate on the importance of shared decision-making with patients and how it impacts treatment outcomes?

Nurse Sharp: Shared decision making is a therapeutic relationship between the patient and the provider in which both parties discuss and come to a decision together on what the best plan of care is for the patient. Shared decision making weighs the benefits and risks of treatment and incorporates the patient's priorities and values into the treatment decision. Using this method of decision making positively impacts treatment outcomes because patients are more likely to adhere to certain treatments and plans of care if they are part of the decision as well, and their values and goals are well aligned with the treatment plans.

PCN: How do you hope this report impacts clinical practice at large?

Dr Montgomery: The positive outcomes from this project substantiate the success of the project. Future follow-up will further prove how necessary this is and how easy it is to rectify the issue.

PCN: What further research is needed in this area?

Nurse Sharp: More research is needed to determine the impact of depression screening over time. Ideally, implementing a depression screening protocol should improve management of patients with depression and lead to improved depression severity scores over the long-term. An example of a future project could be to determine how well a depression screening protocol improves the patient's depression scores in our clinic over a longer period of time than what we monitored in our project.

PCN: Is there anything else you’d like to share with our audience of clinicians?

Nurse Sharp: We still have a lot to learn in the area of depression. Depression is a hot topic right now, and our hope is that the increased awareness of depression and our nation will encourage further research and identification of more beneficial, rapid, and effective treatments.

Dr Montgomery: Our project helped prove that there is much more follow up that needs to be done, and we hope that this project will help inspire others to conduct further projects.

Susan L. Montgomery, DNP, FNP-BC, is an associate professor in Community/Mental Health MSN and DNP FNP programs at the University of South Alabama. She is an experienced FNP with varied experiences including teaching and practicing. 

Lauren Sharp, MS, FNP, DNP, is a family nurse practitioner at NextCare Urgent Care.