Abstract

Regular exercise is one of the best types of health promotion and prevention. Researchers have established that exercise decreases the risk for heart disease, hypertension, strokes, cancer, and osteoporosis. The purpose of this descriptive study was to determine the exercise prescriptive practices and perspectives of adult, family, and gerontological nurse practitioners in Mississippi compared to an international Internet study. Orem's Self-Care Deficit Theory was the theoretical framework for this study. Surveys were sent to adult, family, and gerontological nurse practitioners in the State of Mississippi with a return envelope for response. The final convenience sample consisted of 116 surveys. The research questions were what are the exercise prescriptive practices of nurse practitioners and how do these data compare to an international Internet study? The Auburn Exercise Questionnaire Modified (Robertson, 1998) was used for data collection. Descriptive statistics including frequency, percentile, and t test were utilized for data 111 analysis. Analysis of the data established that while most of the nurse practitioners in both groups encouraged their patients to participate in exercise, the majority of the nurse practitioners did not prescribe exercise for their patients. In most of the mailed surveys (89.7%) and Internet surveys (94.1%) nurse practitioners participated in exercise. While the majority of both groups were familiar with Healthy People 2000 guidelines, only 20.7% of the mailed surveys and 47.2% of the Internet group were familiar with the American College of Sports Medicine guidelines. Recommendations for further research were conducting research using the questionnaire as a pretest and posttest with an educational intervention.

Degree

Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)

Department

Graduate Nursing

Degree Date

8-1-1999

Publication Number

27924579

First Advisor

Linda Cox

Second Advisor

Shelia Adams

Document Type

Thesis

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