In a 5-7 page written assessment, define the patient, family, or population health problem that will be the focus of your capstone project. Assess the problem from a leadership, collaboration, communication, change management, and policy perspective. Plan to spend approximately 2 direct practicum hours meeting with a patient, family, or group of your choice to explore the problem and, if desired, consulting with subject matter and industry experts. Document the time spent (your practicum hours) with these individuals or group in the Academic Portal Volunteer Experience Form.
Introduction
Nurses in all professional roles work to effect positive patient outcomes and improve organizational processes. Professional nurses are leaders in problem identification, planning, and strategy implementation—skills that directly affect patient care or organizational effectiveness.
Too often, change agents jump to a conclusion that an intervention will promote the envisioned improvement. Instead, the ideal approach is to determine which interventions are appropriate, based on an assessment and review of credible evidence. Interventions could be patient-facing or involve a change in policy and process. In this assessment, you’ll identify and make the case for your practicum focus area, then explore it in depth from a leadership, collaboration, communication, change management, and policy perspective.
This assessment lays the foundation for the work that will carry you through your capstone experience and guide the practicum hours needed to complete the work in this course. In addition, it will enable you to do the following:
- Develop a problem statement for a patient, family, or population that’s relevant to your practice.
- Begin building a body of evidence that will inform your approach to your practicum.
- Focus on the influence of leadership, collaboration, communication, change management, and policy on the problem.
Preparation
In this assessment, you’ll assess the patient, family, or population health problem that will be the focus of your capstone project. Plan to spend approximately 2 hours working with a patient, family, or group of your choice to explore the problem from a leadership, collaboration, communication, change management, and policy perspective. During this time, you may also choose to consult with subject matter and industry experts about the problem (for example, directors of quality or patient safety, nurse managers/directors, physicians, and epidemiologists).
To prepare for the assessment, complete the following:
- Identify the patient, family, or group you want to work with during your practicum The patient you select can be a friend or a family member. You’ll work with this patient, family, or group throughout your capstone project, focusing on a specific health care problem.
- Begin surveying the scholarly and professional literature to establish your evidence and research base, inform your assessment, and meet scholarly expectations for supporting evidence.
In addition, you may wish to complete the following:
- Review the assessment instructions and scoring guide to ensure that you understand the work you’ll be asked to complete and how it will be assessed.
- Review the Practicum Focus Sheet: Assessment 1 [PDF], which provides guidance for conducting this portion of your practicum.
Instructions
Complete this assessment in two parts.
Part 1
Define the patient, family, or population health problem that will be the focus of your capstone project. Assess the problem from a leadership, collaboration, communication, change management, and policy perspective and establish your evidence and research base to plan, implement, and share findings related to your project.
Part 2
Connect with the patient, family, or group you’ll work with during your practicum. During this portion of your practicum, plan to spend at least 2 hours meeting with the patient, family, or group and, if desired, consulting with subject matter and industry experts of your choice. The hours you spend meeting with them should take place outside of regular work hours. Use the Practicum Focus Sheet [PDF] provided for this assessment to guide your work and interpersonal interactions. Document the time spent (your practicum hours) with these individuals or group in the Academic Portal Volunteer Experience Form.
Requirements
The assessment requirements, outlined below, correspond to the scoring guide criteria, so be sure to address each main point. Read the performance-level descriptions for each criterion to see how your work will be assessed. In addition, note the additional requirements for document format and length and for supporting evidence.
- Define a patient, family, or population health problem that’s relevant to your practice.
- Summarize the problem you’ll explore.
- Identify the patient, family, or group you intend to work with during your practicum.
- Provide context, data, or information that substantiates the presence of the problem and its significance and relevance to the patient, family, or population.
- Explain why this problem is relevant to your practice as a baccalaureate-prepared nurse.
- Analyze evidence from peer-reviewed literature and professional sources that describes and guides nursing actions related to the patient, family, or population problem you’ve defined.
- Note whether the authors provide supporting evidence from the literature that’s consistent with what you see in your nursing practice.
- Explain how you would know if the data are unreliable.
- Describe what the literature says about barriers to the implementation of evidence-based practice in addressing the problem you’ve defined.
- Describe research that has tested the effectiveness of nursing standards and/or policies in improving patient, family, or population outcomes for this problem.
- Describe current literature on the role of nurses in policy making to improve outcomes, prevent illness, and reduce hospital readmissions.
- Describe what the literature says about a nursing theory or conceptual framework that might frame and guide your actions during your practicum.
- Explain how state board nursing practice standards and/or organizational or governmental policies could affect the patient, family, or population problem you’ve defined.
- Describe research that has tested the effectiveness of these standards and/or policies in improving patient, family, or population outcomes for this problem.
- Describe current literature on the role of nurses in policy making to improve outcomes, prevent illness, and reduce hospital readmissions.
- Describe the effects of local, state, and federal policies or legislation on your nursing scope of practice, within the context of this problem.
- Propose leadership strategies to improve outcomes, patient-centered care, and the patient experience related to the patient, family, or population problem you’ve defined.
- Discuss research on the effectiveness of leadership strategies.
- Define the role that you anticipate leadership must play in addressing the problem.
- Describe collaboration and communication strategies that you anticipate will be needed to address the problem.
- Describe the change management strategies that you anticipate will be required to address the problem.
- Organize content so ideas flow logically with smooth transitions.
- Apply APA style and formatting to scholarly writing.
Additional Requirements
- Format: Format your paper using APA style. Be sure to include:
- A title page and reference page. An abstract is not required.
- Appropriate section headings.
- Length: Your paper should be approximately 5–7 pages in length, not including the reference page.
- Supporting evidence: Cite at least five sources of scholarly or professional evidence that support your central ideas. Resources should be no more than five years old. Provide in-text citations and references in APA format.
- Proofreading: Proofread your paper, before you submit it, to minimize errors that could distract readers and make it more difficult for them to focus on its substance.
Competencies Measured
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the course competencies through the following assessment scoring guide criteria:
- Competency 1: Lead people and processes to improve patient, systems, and population outcomes.
- Define a patient, family, or population health problem that’s relevant to personal and professional practice.
- Competency 2: Make clinical and operational decisions based upon the best available evidence.
- Analyze evidence from peer-reviewed literature and professional sources that describes and guides nursing actions related to a defined patient, family, or population problem.
- Competency 5: Analyze the impact of health policy on quality and cost of care.
- Explain how state board nursing practice standards and/or organizational or governmental policies could affect a defined patient, family, or population problem.
- Competency 7: Implement patient-centered care to improve quality of care and the patient experience.
- Propose leadership strategies to improve outcomes, patient-centered care, and the patient experience related to a defined patient, family, or population problem
- Competency 8: Integrate professional standards and values into practice.
- Organize content so ideas flow logically with smooth transitions.
- Apply APA style and formatting to scholarly writing.
