ASSIGNMENTS I. APN Practice Improvement Paper (My Quality improvement paper topic is FALLS) The purpose of this paper is to facilitate role transition to an advanced nursing practice role by having the student identify a clinical problem that can be addressed with the skills and knowledge acquired by advanced practice nurses. Students will begin to think on a systems level to identify the problem, strategies for resolution, a plan for resolution, and outcome measures to determine the effectiveness of the strategic plan. Identify a specific clinical practice problem that is relevant to clinical nursing practice (for example, sepsis, pressure ulcer detection, family presence during resuscitation, nursing staff shift report, nursing staff patient transfer report, etc.). Think in specific, narrow terms when identifying a problem and remember that many problems affecting clinical practice are too complex for you to resolve; they are addressed at a higher level of organizational leadership. For example, you probably cannot change the number of RNs working in a hospital, but you might be able to change the scheduling method for RNs on a specific unit if that might resolve the problem. You will use skills and knowledge from one or more of the advanced practice nursing competencies to design a strategy to address the problem. Discuss your topic with the professor if you are unsure whether it is appropriate. Search the scholarly peer-reviewed literature for articles related to your topic. Also, search for evidence-based practice guidelines that address the problem. Include the following information in your paper: Identify a specific clinical practice problem that is relevant to clinical nursing practice ( My topic is on FALL). Kindly use the PDSA ( Plan, Data, Study, Action) template to identify the problem and follow each segment to clearly describe how you will incorporate in all the subheadings of PDSA. I want you to be specific in each categories and include your strategies for improvement: What is the problem? Is this a Unit Specific or Facility Wide problem? Why is this a problem? What is your current rates or reports? How will you make changes ( your methodology to improve practice) How will you monitor? What are your indicators? How long will you monitor? Identify your desired outcomes or goals for these identified problems. Please include benchmarks ( National or Historical). How will this improve your practice, patient care/safety/satisfaction and your health facility fiscal revenue ( think reimbursements). Due to the focus on interprofessional collaborative approach, kindly include other disciplines who are involved in this project ie., Pharmacy, Infection Control etc. I recommend for you to review: The New York State Partnership for Patients ( NYSPFP); Greater New York Health Association and the Healthcare Association of New York State ( HANYS),. Look for NYS Partnership for Patients ( GNYHA) and click on the link you find past presentations on: NYS Partnership for Patients and several presentations on Infection Control ( 2018); GNYHA Conference Seeks to Prevent Falls in Hospitals ( October 29, 2018); Introduction (25%) Discuss the following: a clear statement of the practice problem and documentation that supports the existence of the problem, an historical perspective of the issue, a brief literature review related to the significance of the issue, and the relevance of this issue to advanced practice nursing. It is recommended that you choose a real practice that you can directly influence with the PI project that you will develop. Possible Strategies to Address the Problem (15%) In this section you will discuss possible relevant strategies that could be used by an advanced practice nurse to resolve this situation. Be very specific. These should include strategies reported in the literature. Discuss the research evidence that supports the use of each strategy. Strategic Focus (35%) In this section you will elaborate on one of the strategies you have discussed in the previous section. Indicate its theoretical/conceptual basis, relevance to the clinical problem and how you would implement this strategy in your practice as an advanced practice nurse. Possible theoretical/conceptual bases include change theory or other theories specific to the type of problem. Develop a specific plan for implementation that includes a step-by-step description of how you will implement this change in a clinical practice environment. Indicate others who will be involved in this strategy and what their roles will be. Outcome Evaluation Strategy (15%) Describe how you will evaluate the effectiveness of your strategic focus strategy. Include the instruments or other outcome measures that you will use to evaluate outcomes. If the instruments have been published, include psychometric data. If the instruments are new, indicate how you will evaluate reliability and validity. This must be specific. References (10%) Your reference list will be evaluated for the inclusion of scholarly peer-reviewed literature and evidence-based practice guidelines (if available). You may use information from professional health-related web sites, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Joint Commission, National Guideline Clearinghouse or other professional organizational web sites; just be sure to include them on your reference list. Additional Instructions: ? Papers without section headings are unacceptable and will result in a loss of 10 points. ? Do not use your text as a source of information for this paper. You are expected to read recent scholarly peer-reviewed journal articles and practice guidelines (if available) related to the topic. Synthesize the information from these articles in your discussion. If you wish to include additional information from a web site, you may do so only if the information is relevant, you have appropriately paraphrased and cited the source, and the web site is a credible, scholarly source of information (i.e., from a professional organization, university or other credible site; refer to information in the References section above). Do not use sites such as Wikipedia, e-how, ask, all nurses, nurses together and similar sites. ? Use the library’s electronic databases to search for articles. ? Scholarly writing and adherence to scholarly format as described in the 6th edition of the APA Publication Manual is expected. You may write in first person in the Strategic Focus and Outcomes sections of the paper. Please pay particular attention to the appropriate use of heading levels, grammar, sentence structure, spelling and punctuation, consistency of font size and style, and reference citations. Be very careful to cite all of your sources correctly at the point in your paper where you discuss them. It is inadequate to include sources on your reference list that have not been cited in the body of your paper. Also inadequate is citing your references only at the end of a paragraph. If you wrote an entire paragraph that was paraphrased from another source, cite the source the first time to refer to it in your paragraph. Then use appropriate transition language so the reader knows you that what follows was from the same source. Avoid the use of direct quotes. ? Any plagiarism will result in a grade of 0 for your paper. You will submit your paper through Blackboard using Turn- it- In (ASSIGNMENTS link). Save your paper in one of the following file formats: Word (.docx or .doc) or rich text file (.rtf). The file name should be: The Assignment Title – Do not use a cover page Grading Rubric: APN Practice Improvement Paper Criteria Points Possible Points Earned Introduction ? Practice problem clearly stated ? Provides evidence to support existence of problem ? Discusses historical perspective ? Reviews pertinent literature ? States relevance of the issue to advanced nursing practice 25 Possible strategies ? Lists possible strategies to resolve problem ? Provides scientific evidence to support the strategy 15 Strategic focus ? Selects one strategy to address the problem ? Discusses the theoretical basis for the strategy ? Describes the relevance of the strategy to the problem ? Describes a step-by-step plan to implement the strategy ? Describes who will be involved in the implementation process and what their role(s) will be 35 Outcome evaluation ? Describes a specific plan to evaluate outcome achievement ? Describe the outcome variable, i.e., what are you measuring? ? Describe what data you will collect and how you will collect the data ? Describe any instruments that will be used to measure outcomes ? Discuss any known or anticipated limitations to your project 15 References ? Selects relevant references from scholarly, peer-reviewed journals or relevant professional and credible websites 10 Scholarly writing and APA format (a maximum of 10 points will be deducted for errors) ? Sentence structure and punctuation are correct ? Word choice is correct and words are spelled correctly ? Appropriate headings are used ? Synthesis of ideas is evident with appropriate transitions used where needed ? References and headings are formatted correctly, according to the APA Manual, 6th edition ? Paper is organized and ideas flow fluently and correctly ? Font size is 11 or 12 and style is one of the following: Cambria, Calibri, Arial, Times New Roman ? Paper is double-spaced (includes reference list) and formatted according to the APA Manual Total 100
