Identify a quality improvement opportunity in your organization or practice. In a 1,250-1,500 word paper, describe the problem or issue and propose a quality improvement initiative based on evidence-based practice. Apply the “The Road to Evidence-Based Practice” process, illustrated in Chapter 4 of your textbook, to create your proposal.

Include the following:

1. Provide an overview of the problem and the setting in which the problem or issue occurs.
2. Explain why a quality improvement initiative is needed in this area and the expected outcome.
3. Discuss how the results of previous research demonstrate support for the quality improvement initiative and its projected outcomes. Include a minimum of three peer-reviewed sources published within the last 5 years, not included in the course materials or textbook, that establish evidence in support of the quality improvement proposed.
4. Discuss steps necessary to implement the quality improvement initiative. Provide evidence and rationale to support your answer.
5. Explain how the quality improvement initiative will be evaluated to determine whether there was an improvement.
6. Support your explanation by identifying the variables, hypothesis test, and statistical test that you would need to prove that the quality improvement initiative succeeded.

While APA style is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected, and documentation of sources should be presented using APA formatting guidelines, which can be found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion. 

https://lc.gcumedia.com/hlt362v/applied-statistics-for-health-care/v1.1/#/chapter/4

 Scenario 2: A 42-year-old man comes to clinic with chief complaint of pain, redness, and swelling of his right calf. He states that he had been working in his yard using a string trimmer when the trimmer slipped and cut his leg. He cleaned the wound with water from the garden hose and covered the wound with a large Band-Aid. Several days later, he developed fever to 100.6˚ F and chills and noticed that his leg was swollen and red. He comes to the emergency department for definitive care. 

 

To prepare:

By Day 1 of this week, you will be assigned to a specific case study for this Case Study Assignment. Please see the “Course Announcements” section of the classroom for your assignment from your Instructor.

The Assignment (1- to 2-page case study analysis)

Develop a 1- to 2-page case study analysis in which you:

• Explain why you think the patient presented the symptoms described.
• Identify the genes that may be associated with the development of the disease.
• Explain the process of immunosuppression and the effect it has on body systems.

Assignment Overview

Strong writing skills enable you to create doctoral projects that articulate a purpose. Creating a plan to improve these skills, using selected resources, sets the stage for writing. In this assignment, you will create a writing skills development plan by applying a selected EBP model to address strengths and weaknesses and fulfill the writing goals you have created.

What You Need to Know

Applying Conceptual Models, Theoretical Frameworks, and EBP Models

There is increasing recognition that efforts to change practice with the EBP process should be guided by conceptual models and grounded by theoretical frameworks.

A conceptual model provides an understanding about how a health care challenge will best be explored and addressed, and it offers a logical structure of connected elements that help provide a picture or visual display of how ideas in a study or project relate to one another. Existing conceptual models can be found in the literature, or they can be created by the researcher or the team exploring and addressing the problem. A theoretical framework is derived from an existing theory in the literature that has already been tested and validated by others and is considered a generally accepted theory in scholarly literature. A good way to distinguish between a conceptual model and a theoretical framework is to think of the conceptual model as the floor plan of a house and the theoretical framework as the 3-D image showing the spatial relationships among rooms.

Application of the EPP Model

In the event of a hurricane, tornado, or other natural disaster, immediate activation of the local public health agency (LPHA) emergency preparedness system is crucial. The workforce at the LPHA is essential for locally-driven disaster recovery efforts as they are responsible for coordinating a large number of health services. Each individual employee must perform their job quickly and efficiently. But in the face of an emergency, when stress levels and emotions are running high, how do we know that LPHA employees are able to do their jobs effectively? Perhaps they are overcome with fear and are responding with denial or avoidance. Do employees perceive that they perform their jobs well and that they are effective in helping people? What could the LPHA do to increase employees’ motivation to do their jobs well and improve the effectiveness of disaster response efforts?

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health proposed in 2015 that a behavioral framework, the Extended Parallel Process (EPP) Model, could be used to examine LPHA workers’ disaster recovery perceptions and to implement an evidence-based educational intervention to improve workers’ effectiveness. The model predicts that in the face of a disaster, people will engage in proactive behaviors if they perceive the disaster as a real threat or danger, and if they believe they can perform their tasks effectively to minimize the risk to themselves and others.

The conceptual map created by the researchers illustrates the application of the EPP Model, showing that during periods of perceived threat or danger, when employees feel strongly that they are able to do their jobs well and that their efforts are effective (high level of self-efficacy), they are motivated toward responding quickly and efficiently. With the application of the EPP model in this scenario, it would be appropriate to then identify research evidence to support the implementation of an educational intervention to improve employees’ self-efficacy and effectiveness.

EBP Models

Early in the EBP movement, health care scientists, including many nurse scientists, developed models based on existing theories, experience, evidence, and concepts to organize our thinking about EBP and help us understand how various aspects of EBP work together to improve care and outcomes. These models guide the design and implementation of approaches intended to strengthen evidence-based decision making and help professionals implement an evidence-based change in practice (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2019).

References

Melnyk, B. M., & Fineout-Overholt, E. (2019). Evidence-based practice in nursing and healthcare (4th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer Health.

Walsh, L., Garrity, S., Rutkow, L., Thompson, C. B., Strauss-Riggs, K., Altman, B. A., . . . Barnett, D. J. (2015). Applying a behavioral model framework for disaster recovery research in local public health agencies: A conceptual approach. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, 9(4), 403–408. 

APPLYING AN EBP FRAMEWORK TO IMPLEMENT A WRITING DEVELOPMENT PLAN

This assignment focuses on using the EBP process and applying an EBP model or framework to improve your writing skills. Writing that is characterized by strong organization, appropriate use of evidence, scholarly tone, grammatically-sound sentence structure, and correctly-formatted citations and references is of paramount importance in all aspects of your professional role. Excelling in all three of these areas enables you to seamlessly integrate them into aspects of your professional life, including your roles of scholar-practitioner and health care leader. Creating and implementing your own plan to continually develop these skills will set the stage for improvements in your writing so that you communicate accurately and eloquently.

In this assignment, you will choose one of eight EBP models or frameworks that best applies to a PICO(T) question focused on the continued development and improvement of writing skills. You will then create a writing skills development plan by applying the EBP model or framework. Your aim is to facilitate the achievement of two specific writing improvement goals you created when you reflected on and examined feedback received throughout this course from Smarthinking and your instructor.

The following PICOT question will serve as the basis for this assignment:

• For my professional roles of scholar, practitioner and healthcare leader (P), will a writing skills development plan based on a specific EBP model or framework (I) improve my writing skills and facilitate the achievement of my two writing goals (C, O) in the next 3-6 months (T)?

In this PICO(T) question, the population (P) is you and the professional roles you seek to enrich, improve and refine. The writing skills development plan, based on the application of an EBP model of your choice, is the evidence-based intervention (I). The outcomes (O) include improved writing skills, as delineated by two specific writing goals you have identified for yourself from the results of your Writing Self-Assessment and feedback received from Smarthinking and your instructor, which also serve as the baseline or comparison (C). The timeframe (T) should be a realistic, feasible amount of time in which you will monitor and observe demonstrated improvements.

Preparation

Be sure that you’ve completed the Writing Self-Assessment.

Instructions

Create a writing skills development plan.

Plan Format and Length

• Use the APA Style Paper Template [DOCX]. An APA Style Paper Tutorial [DOCX] is also provided to help you in writing and formatting your plan. Be sure to include:
  • Title page and references page. An abstract is not required.
  • A running head on all pages.
  • Appropriate section headings.
  • Add your concept map as an appendix.

Your plan should be 4–5 pages in length, not including the title page and references page.

Assignment Grading

The following requirements correspond to the scoring guide criteria, so be sure to address each point. Read the performance-level descriptions in the scoring guide for each criterion to see how your work will be assessed.

• Assess your writing strengths and weaknesses.
  • Use the results from your writing self-assessment and feedback received from Smarthinking and from your instructor via the writing feedback tool, scoring guides, discussions, and any other courseroom communications.
  • What are the implications of your current skill level for writing at the doctoral-level?
• Discuss specific writing development or improvement goals as they relate to each element in a PICO(T) question.
• Create a concept map that illustrates the application of an EBP model or framework to achieve your writing development or improvement goals.
• Identify the implementation strategies and resources needed to carry out a writing skills development plan.
• Support main points, assertions, arguments, or conclusions with relevant and credible evidence.
• Adhere to the rules of grammar, usage, and mechanics.

 

Develop a 2–4-page proposal for a policy that should help to improve health care and outcomes for your target population.

Note: Each assessment in this course builds on the work you completed in the previous assessment. Therefore, you must complete the assessments in this course in the order in which they are presented.

Cost and access to care continue to be main concerns for patients and providers. As technology improves our ability to care for and improve outcomes in patients with chronic and complex illnesses, questions of cost and access become increasingly important. As a master’s-prepared nurse, you must be able to develop policies that will ensure the delivery of care that is effective and can be provided in an ethical and equitable manner.

SHOW LESS

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:

• Competency 1: Design evidence-based advanced nursing care for achieving high-quality population outcomes.
  • Propose a policy and guidelines that will lead to improved outcomes and quality of care for a specific issue in a target population.
• Competency 2: Evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of interprofessional interventions in achieving desired population health outcomes.
  • Analyze the potential for an interprofessional approach to implementing a proposed policy to increase the efficiency or effectiveness of the care setting to achieve high quality outcomes.
• Competency 3: Analyze population health outcomes in terms of their implications for health policy advocacy.
  • Advocate the need for a proposed policy in the context of current outcomes and quality of care for a specific issue in a target population.
• Competency 4: Communicate effectively with diverse audiences, in an appropriate form and style, consistent with organizational, professional, and scholarly standards.
  • Communicate proposal in a professional and persuasive manner, writing content clearly and logically with correct use of grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
  • Integrate relevant sources to support assertions, correctly formatting citations and references using APA style.

CONTEXT:

 As a master’s-prepared nurse, you have a valuable viewpoint and voice with which to advocate for policy developments. As a nurse leader and health care practitioner, often on the front lines of helping individuals and populations, you are able to articulate and advocate for the patient more than any other professional group in health care. This is especially true of populations that may be underserved, underrepresented, or are otherwise lacking a voice. By advocating for and developing policies, you are able to help drive improvements in outcomes for specific populations. The policies you advocate for could be internal ones (just within a specific department or health care setting) that ensure quality care and compliance. Or they could be external policies (local, state, or federal) that may have more wide-ranging effects on best practices and regulations. 

Questions to Consider:

 

As you prepare to complete this assessment, you may want to think about other related issues to deepen your understanding or broaden your viewpoint. You are encouraged to consider the questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work associate, an interested friend, or a member of your professional community. Note that these questions are for your own development and exploration and do not need to be completed or submitted as part of your assessment.

SHOW LESS

Assessment 2 will build on the health issue, vulnerable population, and position that you started to develop in the first assessment. For Assessment 2, you will develop a proposal for a policy and a set of guidelines that could be implemented to ensure improvements in care and outcomes.

• What are the relevant best practices from a population health standpoint (cultural competence, disease prevention, and interventions) for your chosen health issue and vulnerable population?
  • How are these best practices relevant to your chosen health issue and vulnerable population?
    • Do the best practices make any reference to standards of care or benchmarks that should be achieved?
  • How could these best practices be leveraged to help inform or develop a policy and guidelines to improve care and outcomes for the vulnerable population you are working with?
• How could technology be used to identify health concerns or collect data that could help health care practitioners determine which health care issues to focus on in a population?
  • What are the relevant laws, regulations, or policies for employing any of the technology you might find useful?
• What type of policy and guidelines would be most likely to ensure improvements in care and outcomes related to your chosen health issue and vulnerable population?
  • Are there any policies in existence that could help inform your own policy development?
  • How might your proposed policy and guidelines influence the way in which care is accessed?
  • How might your proposed policy and guidelines influence the amount of access that is available?

 

Scenario

The analysis of position papers that your interprofessional team presented to the committee has convinced them that it would be worth the time and effort to develop a new policy to address your specific issue in the target population. To that end, your interprofessional team has been asked to submit a policy proposal that outlines a specific approach to improving the outcomes for your target population. This proposal should be supported by evidence and best practices that illustrate why the specific approaches are likely to be successful. Additionally, you have been asked to address the ways in which applying your policy to interprofessional teams could lead to efficiency or effectiveness gains.

Instructions

For this assessment you will develop a policy proposal that seeks to improve the outcomes for the health care issue and target population you addressed in Assessment 1. If for some reason you wish to change your specific issue and/or target population, contact your FlexPath faculty.

The bullet points below correspond to the grading criteria in the scoring guide. Be sure that your submission addresses all of them. You may also want to read the Biopsychosocial Population Health Policy Proposal Scoring Guide and Guiding Questions: Biopsychosocial Population Health Policy Proposal to better understand how each grading criterion will be assessed.

• Propose a policy and guidelines that will lead to improved outcomes and quality of care for a specific issue in a target population.
• Advocate the need for a proposed policy in the context of current outcomes and quality of care for a specific issue in a target population.
• Analyze the potential for an interprofessional approach to implementing a proposed policy to increase the efficiency or effectiveness of the care setting to achieve high-quality outcomes.
• Communicate proposal in a professional and persuasive manner, writing content clearly and logically with correct use of grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
• Integrate relevant sources to support assertions, correctly formatting citations and references using APA style.

Example Assessment: You may use the assessment example, linked in the Assessment Example section of the Resources, to give you an idea of what a Proficient or higher rating on the scoring guide would look like.

Additional Requirements

• Length of proposal: 2–4 double-spaced, typed pages, not including title page or reference list. Your proposal should be succinct yet substantive.
• Number of references: Cite a minimum of 3–5 sources of scholarly or professional evidence that supports the relevance of or need for your policy, as well as interprofessional considerations. Resources should be no more than five years old.
• APA formatting: Use the APA Style Paper Template linked in the Resources. An APA Style Paper Tutorial is also provided to help you in writing and formatting your analysis.

Grading Rubric:

1-  Propose a policy and guidelines that will lead to improved outcomes and quality of care for a specific issue in a target population. 

Passing Grade:  Proposes a policy and guidelines that will lead to improved outcomes and quality of care for a specific issue in a target population. Acknowledges potential difficulties and discusses how those challenges will be met. 

2-  Advocate the need for a proposed policy in the context of current outcomes and quality of care for a specific issue in a target population. 

Passing Grade:  Advocates the need for a proposed policy in the context of current outcomes and quality of care for a specific issue in a target population. Impartially considers contrary data and opposing viewpoints. 

3-  Analyze the potential for an interprofessional approach to implementing a proposed policy to increase the efficiency or effectiveness of the care setting to achieve high-quality outcomes. 

Passing Grade:  Analyzes the potential for an interprofessional approach to implementing a proposed policy to increase the efficiency or effectiveness of the care setting to achieve high-quality outcomes. Identifies knowledge gaps, unknowns, missing information, unanswered questions, or areas of uncertainty (where further information could improve the analysis). 

4-  Communicate proposal in a professional and persuasive manner, writing content clearly and logically with correct use of grammar, punctuation, and spelling. 

Passing Grade:  Communicates proposal in a professional and persuasive manner, writing content clearly and logically with correct use of grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Identifies specific strategies or approaches used to ensure clear communication. 

5-  Integrate relevant sources to support assertions, correctly formatting citations and references using current APA style 

Passing Grade:  Integrates relevant sources to support assertions, correctly formatting citations and references using current APA style. Citations are free from all errors.