Is there a difference between “common practice” and “best practice”?

When you first went to work for your current organization, experienced colleagues may have shared with you details about processes and procedures. Perhaps you even attended an orientation session to brief you on these matters. As a “rookie,” you likely kept the nature of your questions to those with answers that would best help you perform your new role.

Over time and with experience, perhaps you recognized aspects of these processes and procedures that you wanted to question further. This is the realm of clinical inquiry.

Clinical inquiry is the practice of asking questions about clinical practice. To continuously improve patient care, all nurses should consistently use clinical inquiry to question why they are doing something the way they are doing it. Do they know why it is done this way, or is it just because we have always done it this way? Is it a common practice or a best practice?

In this Assignment, you will identify clinical areas of interest and inquiry and practice searching for research in support of maintaining or changing these practices. You will also analyze this research to compare research methodologies employed.

To Prepare:

• Review the Resources and identify a clinical issue of interest that can form the basis of a clinical inquiry.
• Based on the clinical issue of interest and using keywords related to the clinical issue of interest, search at least four different databases in the Walden Library to identify at least four relevant peer-reviewed articles related to your clinical issue of interest. You should not be using systematic reviews for this assignment, select original research articles.
• Review the results of your peer-reviewed research and reflect on the process of using an unfiltered database to search for peer-reviewed research.
• Reflect on the types of research methodologies contained in the four relevant peer-reviewed articles you selected.

Part 1: An Introduction to Clinical Inquiry

Create a 4- to 5-slide PowerPoint presentation in which you do the following:

• Identify and briefly describe your chosen clinical issue of interest. This clinical issue will remain the same for the entire course and will be the basis for the development of your PICOT question
• Describe how you used keywords to search on your chosen clinical issue of interest.
• Identify the four research databases that you used to conduct your search for the peer-reviewed articles you selected.
• Provide APA citations of the four peer-reviewed articles you selected.

Part 2: Identifying Research Methodologies

After reading each of the four peer-reviewed articles you selected, use the Matrix Worksheet template to analyze the methodologies applied in each of the four peer-reviewed articles. Your analysis should include the following:

• The full citation of each peer-reviewed article in APA format.
• A brief (1-paragraph) statement explaining why you chose this peer-reviewed article and/or how it relates to your clinical issue of interest, including a brief explanation of the ethics of research related to your clinical issue of interest.
• A brief (1-2 paragraph) description of the aims of the research of each peer-reviewed article.
• A brief (1-2 paragraph) description of the research methodology used. Be sure to identify if the methodology used was qualitative, quantitative, or a mixed-methods approach. Be specific.
• A brief (1- to 2-paragraph) description of the strengths of each of the research methodologies used, including reliability and validity of how the methodology was applied in each of the peer-reviewed articles you selected.

Unit 1 Discussion – Introduction to Nursing Theory and Certification

Unit 1 Discussion [Due Wednesday]

Introduction to Nursing Theory and Certification

It is anticipated that the initial discussion response should be in the range of 250-300 words. Response posts must demonstrate topic knowledge and scholarly engagement with peers. This is not the only criteria utilized for evaluation; substantive content is imperative. All questions in the topic must be addressed. Please proofread your response carefully for grammar and spelling. Do not upload any attachments. All responses need to be supported by a minimum of one scholarly resource. Journals and websites must be cited appropriately. Citation and reference must adhere to APA format.

Classroom Participation

Students are expected to initially address the discussion question by Wednesday of each week. Participation in the discussion forums is expected with a minimum total of three (3) substantive postings (this includes your initial posting and posting to two peers) on three (3) different days per week. Substantive means that you add something new to the discussion, you aren’t just agreeing. This is also a time to ask questions or offer information surrounding the topic addressed by your peers. Personal experience is appropriate for a substantive discussion and should be correlated to the literature.

All discussion boards will be evaluated utilizing rubric criterion inclusive of content, analysis, collaboration, writing and APA. If you fail to post an initial discussion you will not receive these points, you may however post to your peers for partial credit following the guidelines above. Due to the nature of this type of assignment and the need for timely responses for initial posts and posting to peers, the Make-Up Coursework Policy (effective July 2017) does not apply to Discussion Board Participation.

Discussion Question/Prompt [Due Wednesday]

Please complete the following steps for your initial discussion post:

• Watch the NU 500 Certification Success Presentation 
  • Certification Success [Powerpoint Presentation] **Note – PMHNP information to be added.
• Visit the websites of the organizations that offer certification exams for your specialty MSN track- NE, NLA, FNP, or PMHNP by clicking on the links below. (BSN students, choose one specialty track of interest- FNP, NE or NLA, or PMHNP).
  • FNP:  AANP (Links to an external site.) and ANCC (Links to an external site.) (FNP)

or

• Nurse Educator:  NLN (Links to an external site.) (CNE) and ANCC (Links to an external site.) (Nursing Professional Development)

or

• Nurse Leader:  AONL (Links to an external site.) (Formerly AONE) and ANCC (Links to an external site.) (NLA)

or

• PMHNP: ANCC (Links to an external site.)
• Compare and summarize the requirements that are needed to be eligible for the exam(s) in your chosen specialty track.
• Describe the value of certification in your chosen specialty track.
• How can certification enhance your career goals for professional advancement in nursing?
• How can application of nursing theory benefit you personally and empower/advance the nursing profession as a whole? 

Responses need to address all components of the question, demonstrate critical thinking and analysis and include peer-reviewed journal evidence to support the student’s position.

Please be sure to validate your opinions and ideas with citations and references in APA format and use level headers for each discussion prompt.