The first step of the evidence-based practice process is to evaluate a nursing practice environment to identify a nursing problem in the clinical area. When a nursing problem is discovered, the nurse researcher develops a clinical guiding question to address that nursing practice problem.

For this assignment, you will create a clinical guiding question know as a PICOT question. The PICOT question must be relevant to a nursing practice problem. To support your PICOT question, identify six supporting peer-revised research articles, as indicated below. The PICOT question and six peer-reviewed research articles you choose will be utilized for subsequent assignments.

Use the “Literature Evaluation Table” to complete this assignment.

1. Select a nursing practice problem of interest to use as the focus of your research. Start with the patient population and identify a clinical problem or issue that arises from the patient population. In 200–250 words, provide a summary of the clinical issue.
2. Following the PICOT format, write a PICOT question in your selected nursing practice problem area of interest. The PICOT question should be applicable to your proposed capstone project (the project students must complete during their final course in the RN-BSN program of study).
3. The PICOT question will provide a framework for your capstone project.
4. Conduct a literature search to locate six research articles focused on your selected nursing practice problem of interest. This literature search should include three quantitative and three qualitative peer-reviewed research articles to support your nursing practice problem.

Note: To assist in your search, remove the words qualitative and quantitative and include words that narrow or broaden your main topic. For example: Search for diabetes and pediatric and dialysis. To determine what research design was used in the articles the search produced, review the abstract and the methods section of the article. The author will provide a description of data collection using qualitative or quantitative methods. Systematic Reviews, Literature Reviews, and Metanalysis articles are good resources and provide a strong level of evidence but are not considered primary research articles.  Therefore, they should not be included in this assignment.

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.

*********** Topic I choose: Pharmacy Services********

The Comprehensive Final Project (Assignment #4) has been designed for the student to identify federal and state policy roots in a specific health services organization.  Each student will select a specific management area for a specific organization.  The student will identify a health services setting where they have access to the policy manual (or a sample policy manual).  The setting may include a single location or an organization with many types of services and many service delivery settings. Select one of the following spheres where you will map out and describe a minimum of five (5) organizational policies linked to federal or state legislative mandates. Note some policies may be required for accreditation and also related to public policy.  This is the case with many NCQA standards.

Prepare a final PowerPoint presentation with no more than 10-15 content slides. A cover and reference slide must be provided.  Draw on what you have learned throughout the class including:

-a summary of each (5 in total) organizational policy and the federal/state legislative roots for each policy (by name and statute),

-any pending changes to the legislation (to each)

-and your metrics for the organization in terms of performance (for each)

Health Management Areas (select one): 

• facilities planning and maintenance
• occupational health & safety
• prevention programs for health disparities
• payment processing and billing
• human resources
• health information technology and EMR
• pharmacy services (CHOSEN TOPIC)
• laboratory services
• supply chain  Medical Equipment/ Technology
• patient/customer and community relations
• patient support services
• strategic planning and new service development
• advertising or marketing
• Internal Quality Control
• Direct Patient Care

The grading rubric for this assignment appears below, if you opened the Assignment in the Assignment Folder. It can be opened by clicking on the ‘Written Assignment Rubric’ tab in the lower right corner of the screen, if you opened the Assignment in Content.