Overview

Develop a data table that illustrates one or more underperforming clinical outcomes in a care environment of your choice. Write an assessment (3–5 pages) in which you set one or more quantitative goals for the outcomes and propose a change plan that is designed to help you achieve the goals.

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

Knowing what is the best practice for our patients is very important in providing safe and effective care. Understanding best practices can help nurses identify areas of care that need to be improved. To identify areas of need, nurses must use evidence from various sources, such as the literature, clinical practice guidelines (CPG), professional organization practice alerts or position papers, and protocols. These sources of evidence can also be used to set goals for improvement and best practices with an eye toward improving the care experience or outcomes for patients.

The challenge facing many care environments and health care practitioners is how to plan for change and implement changes. For, if we cannot effectively implement changes in practice or procedure, than our goals of improving care will likely amount to nothing. This assessment focuses on allowing you to practice locating, assessing, analyzing, and implementing change strategies in order to improve patient outcomes related to one or more clinical goals.

This assessment will take the form of a data table to identify areas for improvement and to set one or more outcome goals, as well as a narrative describing a change plan that would help you to achieve the goals you have set.

Assessment Instructions

Scenario

Consider the current environment. This could be your current care setting, the care settings presented in the Vila Health: Using Evidence to Drive Improvement or Vila Health: Concept Maps as Diagnostic Tools media, or a care setting in which you are interested in working.

For the setting that you choose you will need to have a data set that depicts sub-optimal outcomes related to a clinical issue. This data could be from existing sources in the course (Vila Health: Using Evidence to Drive Improvement), a relevant data set that already exists (a data set from the case study you used as a basis for your Concept Map assessment, or from your current place of practice), or an appropriate data set that you have created yourself. (Note: if you choose to create your own data set, check with your instructor first for approval and guidance.)

After you have selected an appropriate data set, use your understanding of the data to create at least one realistic goal (though you may create more) that will be driven by a change strategy appropriate for the environment and goal.

Potential topics for this assessment could be:

• Consider ways to help minimize the rate of secondary infections related to the condition, disease, or disorder that you focused on for your Concept Map assessment. As a starting point you could ask yourself, “What could be changed to facilitate safety and minimize risks of infection?”
• Consider how to help a patient experiencing traumatic stress or anxiety over hospitalization. As a starting point you could ask yourself, “How could the care environment be changed to enhance coping?”

Once you determine the change you would like to make, consider the following:

• What data will you use to justify the change?
• How can the team achieve this change with a reasonable cost?
• What are the effects on the workplace?
• What other implementation considerations do you need to consider to ensure that the change strategy is successful?
• How does your change strategy address all aspects of the Quadruple Aim, especially the well-being of health care professionals?
• Once the change strategy is implemented, how would you evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of the care system if the desired outcomes are met?

Instructions

Your assessment submission should include a data table that illustrates the current and desired states of the clinical issue you are attempting to improve through your application of change strategies. Additionally, you will need to explain the rationale for your decisions around your chosen change strategies, as well as how the change strategies will be successfully implemented. The bullet points below correspond to the grading criteria in the scoring guide. Be sure that your change strategy addresses all of them. You may also want to read the Change Strategy and Implementation scoring guide and Guiding Questions: Change Strategy and Implementation to better understand how each grading criterion will be assessed.

• Develop a data table that accurately reflects the current and desired states of one or more clinical outcomes.
• Propose change strategies that will help to achieve the desired state of one or more clinical outcomes.
• Justify the specific change strategies used to achieve desired outcomes.
• Explain how change strategies will lead to quality improvement with regard to safety and equitable care.
• Explain how change strategies will utilize interprofessional considerations to ensure successful implementation.
• Communicate the change plan in a way that makes the data and rationale easily understood and compelling.
• Integrate relevant sources to support assertions, correctly formatting citations and references using current APA style.

Example Assessment: You may use the following to give you an idea of what a Proficient or higher rating on the scoring guide would look like:

• Assessment 2 Example [PDF].

Additional Requirements

• Length of submission: 3–5 double-spaced, typed pages, not including the title and reference pages. Your plan should be succinct yet substantive.
• Number of references: Cite a minimum of 3–5 sources of scholarly or professional evidence that supports your goal setting, proposed change strategies, quality improvement, and interprofessional considerations. Resources should be no more than five years old.
• APA formatting: Use the APA Paper Template linked in the Resources. An APA Template Tutorial is also provided to help you in writing and formatting your analysis. No abstract is required.

READ THOSE CHAPTERS FROM THE BOOK: COMMUNITY/PUBLIC HEALTH NURSING 6TH EDITION AND ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

1.  Discuss the power of nursing to influence and change health policy.
2.  Mention and discuss current health policy issues.
3. Describe and discuss the organization of the public health care system at the federal, state, and local levels.
4. Analyze the influence of socio-cultural, political, economic, ethical, and religious factors that influence the health and culturally diverse individuals, groups, and communities. 

1. Ideas must be fully developed for full points. 
2. Paper must be 5-7 pages in length and submitted in formal APA format. 
3. Include a strong thesis statement supported by scholarly research.
4. Include a concluding paragraph about the importance of nursing care in helping this client work toward mental health.

Psychosocial Nursing Course Project Guidelines

Discuss the characteristics of your specific mental health concern. Define the mental health condition.

• Describe the signs and symptoms. Give examples.
• What are the effects on work, family and social functioning?
• What are some of the legal and ethical concerns surrounding this condition, such as competency, consent, right to treatment and commitment?

Discuss the variety of treatment options for a patient with this mental health concern, including therapies, medication, and nursing interventions.

• Describe therapies that are commonly used.
• Discuss the medications commonly used, effects, side effects.
• Include nursing interventions that can be used.

Discuss the nurse-client relationship in caring for a person with this specific mental health condition and how it may vary from other areas of nursing.

• Include ethical concerns that may arise in caring for the patient.
• Discuss maintaining appropriate boundaries in the relationship. 
• Describe how the work of one nursing theorist can be helpful in caring for this client and designing appropriate interventions. 

Discuss your personal feelings about caring for a client with this mental health concern.

• What are your concerns? 
• How do you maintain personal safety and client safety in the case of decompensation? What are the goals for this client? 
• Are you interested in working with clients with this specific mental health concern and why? 

Psychosocial Nursing Course Project Guidelines

Discuss the characteristics of your specific mental health concern. Define the mental health condition.

• Describe the signs and symptoms. Give examples.
• What are the effects on work, family and social functioning?
• What are some of the legal and ethical concerns surrounding this condition, such as competency, consent, right to treatment and commitment?

Discuss the variety of treatment options for a patient with this mental health concern, including therapies, medication, and nursing interventions.

• Describe therapies that are commonly used.
• Discuss the medications commonly used, effects, side effects.
• Include nursing interventions that can be used.

Discuss the nurse-client relationship in caring for a person with this specific mental health condition and how it may vary from other areas of nursing.

• Include ethical concerns that may arise in caring for the patient.
• Discuss maintaining appropriate boundaries in the relationship. 
• Describe how the work of one nursing theorist can be helpful in caring for this client and designing appropriate interventions. 

Discuss your personal feelings about caring for a client with this mental health concern.

• What are your concerns? 
• How do you maintain personal safety and client safety in the case of decompensation? What are the goals for this client? 
• Are you interested in working with clients with this specific mental health concern and why? 

For this assignment, you will locate two research studies related to the topic and PICOT questions that you developed in Week 2. The articles must be current (within the last five years), and one article must be quantitative, and one article must be qualitative.

Article choice is very important, therefore:

• Articles used for this assignment cannot be used for the other assignments. The selected articles should be original research studies. Review articles, concept analysis, meta-analysis, meta-synthesis, integrative review, and systemic review articles should not be used.
• Mixed-methods studies should not be used.

There are two parts to this assignment.

Part 1: Complete a Rapid Critical Appraisal Checklist

• Select one each: qualitative and quantitative research articles.
• Create a Rapid Critical Appraisal Checklist for the two research articles (one column per article).
• Complete with brief, concise, summarized information.

Part II: Write a summary (one- to two- pages)

• Identify differences between quantitative and qualitative designs and research methods.
• Use current APA Style for your summary paper and to cite your sources.
• Submit the checklist and summary.

  

In a Microsoft Word document of 5–6 pages formatted in APA style, develop a strategic plan to aid your transition into the role of a professional nurse. In your paper:

· Discuss factors influencing your decision to obtain a BSN degree.

· Discuss how the role of the baccalaureate differs from your current role.

· Describe new opportunities that may be available after degree completion.

Examine one of the two models of socialization discussed in your readings and place yourself in one of the stages. Give your rationale for that placement. If none of the models or stages fits your experience, create your own model (or stage).

· Identify two professional short-term goals.

· Identify two professional long-term goals.

· Expound upon the challenges and barriers you face in pursuit of your short- and long-term goals.

· Identify mentors and support systems to aid you in overcoming challenges and barriers necessary to achieve goals.

On a separate references page, cite all sources using APA format.

· Use this APA Citation Helper as a convenient reference for properly citing resources.

· This handout will provide you the details of formatting your essay using APA style.

· You may create your essay in this APA-formatted template.