22 Jan The course template uses

NURS4220/NURS4221 Leadership Competencies in Nursing and Healthcare

Week 1 Group A Practice Experience Discussion

Practice Experience: Identifying a Practice Problem in Need of Improvement

In this week’s Discussion, you shared your experiences with health care practice problems as a consumer and/or as a practitioner. Now, consider your current practice setting and think about something specific and relevant to your practice setting that you would like to see improved or changed. Interview a key leader in your practice setting who can confirm that your practice problem is one that should be addressed to enhance delivery or performance in the field. It is important to remember from the beginning that your practice problem must be measurable, and that you identify data that suggests a problem exists, and although this comes up more specifically in Week 2, it is important to consider this from the start.

This will be the problem discussed in your Practice Experience Project, Capstone Paper, and Storyboard.

By Day 4

Identify a measurable patient-centered practice problem related to quality or safety and relevant to your practice setting that you will also focus on in your Capstone Paper, and post a brief description of the problem and an explanation of why you selected it. Explain how the conversation you had with the key leader in your practice setting impacted your decision to address this particular practice problem. Be sure to support your practice problem with the literature that indicates the relevance of this problem for nursing practice. Provide evidence from your practice area and describe the data that is available.

You will not be collecting any data during the practice experience project; you will use data already available to you in your workplace or other practice setting. Think about the different kinds of data that is shared with you in your work area. For example, data may include patient satisfaction scores, medication error rates, fall, CLABSI or CAUTI rates. Analyzing the data available to you is how you will identify that a quality problem exists. Data identifies potential areas for improvement, and monitors the effectiveness of any changes. It is important to obtain baseline data before beginning a quality improvement project and to analyze results during and at the end of a project.

Note: The practice problem must be related to patient outcomes. (Staffing cannot be your main practice problem for the completion of the Practice Experience Project and Capstone Paper.)

Note: If you use the same practice problem that was presented in the Week 1 Discussion on quality theories, keep in mind that you must be much more specific in this post and explain how it is relevant to your setting and nursing practice.

By Day 7

Read two or more of your colleagues’ postings from the Discussion question. Respond to at least two of your classmates. As a member of a community of practice, help each other refine and clarify the patient-centered Practice Experience Project. Provide support and suggestions on the importance of the practice problem in improving patient outcomes.

NURS4220/NURS4221 Leadership Competencies in Nursing and Healthcare

Week 2 Group A Practice Experience Discussion

Practice Experience: Applying Measurement Tools to a Practice Problem

Conduct a collaboration interview with two or three key leaders in your practice setting to determine the measures for your practice problem and associated challenges impacting measurement for your practice problem (include confidentiality, anonymity, access issues, etc.). Perform an existing evidence review on your practice problem and search for evidence that demonstrates how your practice problem is measured across the country.

By Day 4

Post a description of the measures identified from the interviews, the challenges to obtaining the data that were discussed, and a summary of how this quality indicator is measured in the literature. Discuss any gaps in the data that were identified and additional sources that might be needed to obtain this data. Be sure to support your practice problem with the literature that indicates the relevance of this problem for nursing practice. Provide evidence from practice and data that is available.

By Day 7Read and respond to two or more of your colleagues’ postings from the Discussion question. Provide feedback on the quality of data that was obtained and recommendations on where additional sources of data might be found. As a member of a community of practice, help each other refine and clarify the patient-centered Practice Experience Project.

NURS4220/NURS4221 Leadership Competencies in Nursing and Healthcare

Week 3 Group A Practice Experience Discussion

Practice Experience: Applying Process Improvement Models

Choose a Quality Improvement Model from Chapter 5 in the Spath (2013) textbook, and apply this model to your practice problem. Please do not choose Lean or Six Sigma as your quality model unless you have an expert in these quality models in your organization to guide you through the process.

PDSA (p.117).

RCI (p.120).

FOCUS PDCA (p.121).

FADE (p.121).

By Day 4

Post a Discussion entry describing the model that you selected and how each step of the model will be used to develop the plan for the Practice Experience Project. Continue to collaborate with the selected individuals in your practice environment as needed in the development of the Practice Experience Project, and share this information with your group.

By Day 7

Read and respond to two or more of your colleagues’ postings from the Discussion question. Provide feedback on the selected model, and offer other models if appropriate for their project. As a member of a community of practice, help each other refine and clarify the patient-centered Practice Experience Project.

NURS4220/NURS4221 Leadership Competencies in Nursing and Healthcare

Week 4 Group A Practice Experience Discussion

Practice Experience: Stakeholder Analysis

The next step in the process is to begin identifying the challenges and impediments to implementing a quality improvement plan. In the analysis consider the individuals affected by the change as well as the cost of implementing the quality improvement plan.

By Day 4

Post a description of some of the proposed action steps for implementing improved practice, and explain where potential challenges might compromise your proposed improvement project. Describe what resources are needed for your solution, and explain whether or not those resources are cost-effective. Continue to collaborate with the selected individuals in your practice environment as needed in the development of the Practice Experience Project, and share this information with your group.

By Day 7

Read and respond to two or more of your colleagues’ postings from the Discussion question. Provide feedback on potential challenges you see might compromise the improvement project and what other resources might be more cost effective. As a member of a community of practice, help each other refine and clarify the patient-centered Practice Experience Project.

NURS4220/NURS4221 Leadership Competencies in Nursing and Healthcare

Week 5 Group A Practice Experience Discussion

Practice Experience: Applying Key Interventions to a Practice Problem

The final step is to develop the plan discussing the steps clearly and succinctly. The plan must be evidence based .

By Day 4

Post an explanation of how you could apply key interventions supported by the scholarly research evidence to potentially help resolve the issue in measurable ways. Continue to collaborate with the selected individuals in your practice environment as needed in the development of the Practice Experience Project, and share this information with your group.

By Day 7

Read and respond to two or more of your colleagues’ postings from the Discussion question. Provide feedback about the selected measures, or provide suggestions for improving how the patient quality and safety outcomes could be addressed by care coordination techniques and effective leadership style. As a member of a community of practice, help each other refine and clarify the patient-centered Practice Experience Project.

NURS4220/NURS4221 Leadership Competencies in Nursing and Healthcare

Week 6 Group A Practice Experience Discussion

Practice Experience: Developing a Quality Improvement Plan

Storyboard Instructions

The Practice Experience Project Storyboard is a brief, visual summary of a completed quality improvement initiative. The storyboard highlights key aspects of a quality improvement effort by documenting the Practice Experience Project from beginning to end.

The course template uses a PowerPoint format to complete this assignment. You only need to provide two slides, no more. The first slide is the summary of your project; the second slide is the reference page. You will need to choose the most pertinent information from your practice experience and Capstone Paper to complete the Storyboard. No voiceover is required.

The completed storyboard is submitted for grading and also serves as the main post for the Week 6 Practice Experience discussion.

By Day 4

Submit your quality improvement storyboard using the provided template.

By Day 7Provide feedback to at least two of your classmates about their storyboards. Discuss the clarity of the problem presentation, the data that was selected to support the quality and safety issue, the selected process improvement model, and the proposed plan to improve patient outcomes.

Provide feedback on the overall content and professional presentation of the storyboard. Feedback should help energize the other student and help to improve a project that truly may be implemented.