- For this Assignment you will explore key components of a quality improvement initiative, which will be the focus of the DNP Project required for your doctoral program. This Assignment is designed to help you begin investigating potential practice sites for your project, possible practice problems to address based on your interests and the needs of specific sites, and how to identify and approach stakeholders with whom to work and align in a health care setting.
You will begin the Assignment this week and submit it by Day 7 of Week 6. The topic focus on the science of translation and Learning Resources in Weeks 5 and 6 will further support development of this Assignment.
Important Note: Your activities in this Module 3 Assignment are exploratory and hypothetical only. You should not begin any formal contact with regard to your DNP Project. Consult the DNP Project Process Guide in the Learning Resources for information, including on the project implementation schedule.
To prepare:
- Review the readings and media in the Week 4 Learning Resources. Pay particular attention to how Quality Improvement (QI) is defined in the DNP Glossary and Chapter 8 of the White, Dudley-Brown, and Terhaar text.
- Identify three potential sites within your community for a quality improvement project. These might be a health care organization in which you practice and two other locations. For example, you might practice in a large organization and consider a small clinic and a skilled care facility as other potential settings for your project.
- Based on your practice experience, consider potential practice problems as the focus of an EBP Quality Improvement initiative. Investigate the three practice sites you have identified for specific needs, including by making informal contact with staff members you know. (Remember the importance of confidentiality in any such discussions.)
- Note: You may continue to address the same practice issue that was the focus of your Discussions in Weeks 2 and 3. You may also draw on the Week 4 blog to consider a broad focus on EBP and then drill down on specific practice problems to address through application of EBP. The PET model described in the video, An Evidence-Based Practice Model, also provides examples for identifying practice issues to address.
- Research the literature for scholarly articles to support developing a quality improvement project that applies evidence-based practice to address specific practice problems. Aim to identify at least three scholarly articles to support this Assignment.
- Based on the practice problems you are identifying, investigate your potential practice sites for key stakeholders that would be involved in a quality improvement initiative. Using website and other information available to you for each site, explore for:
- A department that leads quality improvement or, if one does not exist, who within the organization would approve a quality improvement initiative;
- Stakeholder titles, from the highest level of required approval to health care associates who would implement QI changes in the practice of patient care.
- From your research into potential sites and practice problems, choose one practice problem and one site as your focus.Based on your target practice problem and selected site, identify an implementation framework and consider the steps or process required for an EBP QI project that would follow this framework/model. Note: Week 5 Learning Resources and Discussion will provide strategic support.
- Outline how you would present the elements of your proposed QI project to stakeholders to gain their approval. Reminder: Your purpose is to prepare for a future presentation to stakeholders. Do not contact stakeholders for this Assignment.
- Use the College of Nursing PowerPoint Template, provided in the Learning Resources, for developing a presentation to stakeholders. The template offers options in a cover slide and format options for other slides, to enable you to customize your presentation. Also refer to the handout, Preparing for an EBP QI Presentation to Stakeholders at a Practice Site, in the Learning Resources for guidance.
The Assignment
Part 1: Key Project Elements
In a paper of 6–8 pages, plus cover page and references page, include the following:
- Describe the three health care settings that you explored as proposed sites for an EBP QI project. For each health care setting, identify the following defining features: patient population, mission, public or private entity, single institution or member of a corporation, and others you identify as significant.
- Compare the settings for strengths and weaknesses as sites for an EBP QI project. Be specific and provide examples.
- Explain the practice problems that you explored based on your interests and identified needs of the health care settings you investigated.
- Explain why each problem is a potential focus for an EBP QI project. Be specific and provide examples.
- For each health care setting, describe the stakeholders whose approval would be required to initiate an EBP QI project and implement the results.
- Compare similarities and differences in stakeholder requirements across the settings.
- Identify the one proposed health care setting/practice site and one proposed practice problem you have selected as the focus of a hypothetical presentation to stakeholders, and explain your choices.
Part 2: Implementation Science Presentation
Develop a PowerPoint presentation of 3–5 slides, plus cover and reference slides, to inform a set of potential stakeholders at the practice site you have identified for a proposed EBP QI project. Although you will not make your presentation, it should be authentic to the purpose and include the following:
- Introduce the framework or model you have selected for the EBP QI project and your reasoning. (1–2 slides)
- Present a draft of the proposed practice problem. Include notes for each slide describing points you would make to the assembled stakeholders to obtain their approval or buy-in for the EBP QI project. (2–3 slides)
There is no submission this week.
Module 3 Assignment is due by Day 7 of Week 6.
Reminder: The College of Nursing requires that all papers submitted include a title page, introduction, summary, and references. The Sample Paper provided at the Walden Writing Center provides an example of those required elements (available at https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/templates/general#s-lg-box-20293632). All papers submitted must use this formatting.
