NUR 590Benchmark EBP Proposal Final Paper
Benchmark – Evidence-Based Practice Project Proposal Final Paper
The promotion of safety, quality, and efficiency is important in nursing practice. The achievement of these care outcomes depends largely on the interventions that nurses utilize in patient care. Evidence-based interventions are effective in minimizing patient harm and enhancing quality and efficiency of care. Generally, nurses should demonstrate competencies in translating evidence into practice. Safety issues such as medication administration errors threaten the health and wellbeing of the patients. Medication administration errors have significant adverse effects on the health of the patients. They include prolonged hospital stay, unintended harm, increased costs of care, and mortality. Health information technologies are effective in preventing and reducing medication administration errors. Therefore, this project proposes using integrated health information systems to reduce the risk and rate of medication administration errors in critically ill patients.
Problem Statement
Critically ill patients are increasingly predisposed to errors in the care process, including medication administration errors. Medication administration errors refer to faults in medication administration, leading to the difference between the drugs that were given or what was supposed to be administered. Medication administration errors often occur in the care of critically ill patients due to factors such as multiple medication administration, complex care needs of the patients, unpredictability in health status, and distractions (Barakat & Franklin, 2020). Medication administration errors have adverse effects on patient health such as causing unintended harm, prolonged hospital stay, increased costs of care, and high operational costs in healthcare due to rise in resource utilization (Devin et al., 2020). Nurses contribute to most medication administration errors due to their primary role in medication administration (Alomari et al., 2020). The project site has witnessed a rise in the rate of medication administration errors. Despite it, it has not examined the potential interventions such as the use of integrated health information systems to address the problem. The existing evidence shows that integrated health information systems are highly effective in preventing and reducing medication errors (Jheeta & Franklin, 2017). Therefore, there is a need for its use in the project site to promote safety, quality and efficiency in patient care, hence, the focus of the project.
Organizational Culture and Readiness
The culture of an organization affects the change process. It shapes the attitudes and support that the adopters have towards the change. Organizational stakeholders should support the creation of an enabling culture for change. Therefore, this section examines the culture and readiness of the organization for change.
Organizational Culture
The organization’s analysis showed it has a positive culture that will facilitate the success of the proposed project. First, the organization has effective leadership, as seen from the leaders and managers encouraging teamwork in the provision of patient care. The mission and vision of the organization support innovation in healthcare practice. The organization has allocated resources for use in quality improvement initiatives to improve patient care outcomes. The employee level of responsibility is also high in the organization, leading to enhanced undertaking of the organizational tasks. Open communication is also practiced where staffs have the freedom to express their ideas and views on issues related to patient care (Bouckenooghe et al., 2019).
Organizational Readiness Assessment
Researchers have used the tool by the Capacity Building Center for States to assess organizational readiness. The tool comprises of three sections that include readiness items, checklist for key change as well as implementation milestones and summary of readiness findings and organizational areas to improve. The assessment results showed that the organization was ready for the change, as seen from its scores of ‘strongly agreed’ and ‘partially agreed’ in the assessment. The highest scores were seen in resource availability, supportive structures, leadership, staff capacity, and climate. Moderate scores were seen in receptivity to change, compatibility, and simplicity of management.
Organizational strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities were identified from the assessment. The presence of adequate resources for implementation of the change was one of the strengths. It also showed organizational strengths of effective leadership and competent staffs that could support the change. The lack of effective management in the organization was the identified weakness since the organization lacks simplistic management systems for change. Staff shortage was identified as a threat that may make it difficult to implement change due to high workload facing the existing personnel. However, a focus on aspects such as the effective use of resources and timing of change will be used to address the above issues.
Throughout this course, you have developed a formal, evidence-based practice proposal.
The proposal is the plan for an evidence-based practice project designed to address a problem, issue, or concern in the professional work setting. Although several types of evidence can be used to support a proposed solution, a sufficient and compelling base of support from valid research studies is required as the major component of that evidence. Proposals must be submitted in a format suitable for obtaining formal approval in the work setting. Proposals will vary in length depending upon the problem or issue addressed (3,500 and 5,000 words). The cover sheet, abstract, references pages, and appendices are not included in the word count.
Section headings for each section component are required. Evaluation of the proposal in all sections will be based upon the extent to which the depth of content reflects graduate-level critical thinking skills.
This project contains seven formal sections:
Section A: Organizational Culture and Readiness Assessment
Section B: Proposal/Problem Statement and Literature Review
Section C: Solution Description
Section D: Change Model
Section E: Implementation Plan
Section F: Evaluation of Process
Explain the importance of a “spirit of inquiry” in an evidence-based culture and what you can do as an advanced registered nurse to encourage this within your practice or organization. In response to your peers, compare the role and implementation of EBP in your specialty area with another advanced registered nurse specialty.
Science teaches us to explore and question. In medicine, it the same. There is always something to explore in medicine, whether its to improve upon interventions or to learn complex diseases. Throughout my career as a nurse and nursing student, it was always expressed to me that in order for me to become a successful nurse I would need to engage in continuing education for the life of my career. In life, we should always strive for continuing education for personal development and growth. The future of nursing will require nurses to question, explore and take initiative making decisions on patient care, interventions, in leadership and public health. “Explain the importance of a spirit of inquiry in an evidence-based culture and what you can do as an advanced registered nurse to encourage this within your practice or organization. In response to your peers, compare the role and implementation of EBP in your specialty area with another advanced registered nurse specialty” (National League of Nursing, 2014, para. 1). The COVID-19 pandemic was a wake up call in that we as a nation need to focus on improving our nursing practice. Nurses will need to be encourage and pushed into leadership roles, executive positions and in the areas a research and development. Many nurses took the lead in saving their patients and hospitals as the pandemic ravaged hospitals throughout the country. There was also a spike in people researching how to get into the field of medicine (particularly in nursing and nursing research). There became a fascination into epidemiology, public health and medical research as people and nurses became curious about vaccine development and how outbreaks of disease and virus happen. As a advanced registered I would encourage evidence based culture by being an example of someone who uses EBP and work in collaboration with other staffers to implement EBP research into the real world. During the heigh of the pandemic, EBP research was used to help patients as other interventions and methods failed.
Implementing EBP
In the field of advanced nursing practice, there are various ways advanced nurses implement EBPs. Nurse practitioners implement and EBP “when she/he prescribes a treatment for a patient that is substantiated by scientific research; Often, nurse practitioners look for an experimental study that compares the efficacy of a treatment with an untreated control group” (Nurse Practitioner Schools, 2021).
Certified mid-wifery
For nursing midwives, EBP is are used to enhance the lives of the mother, child and community. Mothers are the backbone of communities and the health and safety of woman determines the health and safety of their respective communities. Areas of challenges are identified and EBP are used to improve the lives of women in order to safely carry, deliver and raise children.
References:
National League of Nursing. (2014). Practical/Vocational Nursing Program Outcome: Spirit of Inquiry. https://www.nln.org/docs/default-source/default-document-library/spirit-of-inquiry-final.pdf?sfvrsn=0
Nurse Practitioner Schools. (2021). Guide to Evidence-Based Nursing Practice for NPs. Retrieved from https://www.nursepractitionerschools.com/resources/guide-to-evidence-based-nursing-practice/
