Benchmark-Practicum Evaluation Essay

Benchmark-Practicum Evaluation Essay

Benchmark-Practicum Evaluation Essay

Nurse leadership continues to play a critical role in healthcare practice with reforms imploring nurses to develop professional competencies to enhance care delivery and performance. The success of nurse leadership requires nurses to attain competencies that allow them to implement projects with clear goals and focus through effective planning (Errida & Lotfi, 2021). The practicum offered an opportunity to plan nursing project and get requisite resources to implement it. Through the planning and implementation of the nursing leadership project, I develop core competencies and abilities required for effective care delivery, leading teams, and understanding patient needs, concerns, and ways to address them. The purpose of this essay is to provide an assessment of practicum project designed and implemented to improve quality and safety of patients through purposeful rounding with the aim of reducing and preventing falls in healthcare facility.

Focus of the Project

The practicum project’s main focus was on prevention and reduction of patient falls as a health burden that reduces quality of care and threatens patient safety. The objective was to explore how hourly purposeful rounding can be used to prevent and reduce falls among the elderly and their susceptibility. The use of purposeful hourly rounding was effective in mitigation of falls in the unit. However, based on literature reviewed during the practicum, evidence exist to show that interventions like fall prevent kits, exercises and bed side alarms and sensors as well as fall training content for nurses can effective mitigate such incidents and occasions in such practice settings (Morley & Cashell, 2018). However, the use of purposeful hourly rounding was chosen as the most effective and reliable intervention to train both healthcare providers and patients to properly manage and reduce fall incidences on healthcare settings.

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The goals that I set for the practicum project included reducing fall incidences by 90%, providing sufficient training to providers, and patients to understand any risks for fall, and ensuring a collaborative approach to the issue in the facility (Heng et al., 2019). The other critical goal of the project was to gain leadership skills that would allow me to understand different competencies needed to effectively design and implement change initiatives aimed at improving safety of patients and quality of care provided in the facility. These goals were key to ensuring that the facility reduces the cost burden associated with adverse events like falls which negatively impact patient care experience and satisfaction in the facility.

Need for the Project

The need for this practicum project was evident based on data and evidence from existing research on patient falls and effective leadership strategies required to address the challenge. Existing studies show that patient falls constitute one of the major events that have negative effects on patient safety and quality of care. Studies show that patient falls lead to additional costs and stay in healthcare facilities. For instance, fall victims spend an additional eight days in hospital translating into over $7,200 compared to those who do not fall (Wei et al., 2020). Further, the cost associated with fall in 2015 was about $640. The implication is that falls are a health hazard to patients and providers as they reduce quality of care and safety (Cameron et al., 2018). These financial implications and the need for leadership interventions were the motivation behind my resolve to focus on the project in the practicum site which had an increased rate of patient falls because of the nature of patients that it served.

Leadership styles like transformational and charismatic allow leaders to motivate nurses and other professionals to develop evidence-based practice (EBP) interventions to reduce the prevalence of falls in all facilities. Leaders develop a rapport with nurses that allow them to identify areas which negatively impact quality of care for patients (Wei et al., 2020). Leaders can ensure that they reduce these figures and statistics when they model effective approaches and ensure that all people in the facility participate in quality and safety improvement initiatives.

Falls can lead to both minor and major injuries. For instance, close to 30% of patient falls lead to bruises and minor injuries. However, 15% result in fractures and 55% lead to fatal injuries with varied differences in more stay and delay in hospitals. Patient falls also result in anxiety, depression, and in extreme cases, death of patients (Errida & Lotfi, 2021). The implication is that leaders must develop effective approaches to solve this issue because of its negative effects on patient safety and quality of care. The need for the project was to enhance patient safety outcomes and increase the odds of better health that align with the organizational goals, vision, and mission.

Barriers Encountered

The implementation of any evidence-based practice intervention in clinical settings can face a host of barriers that one must mitigate and ensure that they overcome to achieve the goals of a project. In this case, real and potential barriers create challenges that affect the overall implementation of such interventions. I faced challenges in implementing this project that included limited access to suitable resources and information as the facility did not have sufficiently trained nurses to help roll out the program. Secondly, attaining a buy-in from nurses and other providers in the facility was a challenge as the management and leadership had not adequately informed and prepared them for the initiative aimed at improving quality and patient safety (Errida & Lotfi, 2021). Institutional biases also arose as I was considered an outsider who was keen on disrupting the status quo. I never enjoyed the inherent privileges that the members of the organization had as I implemented the project. For instance, I never received allowances or monetary incentive despite the efforts that I made in convincing the management to implement the intervention. Further, I had limited time based on the duration allocated to practicum to be in site. The implication is that I could not effectively evaluate the overall impact of my program to the facility and patients.

Another critical challenge that emerged was the new normal brought by the COVID-19 pandemic which restricted movements, interactions, and even threatened to wide away huge gains made to increase access to care. Therefore, in some instances, I had to conduct virtual practicum to meet these protocols. Therefore, video conferencing platform was essential in facilitating some aspects of the program when I could not access the facility or was asked to avoid seeing and monitoring certain patients due to their vulnerabilities as a result of weakened immunity. These interventions were necessary but also had challenges like delays, and need for a strong Internet network.

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Evaluation Strategies Used in the Project

Evaluation of a project is essential as it shows if an initiative meets criteria for its success and entails collection and analysis of information related to the implementation of a project (Morley & Cashell, 2018). In this case, evaluation strategies must focus on aspects of the project that constitute improvements and returns. The evaluation strategies used in this project were outcomes-based, process-based, and goal-based. Under the outcomes-based model, the evaluation focuses on attained outcomes. In this case, the project attained its outcomes since patient falls fell by 85%. The implication is that the project was close to meeting its goal of reducing the fall by 90% and ensuring that the quality of care improves in the facility.

These strategies are effective for the project as they demonstrate that the project met its goals and succeeded in reducing falls. The evaluation strategies also focus on core aspects of the project to achieve better implementation (Wei et al., 2020). Further, the strategies are accurate, specific and precise for the intervention.

Measuring Outcomes & Sustainability of the Project

The outcomes of the project were measured on various criteria. The first criterion was the scope of the project. The scope of the project was to enhance the organization’s capacity to prevent falls. Therefore, successful measurement of this would entail ascertaining if it met the objectives. The second aspect of measurement for the project was ascertaining if the intervention reduced falls. The implication is that data on falls before and after the implementation will be compared to get the impact of the project. The difference between the two sets of data will show if the project’s outcomes meet the objectives.

The project is sustainable as it will seek to continue the mission of the organization in the future. The effects of the initiative will have significant influence on the interventions used by the facility to improve care outcomes (Vonnes & Wolf, 2018). The outcomes of the project will provide a safety and quality organizational culture to improve patient safety and satisfaction. The project will also implore organizational leaders to work collaboratively with others to fix existing issues for better care delivery.

Success of the Project

The success of this project cannot be overemphasized as its implementation has led to a reduction in fall incidences in the facility. I attained success in getting to integrate leadership approaches to reducing falls in the facility. The project success is demonstrated by the resolve among providers to institute better ways to help patients mitigate falls and their adverse effects. The organization could save millions in costs associated with increased stays and cost burden of treating fall victims, especially those with major injuries.

Conclusion

The implementation of the purposeful rounding to reduce and prevent falls is an EBP approach aimed at improving patient safety and quality of care. The initiative’s success depends on availing of resources by different stakeholders and effective leadership to guide those implementing the project. The implication is that the initiative provided an opportunity for me to nurture and use leadership skills as well as EBP interventions to address one of the most prevalent healthcare issue, patient falls.

References

Andrew, L., Dare, J., Robinson, K., & Costello, L. (2022). Nursing practicum equity for a

changing nurse student demographic: a qualitative study. BMC nursing, 21(1), 1-8. DOI: 10.1186/s12912-022-00816-2

Cameron, I. D., Dyer, M., Panagoda, E., Murray, R., Hill, D., Cumming, G., & Kerse, N.

(2018). Interventions for preventing falls in older people in care facilities and

hospitals. The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 9(9), CD005465.

https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD005465.pub

Errida, A., & Lotfi, B. (2021). The determinants of organizational change management success:

Literature review and case study. International Journal of Engineering Business Management, 13, 18479790211016273. https://doi.org/10.1177/18479790211016273

Heng, H., Jazayeri, D., Shaw, L., Kiegaldie, D., Hill, A., & Morris, M. (2019). Educating

hospital patients to prevent falls: Protocol for a scoping review. BMJ Open, 9(9),

e030952. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-030952

Morley, L., & Cashell, A. (2018). Collaboration in health care. Journal of medical imaging and

radiation sciences, 48(2), 207-216. DOI: 10.1016/j.jmir.2017.02.071.

Vonnes, C., & Wolf, D. (2018). Fall risk and prevention agreement: Engaging patients

and families with a partnership for patient safety. BMJ Open Quality, 6(2),

e000038. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjoq-2017-000038

Wei, H., Corbett, R. W., Ray, J., & Wei, T. L. (2020). A culture of caring: the essence of

healthcare inter-professional collaboration. Journal of inter-professional care, 34(3), 324-331. DOI: 10.1080/13561820.2019.1641476.

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Assessment Description
Benchmark
Requires Lopes write
Throughout your practicum experience, you have been designing and implementing a quality or safety improvement project. You will now assess that experience. Prior to beginning this paper, discuss the topics below with your preceptor. Include their feedback as well as your own.

In a 1,250-1,500 word document, discuss the following topics:

What was the focus of your practicum project? What were the goals you set?
How did you discover the need for this project? Describe how you found and interpreted the necessary data to identify your quality or safety improvement opportunity.
Discuss if you encountered any real or potential barriers during your practicum experience related to your project.
Outline the various evaluation strategies you used in the project. Explain why those strategies are most suitable for your project.
Discuss how the outcomes of your project will be measured. Is your project one that is sustainable or is it designed to be a single occurrence?
Evaluate the success of your project. If you were not able to implement your project, discuss why.
Prepare this assignment according to the APA guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.

Use a minimum of four peer-reviewed resources that are five years old or less as evidence to support your views.

This assignment uses a rubric. Review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

You are required to submit this assignment to Lopes Write. A link to the Lopes Write technical support articles is located in Class Resources if you need assistance.

Benchmark Information
This benchmark assignment assesses the following programmatic competencies:

MSN Health Quality Safety

6.5: Develop evaluation strategies to monitor and modify quality and safety initiatives.
6.3: Interpret data in order to identify quality and safety improvement opportunities.