Practicum Project Initiation Essay

Practicum Project Initiation Essay

Educating Nursing Staff on a New Communication App

The project charter is a document given by a project sponsor to officially authorize the existence and execution of a project. The charter provider the project manager with the authority to use organizational resources to attain the expected deliverables. The charter is a statement of scope, purpose, and stakeholders participating in the project. The project charter is used to authorize the project by the sponsors, offers an insight into the overall project and identifies the requisite stakeholders. The project manager creates the document while working together with other stakeholders. In this case of the practicum, the mentor becomes a member of the project team while as a student, I am the project manager (PMI, 2018). Project managers have the role of identifying the goals, objectives that are SMART, risks and constraints, resources and deliverable. After the approval of the project charter, a scope statement defining and highlighting the overall outcomes suffices and is critical. The purpose of this essay is to provide the groundwork for the practicum project of educating the nursing staff about the use of a new communication app for non-vocal patients who are alert but cannot speak due to stroke or have a tube/tracheostomy.

Project Goals

Assistive devices and apps that make communication easier for stroke patients are critical in enhancing the quality of life and ensuring that patients can interact with their care providers like nurses. Individuals with speech challenges may become frustrated in attempts to communicate with different people; including caregivers, families and loved ones (Khullar et al., 2018). However, communication aids are becoming more prevalent and accessible. Therefore, the main goal of the project is to equip nursing staff with sufficient knowledge and awareness about the communication apps that they can use to enhance interactions with patients who are alert but cannot speak. A majority of such patients lose their speech due to stroke or having a tube among other causes. By doing the training, the nursing staff will understand the significance of the communication apps, their effective use, and select an appropriate one for the patient (Wilson et al., 2020). For purposes of this project, the manager will focus on iCommunicate for iPad because of the features that it provides to users.

Project Objectives

Each project has a set of objectives that should be attained to produce the expected deliverables. An objective is a purpose that should be achieved for a certain result or outcomes. In most cases, project managers focus on attaining SMART objective; implying that they must be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound.

a). Specific: The project will a two-day training and 2-week implementation for all nursing staff to help them understand how they can integrate communication apps to enhance interactions and care provision for patients.

b). Measurable: The cost of the training and implementing the project will cost about $3,000. The organization will save more as the communication app will enhance care provision and reduce adverse events when providers cannot interact with the patients. The facility will save on costs associated with medication administration errors and reduce patients’ susceptibility to falls.

c). Achievable: For this training, the project manager will have the mentor as part of the project team to help improve overall outcomes.

d). Realistic: The training program will help the nursing staff learn more and apply the new communication approach to enhance quality outcomes. Through this training on the use of the communication app, the project manager will meet the overall expectations and goals.

e). Time-Bound: The project execution will start in the last week of March 2022 with a duration of two weeks which includes a two-day training session for the nurses.

Project Scope

A project scope entails work executed to deliver a product, services or outcomes based on certain features and functions (PMI, 2018). For the training project for the nursing staff, certain items will be taken into consideration while executing the tasks and activities to attain the set goals and objectives. Imperatively, the table below shows the activities and tasks that will be within the project’s scope and those out of the scope

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In-Scope	Out-of-Scope
Identification of stakeholders & Project sponsors	Finding more sponsors
Project planning and implementation	Project extension & absenteeism of team members
Resource collection and information gathering	Execution of period to gather information and resources
Definition of milestones for completion of each phase	Changing the milestones mid-way
Identification of Deliverables	Additional deliverables unintended for the project.

 

Deliverables based on Project Phases

Projects have five phases where each phase must have certain deliverables for effective attainment of set goals. These phases include project initiation, planning, execution or implementation, monitoring and control, and closing (PMI, 2018). At each stage, a project has deliverables that should be offered to the stakeholders and sponsors. The table below shows each phase and expected deliverables in this practicum.

Phase Description	Deliverables
Initiation Phase: project manager develops a project charter which highlights the goals and objectives of the training project. The manager actively involves mentor as a team member, stakeholders and sponsors	Team Charter Project Charter and approval from the sponsor responsible for authorization of the charter.
Planning Phase: The project plan is designed and developed based on scope, cost, time, resources and risks	Availing resources, having a work-breakdown structure, assessment of risks and identification, active engagement of stakeholders and team members.
Implementation phase: The execution phase entails project deliverables being developed and completed based on the overall project plan	Tracking training and rolling out of the app within the department through meetings, sessions and demonstration of the working of the selected app.
Monitoring & Control Phase: Entails the evaluation of implemented activities and tasks, performance and ensures that they are aligned with the project plan	Implementation of any changes to the use of the app and any contingency plans for the project.
Closing: Formal end to the project where the final product is delivered.	The deliverable in the closing stage will be a functional communication app for effective communication between the nursing staff and patients.

 

Project Team, stakeholders and Report Reception

A project team comprises of individuals who support the project manager in execution of the work of the project to attain its objectives. The team members are also stakeholders and sponsors who provide resources and in most cases, approve the projects and receive project reports (PMI, 2018).  The team members have different responsibilities in attaining project goals and objectives. In this case the project team will comprise of project sponsor who will offer resources and support the project manager and be involved in high-level planning, project manager charged with the overall execution of the training program, and communicating with all people.

The manager will supervise the project, define deliverables and timelines and set objectives and goals. The mentor will a team member who will provide expert advice and guidelines to the project manager. The team will also comprise of nurse leaders and managers to motivate and inspire the nursing staff to participate in the training. The team will have analysts and software vendors who will offer expert advice and install the requisite app and demonstrate its functioning. The manager will report to the project sponsor or organization and deliver the final product to the facility through its manager.

Conclusion

Training nursing staff on the effectiveness of communication apps for patients who cannot speak is essential for them to incorporate the interventions to enhance quality care. The initiation of this project is key to enhancing better interactions between patients and providers in their facilities. The implication is that through these approaches, patients with stroke and other conditions will communicate with their providers effortlessly.

References

Khullar, V., Singh, H. P., & Bala, M. (2018). Intelligent Handheld Expert System (Hes) For

Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder and Its Severity Level. ASEAN Journal of Psychiatry, 19(1). https://www.neurologyindia.com/text.asp?2021/69/1/66/310069

Project Management Institute (PMI). (2018). A guide to the project management body of

            Knowledge (PMBOK guide). Newtown Square, PA, USA: Project Management Institute.

Wilson, R., Cochrane, D., Mihailidis, A., & Small, J. (2020). Mobile apps to support caregiver-

resident communication in long-term care: systematic search and content analysis. JMIR aging, 3(1), e17136. doi: 10.2196/17136

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This assignment is designed to help students lay the groundwork for their project plan with the help of mentors and professors. The mentor becomes a team member for the project that the student will manage. The student will identify the stakeholders, project priority, how the measurable goals will be met for a successful project, and who will receive the report of the results of the project. The scope document describes the parameters of the project, including what can and cannot be accomplished and the measurable objectives and outcome measures. The project charter describes and defines the project. When the sponsor signs off on the project, it becomes the document that authorizes the project.

Week 3, you will complete the Project Scope and Charter. Prior to completing this assignment, please review the case study in the Week 3 Lecture, because it includes a sample project charter. Based on the information from the mentor and professor, each student finalizes and completes the project charter and scope documents or statements. The project scope must be approved by your practicum organization. Your mentor should help you obtain approval.