NR631 Nurse Executive Concluding Graduate Experience I
Week 1 Assignment
PICOT Worksheet
Purpose
Clear identification of the problem or opportunity is the first step in evidence-based nursing. In a previous course, you identified a practice problem of interest and developed a PICOT question. This assignment is a review of PICOT with the opportunity to revise or refine it. You will post your PICOT in the Week 1 Discussion for your classmates to review and provide feedback.
Course Outcomes
This assignment enables the student to meet the following Course Outcome (CO):
CO 2: Develop an evidence-based foundation to lead organizational change using current knowledge, standards of practice, and research from current literature. (PO 4,5)
Requirements
Description of the Assignment
Use the PICOT worksheet found above to complete the Week 1 Assignment PICOT Worksheet.
Step 1: State your PICOT question. This should be the PICOT question that you previously developed in NR505 and which you should have continued to build upon in the Nurse Executive track courses. If your PICOT question has changed since NR505, please note the changes in this section so it's clear to the instructor what was original and what has been updated.
Step 2: Clearly define your PICOT question. List each element: P (problem, population, or problem), I (intervention), C (comparison with other treatment or current practice), O (desired outcome), and T (time frame). Is the potential solution something for which you (as nurse or student) can find a solution through evidence research? Look in your book for guidelines to developing your PICOT question and also read the required articles.
Step 3: Describe the issue or problem that will be the focus of your CGE evidence-based practice change project. What have you noticed in your work or school environment that isn't achieving the desired patient or learning outcomes? What needs to change in nursing, what can you change with the support of evidence in the literature?
Step 4: How was the practice issue identified? How did you come to know this was a problem in your clinical practice? Review the listed concerns and check all that apply.
Step 5: What terms did you use in order to make sure your search is wide enough to obtain required information but narrow enough to keep it focused? How will you narrow your search if needed?
Criteria for Content
Access the PICOT worksheet found above.
Follow the instructions on the PICOT worksheet and complete the form.
Submit the completed PICOT worksheet form.
Example 1
What is the PICO(T) question?
Will influenza immunization compliancy rates increase if flu clinics are provided in flu PODS and immunization clinics at convenient times that cover all shifts?
Define each element of the question below.
P (patient, population, or problem): Require hospital employees and volunteers to have the influenza immunization annually.
I (intervention): Offer multiple flu PODS and immunization clinics to hospital employees and volunteers, making it convenient to receive the required immunization. Offer these at a variety of times, available to all shifts.
C (comparison with other treatment or current practice): Compare analytics showing employees and volunteers who received flu shots prior to 2016, when flu PODS and immunization clinics were not offered, to 2016, when flu PODS and immunization clinics are offered to accommodate shifts. Track the number of employees or volunteers coming at each time frame.
O (desired outcome): The desired outcome is increased employees and volunteer compliance with the flu shot policy.
Example 2
What is the PICO(T) question?
For nondiabetic patients on corticosteroid therapy, does monitoring for headache, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, and blurred vision hourly versus not observing for signs of hyperglycemia promote improvement of pulmonary complications?
Define each element of the question below.
P (patient, population, or problem): nondiabetic patients on corticosteroid therapy
I (intervention): monitoring for headache, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, and blurred vision
C (comparison with other treatment or current practice): no observations for signs of hyperglycemia
O (Desired outcome): improvement of pulmonary complications
T (time): 90 days
NR631 Nurse Executive Concluding Graduate Experience I
Week 2 Assignment
Project Scope and Charter
Purpose
This assignment is designed to help students lay the groundwork for their project plans 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, the 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 2, you will complete the project scope and 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. Project approval must be received prior to submitting these documents. Appendices are provided for both of these documents above.
Course Outcomes
This assignment enables the student to meet the following Course Outcomes (COs):
CO 1: Apply evidence-based leadership skills and concepts in the planning of an executive-level practice change project. (PO 4,5)
CO 2: Develop an evidence-based foundation to lead organizational change using current knowledge, standards of practice, and research from current literature. (PO 4,5)
CO 4: Apply evidence-based fiscal principles that contribute to the creation of a caring environment characterized by high quality, safe, patient-centered care (PO 1, 2, 4, 5)
Requirements
Complete the Project Scope document, including signatures of approval.
Complete the Project Charter document.
Documents are attached as appendices to a professional, scholarly paper following the guidelines for writing professional papers found in the Resources tab.
Grammar, spelling, punctuation, references, and citations must be consistent with formal academic writing and APA format as expressed in the current edition of the APA manual.
Preparing the paper
All aspects of the Project Scope document must be completed, including signatures.
All aspects of the Project Chart document must be completed.
Ideas, references, and information from professional sources must be cited correctly using the current edition of the APA manual.
Grammar, spelling, punctuation, references, and citations must be consistent with formal academic writing.
NR631 Nurse Executive Concluding Graduate Experience I
Week 3 Assignment
Literature Review
Purpose
The purpose of this assignment is to provide learners with the opportunity to integrate the knowledge and skills learned throughout the program, and to provide learners with the opportunity to communicate a scholarly project in a professional manner.
Course Outcomes
This assignment enables the student to meet the following Course Outcome (CO):
CO 2: Develop an evidence-based foundation to lead organizational change using current knowledge, standards of practice, and research from current literature. (PO 4,5)
Requirements
Review any previous literature review you have completed related to your CGE project topic. If you have not previously completed a scholarly literature review on your topic (i.e., your topic may have changed), then you will create a new literature review with this assignment. Complete a database search on your project and compile the results, adding any new or relevant scholarly sources to your review. Focus on the most relevant articles or studies that address your problem or concern or discuss resolutions to the problem. Include any studies that do not support your projected resolution or take a different approach. In addition, search for systematic reviews about the problem or concern. Write a review of the literature or update your existing literature review using the following outline.
Comprehensive review of the current evidence-based literature from nursing and related disciplines as appropriate
Application of evidence-based literature to project
Analysis of the literature: whether it supports your resolution; alternative solutions; how existing literature affected your proposal
Using this outline will ensure that you are in compliance with Chamberlain's reuse/repurpose policy. Be sure to reacquaint yourself with this policy or reach out to your instructor if you have any questions.
Preparing the Paper
Paper length: 5-8 pages, excluding reference and title pages
Minimum number of scholarly articles or studies: 15
Note: The required sources must meet the criteria of scholarly sources by Chamberlain University definition.
You may use other nonscholarly sources (i.e., web pages) but those will not count toward the 15 required.
APA format, current edition
Correct reference citation format
Reference page
NR631 Nurse Executive Concluding Graduate Experience I
Week 4 Assignment
The Communication Plan
PURPOSE
The process of project management has five phases:(1) design and initiation, which you just completed;(2) finalizing your plan before implementation, which you will do now; (3) implementation;(4) monitor and control; and finally, (5) evaluation and lessons learned (as well as knowledge transfer).
During Phase 2 (finalizing the project plan), you will continue to create the tools and documents you will need when you implement your project as the project manager in Phase 3.
Week 4: Communications Plan
Week5: Deliverables and Critical Success Factors (CSFs)
Week6:Work Breakdown Structure(WBS) and Gantt Chart
Week7:Risk Management and Human Resource Management Plans
In this assignment, students act as project managers to develop and facilitate project communication, including the variety of communication needs for all team members and stakeholders. The project manager is responsible for all project communication. The communication plan the project manager develops and disseminates must detail the types of communication expected throughout the project. It also documents how the information and reports will be shared and when.
To assist you, there is a document you will complete and attach as an appendix to the professional paper you will submit and an example of communication planning in Course Resources.
REQUIREMENTS
1. Complete the Communication Plan document. Attach as an appendix to the professional paper you will develop, following the Guidelines for Writing Professional Papers document found in Course Resources.
2. Grammar, spelling, punctuation, references ,and citations must be consistent withformal academicwriting and APA format as expressed in the current edition of the manual.
PREPARING THE ASSIGNMENT
1. All communications used during the project must be identified and detailed in your communication plan. Attach it as an appendix to the professional paper.
2. Ideas and information from professional sources must be cited correctly using the current edition of the APA manual.
3. Grammar, spelling, punctuation, references, and citations must be consistent with formal academic writing.
NR631 Nurse Executive Concluding Graduate Experience I
Week 5 Assignment
PURPOSE
The process of project management has five phases:(1) design and initiation, which you just completed;(2) finalizing your plan before implementation, which you will do now; (3) implementation;(4) monitor and control; and finally, (5) evaluation and lessons learned (as well as knowledge transfer).
During Phase 2 (finalizing the project plan), you will continue to create the tools and documents you will need when you implement your project as the project manager in Phase 3.
Week 4: Communications Plan
Week5: Deliverables and Critical SuccessFactors (CSFs)
Week6:WorkBreakdown Structure(WBS) andGanttChart
Week7:RiskManagementandHumanResource Management Plans
It is important for a project manager to know and track every deliverable as well as the critical success factors (CSF). Always remember to plan, plan, and plan again. Making sure that you have identified and listed every deliverable and defined the CSFs is time well spent. The time you spend thinking and discussing can be classified as scientific or technological exploration or investigation.
Each deliverable must be known and discussed in the scope document. These are critical to identify in order to move forward with the project plan and ensure a successful project. If a deliverable is overlooked and left out, the project will be considered a failure. The deliverables are related to the work of the project. It is through the project activities that the deliverables are completed or developed. A deliverable could be something that was completed (if it was a service performed) or developed (if it was a new software package). No matter what the deliverable is, there is work associated with the development. In order for you to proceed with your WBSs and completion milestones, you must know what needs to be done. Review and re-review to glean every deliverable. This is why it is important to reflect on all of the deliverables at this point in the management of your project.
The CSFs are those characteristics or attributes that are essential for your project to succeed. According to Sipes, "these are the key areas where things must go right in order for the project to succeed" (pp. 86–87). Examples of how to complete the forms can be found in the course textbook, Project Management for the Advanced Practice Nurse, p. 86, Tables 4.7 and 4.8. Review your project documents and analyze your data to determine your CSFs. Be sure to include metrics. If metrics are not included, you will not be able to measure or evaluate your project in Phase 5. What is the scope of your project, and how will you collect the required data?
Work with your mentor to complete the document as an appendix attached to the professional paper. It is always better to have more input rather than less. Discuss and seek consensus with your mentor on the deliverables and CSFs for your project. To assist you, there are a document you will use and attach as an appendix to the paper you submit, as well as a sample of the document in Course Resources.
Requirements
Complete the deliverables and CSF document. Attach the document as an appendix to a professionally written paper explaining what you are doing.
Grammar, spelling, punctuation, references, and citations must be consistent with formal academic writing and APA format as expressed in the current edition of the APA manual.
Preparing the Assignment
All project deliverables must be identified and listed on the Deliverables and CSF document.
All CSFs must be identified and listed on the Deliverables and CSF document. Metrics must be included.
Ideas and information from professional sources must be cited correctly using the current edition of the APA manual.
Grammar, spelling, punctuation, references, and citations must be consistent with formal academic writing.
NR631 Nurse Executive Concluding Graduate Experience I
Week 6 Assignment
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
Purpose
The process of project management has five phases: (1) design and initiation, which you just completed; (2) finalizing your plan before implementation, which you will do now; (3) implementation; (4) monitor and control; and finally, (5) evaluation and lessons learned, as well as knowledge transfer.
During Phase 2 (finalizing the project plan), you will continue to create the tools and documents you will need when you implement your project as the project manager in Phase 3.
Week 4: Communications Plan
Week 5: Deliverables and Critical Success Factors (CSFs)
Week 6: Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and Gantt Chart
Week 7: Risk Management and Human Resource Management Plans
In this assignment, you will define and document the project's tasks and project's deliverables and their relationships to each. You will develop the WBS and project timelines using a Gantt chart.
The WBS identifies the project's tasks that need to be completed by priority, and it flows into and facilitates project scheduling. This breakdown helps the project team identify all tasks needed to get the work done and the resources necessary to complete it. This framework allows you to assign tasks to individual team members, making them accountable for those tasks in the process. It is important that all tasks be identified and broken down, because project delays or even failure frequently result from forgotten or overlooked tasks rather than imprecise guesstimates.
The Gantt chart, named after Henry Gantt, clearly shows the start and completion dates for all major project activities and subtasks. The Gantt chart is straightforward, easy to understand, and simple to change. It provides a snapshot of the project, and one can immediately identify task durations and distinguish tasks dependent upon other tasks to be completed before they are started. Understanding of all dependencies is critical for the project manager, who is ultimately responsible for time, budgets, and resource allocation.
To assist you, there is a PowerPoint file demonstrating a two possible WBS formats and a WBS checklist, above. A click-by-click tutorial for developing the Gantt chart using Excel can be found in the week 6 lesson content.
Course Outcomes
This assignment enables the student to meet the following Course Outcomes (COs):
CO 1: Apply evidence-based leadership skills and concepts in the planning of an executive-level practice change project. (PO 4,5)
CO 2: Develop an evidence-based foundation to lead organizational change using current knowledge, standards of practice, and research from current literature. (PO 4,5)
Requirements
Complete the WBS and Gantt chart documents. Attach documents as appendices to a professionally written paper explaining what you are doing.
Grammar, spelling, punctuation, references, and citations must be consistent with formal academic writing and APA format as expressed in the current edition of the APA manual.
Preparing the paper
All project tasks must be identified and broken down in your WBS. Attach documents as appendices to a professionally written paper explaining what you are doing.
The Gantt chart must provide timelines for all major project tasks and subtasks following the Excel sample. Attach documents as appendices to a professionally written paper explaining what you are doing.
Ideas and information from professional sources must be cited correctly using the current edition of the APA manual.
Grammar, spelling, punctuation, references, and citations must be consistent with formal academic writing.
NR631 Nurse Executive Concluding Graduate Experience I
Week 7 Assignment
Risk Management and Human Resource Management Plans
Purpose
The process of project management has five phases: (1) design and initiation, which you just completed; (2) finalizing your plan before implementation, which you will do now; (3) implementation; (4) monitor and control; and finally, (5) evaluation and lessons learned, as well as knowledge transfer.
During Phase 2 (finalizing the project plan), you will continue to create the tools and documents you will need when you implement your project as the project manager in Phase 3.
Week 4: Communications Plan
Week 5: Deliverables and Critical Success Factors (CSFs)
Week 6: Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and Gantt Chart
Week 7: Risk Management and Human Resource Management Plans
In this assignment, students document, track, and manage a project's risks and use of human resources. The risk management will be accomplished through the use of a Risk Register chart.
Using the Risk Register is a way to identify, document, and manage all the risks associated with a project. The chart details provide an easy way to scan for the level of risk, status, potential responses, and who is responsible for the risk, in addition to the project manager or other details needed to manage the risk. This is a great way to keep everyone informed when this document is presented at the weekly team meetings and in communication with all stakeholders.
Another key tool is called the responsible, accountable, consulted, informed (RACI) chart, which helps you identify who is responsible for, accountable for, consulted on, or informed about each major project task. The RACI chart will help manage and track use of human resources; this facilitates monitoring and control and provides one means of communication. It documents and makes clear who is responsible for bringing the task to completion, on time, and on budget.
Course Outcomes
This assignment enables the student to meet the following Course Outcomes (CO's):
CO 1: Apply evidence-based leadership skills and concepts in the planning of an executive-level practice change project. (PO 4,)
CO 2: Develop an evidence-based foundation to lead organizational change using current knowledge, standards of practice, and research from current literature. (PO 4,5)
Requirements
Complete the Risk Register and RACI documents for your project. Attach them as appendices to a professional, scholarly paper.
Grammar, spelling, punctuation, references, and citations must be consistent with formal academic writing and APA format as expressed in the current edition of the APA manual.
Preparing the paper
All project risks must be identified and added to your Risk Register following the example. Attach them as appendices to a professional, scholarly paper.
The RACI chart must provide the responsibility, accountability, consulted, or informed status for each member of the team for all major project tasks following the RACI example. Attach them as appendices to a professional, scholarly paper.
Ideas and information from professional sources must be cited correctly using the current edition of the APA manual.
Grammar, spelling, punctuation, references, and citations must be consistent with formal academic writing.
NR631 Nurse Executive Concluding Graduate Experience I
Week 8 Assignment
CGE Project Portfolio - Part 1
Purpose
This assignment allows the student to assemble their CGE portfolio with the project management components and activities completed to this point. This assignment will be built upon at the conclusion of the CGE II course to create a complete portfolio.
Course Outcomes
This assignment enables the student to meet the following Course Outcomes (COs):
CO 1: Apply evidence-based leadership skills and concepts in the planning of an executive-level practice change project. (PO 4, 5)
CO 2: Develop an evidence-based foundation to lead organizational change using current knowledge, standards of practice, and research from current literature. (PO 4, 5)
CO 3: Exemplify professional values and scholarship that support the role of a student in a practicum setting during the planning phases of a practice change project. (PO 4)
CO 4: Apply evidence-based fiscal principles that contribute to the creation of a caring environment characterized by high quality, safe, patient-centered care (PO 1, 2, 4, 5)
CO 5: Apply an evidence-based change theory to a project that results in practice change and positive organizational outcomes (PO 1, 2, 5)
CO 6: Assess personal level of nurse executive competencies (PO 3)
Requirements
Complete the portfolio.
Elements of Portfolio
The student is responsible for the development of a CGE portfolio that includes the following elements in the following order.
Project PICOT question
Abstract summary of project topic (approximately 500 words)
Literature review (may be copied and pasted from the Week 3 assignment with revisions as necessary)
Reflection on Course Outcome (CO) achievement
List each CO as a heading in proper APA format.
For each CO, provide a reflective summary of how you feel you have progressed in meeting this outcome through the resources and activities of NR631.
Scholarly application sections of the following (in order) project management tools (may be copied and pasted from those assignments with revisions as necessary)
Project Charter (Week 2)
Project Scope (Week 2)
Communication Plan (Week 4)
Deliverables and CSF (Week 5)
Work Breakdown Structure (Week 6)
Gantt Chart (Week 6)
RACI (Week 7)
Risk Register (Week 7)
The following documents included as separate appendices in the following order
Learning Agreement
Signed (verified) by both student and mentor
Reflective summary of progress through the end of CGE I of progress toward that goal
Signed CGE activity log with a minimum of 72 hours
Project Charter (Week 2)
Project Scope (Week 2)
Communication Plan (Week 4)
Deliverables and CSF (Week 5)
Work Breakdown Structure (Week 6)
Gantt Chart (Week 6)
RACI (Week 7)
Risk Register (Week 7)
Grammar, spelling, punctuation, references, and citations must be consistent with formal academic writing and APA format as expressed in the current edition of the APA manual.
PREPARING THE PAPER
All aspects of the portfolio must be completed.
Ideas and information from professional sources must be cited correctly using the current edition of the APA manual.
Grammar, spelling, punctuation, references, and citations must be consistent with formal academic writing.
