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Week 1: Professional Capstone and Practicum Documentation

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The Professional Capstone and Practicum course requires students to select a course mentor. This mentor is not a preceptor, but an individual who will guide students as they work to complete the practice immersion hour requirements for this course. Students are not required to "shadow" their mentor.

The course mentor should be someone who can provide professional development knowledge and guidance and who possesses a genuine interest in working with students to further their academic goals.

Selection, approval, and retention of a course mentor must be completed as soon as possible at the start of this course, as this individual will be working with the student on each assignment that incorporates practice immersion hours. Working with a course mentor is mandatory.

Once a course mentor has agreed to serve in the role, you must complete and submit the following required documentation so that practice experiences can begin in a timely manner:

  1. Field Experience Site Information Form

  2. Qualified Mentor/Preceptor Summary Form

  3. Mentor's license, certification, and resume/curriculum vitae

The student is responsible for obtaining all signatures for the paperwork submission. Course faculty will approve all sites and mentors according to student learning needs and specific course objectives

Week 2: Capstone Project Topic Selection and Approval

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In collaboration with your approved course mentor, you will identify a specific evidence-based practice proposal topic for the capstone project. Consider the clinical environment in which you are currently working or have recently worked. The capstone project topic can be a clinical practice problem, an organizational issue, a quality improvement suggestion, a leadership initiative, or an educational need appropriate to your area of interest as well as your practice immersion (practicum) setting. Examples of the integration of community health, leadership, and an EBP can be found on the "Educational and Community-Based Programs" page of the Healthy People 2020 website.

Write a 500-750 word description of your proposed capstone project topic. Make sure to include the following:

  1. The problem, issue, suggestion, initiative, or educational need that will be the focus of the project

  2. The setting or context in which the problem, issue, suggestion, initiative, or educational need can be observed.

  3. A description providing a high level of detail regarding the problem, issue, suggestion, initiative, or educational need.

  4. Impact of the problem, issue, suggestion, initiative, or educational need on the work environment, the quality of care provided by staff, and patient outcomes.

  5. Significance of the problem, issue, suggestion, initiative, or educational need and its implications to nursing.

  6. A proposed solution to the identified project topic

You are required to retrieve and assess a minimum of 8 peer-reviewed articles. Plan your time accordingly to complete this assignment.

Week 3: PICOT Statement Paper 

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Review the Topic Materials and the work completed in NRS-433V to formulate a PICOT statement for your capstone project.

A PICOT starts with a designated patient population in a particular clinical area and identifies clinical problems or issues that arise from clinical care. The intervention should be an independent, specified nursing change intervention. The intervention cannot require a provider prescription. Include a comparison to a patient population not currently receiving the intervention, and specify the timeframe needed to implement the change process.

Formulate a PICOT statement using the PICOT format provided in the assigned readings. The PICOT statement will provide a framework for your capstone project.

In a paper of 500-750 words, clearly identify the clinical problem and how it can result in a positive patient outcome.

Make sure to address the following on the PICOT statement:

  1. Evidence-Based Solution

  2. Nursing Intervention

  3. Patient Care

  4. Health Care Agency

  5. Nursing Practice

Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.

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Week 4: Literature Evalutaion Table 

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In nursing practice, accurate identification and application of research is essential to achieving successful outcomes. Being able to articulate the information and successfully summarize relevant peer-reviewed articles in a scholarly fashion helps to support the student's ability and confidence to further develop and synthesize the progressively more complex assignments that constitute the components of the course change proposal capstone project.

For this assignment, the student will provide a synopsis of eight peer-reviewed articles from nursing journals using an evaluation table that determines the level and strength of evidence for each of the eight articles. The articles should be current within the last 5 years and closely relate to the PICOT statement developed earlier in this course. The articles may include quantitative research, descriptive analyses, longitudinal studies, or meta-analysis articles. A systematic review may be used to provide background information for the purpose or problem identified in the proposed capstone project. Use the "Literature Evaluation Table" resource to complete this assignment.

While APA style is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected, and in-text citations and references should be presented using APA documentation guidelines, which can be found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.

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

You are not required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite.

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Week 6: Literature Review 

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While the implementation plan prepares students to apply their research to the problem or issue they have identified for their capstone change proposal project, the literature review enables students to map out and move into the active planning and development stages of the project.

A literature review analyzes how current research supports the PICOT, as well as identifies what is known and what is not known in the evidence. Students will use the information from the earlier PICOT Statement Paper and Literature Evaluation Table assignments to develop a 750-1,000 word review that includes the following sections:

  1. Title page

  2. Introduction section

  3. A comparison of research questions

  4. A comparison of sample populations

  5. A comparison of the limitations of the study

  6. A conclusion section, incorporating recommendations for further research

Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.

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Week 9: Benchmark - Capstone project Change Proposal 

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In this assignment, students will pull together the change proposal project components they have been working on throughout the course to create a proposal inclusive of sections for each content focus area in the course. At the conclusion of this project, the student will be able to apply evidence-based research steps and processes required as the foundation to address a clinically oriented problem or issue in future practice.

Students will develop a 1,250-1,500 word paper that includes the following information as it applies to the problem, issue, suggestion, initiative, or educational need profiled in the capstone change proposal:

  1. Background

  2. Problem statement

  3. Purpose of the change proposal

  4. PICOT

  5. Literature search strategy employed

  6. Evaluation of the literature

  7. Applicable change or nursing theory utilized

  8. Proposed implementation plan with outcome measures

  9. Identification of potential barriers to plan implementation, and a discussion of how these could be overcome

  10. Appendix section, if tables, graphs, surveys, educational materials, etc. are created

Review the feedback from your instructor on the Topic 3 assignment, PICOT Statement Paper, and Topic 6 assignment, Literature Review. Use the feedback to make appropriate revisions to the portfolio components before submitting.

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Week 10: Benchmark - Professional Capstone and Practicum Reflective Journal

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Students are required to maintain weekly reflective narratives throughout the course to combine into one course-long reflective journal that integrates leadership and inquiry into current practice as it applies to the Professional Capstone and Practicum course.

In your journal, you will reflect on the personal knowledge and skills gained throughout this course. The journal should address a variable combination of the following, depending on your specific practice immersion clinical experiences:

  1. New practice approaches

  2. Intraprofessional collaboration

  3. Health care delivery and clinical systems

  4. Ethical considerations in health care

  5. Population health concerns

  6. The role of technology in improving health care outcomes

  7. Health policy

  8. Leadership and economic models

  9. Health disparities

Students will outline what they have discovered about their professional practice, personal strengths and weaknesses that surfaced, additional resources and abilities that could be introduced to a given situation to influence optimal outcomes, and finally, how the student met the competencies aligned to this course.

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