Walden NURS6231 Assignments Latest 2021 MAY (Full)

NURS6231 Healthcare Systems and Quality Outcomes

Week 1 Journal  

Personal Improvement Project Topic

The aim of the Personal Improvement Project is to experiment with a small change that is under your personal control; collect, analyze, and interpret data; and then reflect on what you have learned from your project about the general challenge of changing something. Through this multi-week project, you will see how the quality improvement process works in general and familiarize yourself with the tools used for healthcare QI. For this Journal, you will select and describe your Personal Improvement Project topic.

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To Prepare:

Review the Neuhauser, Mhyre, and Alemi (2004) workbook in the Learning Resources. The workbook includes topic ideas, the general process to follow, and example charts.

Select an area for personal improvement. For your project, you will need to initiate a change and then collect data to see whether you have improved. Some general examples are exercise and time management. Note that in Week 3 you will share your progress on this project with colleagues in Discussion, so please choose a topic that you are comfortable sharing.

Based on the topic area, determine the aim or goal of your project. What would you like to accomplish? How will you know that you have improved?

Journal (1 page)

Describe the topic and aim of your Personal Improvement Project. Explain why this improvement area is important to you and what you expect to gain from the data you will collect.

NURS6231 Healthcare Systems and Quality Outcomes

Week 2 Journal  

Personal Improvement Project Outline

Before engaging in any given project, it is helpful to have a plan. An outline allows you to map out the steps of your project and foresee any challenges you may experience along the way. It also can serve as a checkpoint. As you are collecting and analyzing your data in later weeks, you may want to return to your outline and check that you are addressing what you had intended. For this Journal, you will create an outline of your Personal Improvement Project to guide you both in carrying out the project and in synthesizing the results for your Module 1 Assignment.

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To Prepare:

Download the Project Outline Template from the Learning Resources.

Journal (1 page)

Using the Project Outline Template, develop an initial outline of your Personal Improvement Project that addresses each part of the Assignment.

NURS6231 Healthcare Systems and Quality Outcomes

Week 4 Journal  

Medical Errors

Not all medical errors carry extreme consequences like those described in this week’s introduction, but they are harmful just the same. Most people have experienced some form of medical error. For example, perhaps you were prescribed a medication that interfered with another of your medications. Perhaps you received an inaccurate diagnosis that led to unnecessary testing or prolonged discomfort. For this Journal, you reflect on an experience you had with a medical error and explore tools that could have assisted in prevention.

Assignments

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Journal (1 page)

Describe a time when you experienced a medical error as a student, practicing nurse, patient, or family member. Be sure to explain the circumstances of the error, as well as the quality and safety methods and tools that could have helped prevent the error. Be specific and provide examples.

NURS6231 Healthcare Systems and Quality Outcomes

Week 6 Assignment   

Personal Improvement Project Report

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For this week, you will begin work on your Module 1 Assignment, which will be due in Week 6.

Suppose you wanted to improve something about yourself and your behaviors. Let’s take the example of lowering caffeine intake. How would you begin? According to the principles of CQI, you would approach it in an analytical manner. You would examine the reasons for your caffeine use and begin to track consumption, noting the amount you take in, the times of day, and the physical and mental effects. You would then attempt to reduce the intake and continue to track all the same points. Then you would consider the data you have gathered and whether you succeeded in your aim.

For your Module 1 Assignment, you will go through these steps with a personal improvement topic of your choosing. You will then write a report summarizing the data and process you followed and applying what you’ve learned to a healthcare context.

The Assignment (4–5 pages, not counting tables, graphs, diagrams, and charts):

Part 1: Aim

Clearly state the aim of your project.

Part 2: Process Analysis

Consider the process leading to the results that you aimed to improve. Create a process map to identify the steps in the process and identify the people (other than you) who were involved in the process.

Part 3: Measurement

Describe the data collection method used, including an explanation of what you measured and how. Be specific.

Present the data in a table, graph, diagram, run chart, or XmR chart.

Part 4: Changes

There is a saying, “Not all change leads to improvement, but all improvement leads to change.” Explain the changes you made based on the data. What worked? What didn’t work?

Part 5: Reflection and Application

Reflect on your Personal Improvement Project and what you learned.

Explain how you will maintain ongoing improvement in this area long-term.

Explain how you could use knowledge from this experience to facilitate both a unit-level and an organization-level change in a nursing workplace. Be specific and provide examples. 

NURS6231 Healthcare Systems and Quality Outcomes

Week 8 Assignment   

Quality Dashboard

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For this week, you will begin work on your Module 2 Assignment, which will be due in Week 8.

To Prepare:

Review the Community General Hospital Case Study presented in the Learning Resources.

Complete the Week 7 Discussion in which you research quality and safety measures and select 6–8 measures for inclusion in a dashboard for the Community General Hospital Board.

Review any feedback received in Discussion about your chosen measures.

Determine how you will display the measures in your dashboard.

Assignment

Part 1: Dashboard

Using Microsoft Excel or PowerPoint, create a quality dashboard based on the Community General Hospital Case Study. Your dashboard must include 6–8 measures. Use mock data to represent the measures you have chosen.

Part 2: Written Summary

To accompany your dashboard, write a 2- to 3-page paper in which you do the following:

Identify the 6–8 quality measures you have chosen for your dashboard.

Explain why these measures are important to the organization.

Analyze how the Triple Aim/Quadruple Aim is represented in your chosen measures.

Explain how you displayed the measures. Justify your choice of display.

Provide a strategy for communicating the dashboard throughout the organization.

Explain how the dashboard could be used as a leadership tool to improve patient outcomes.

NURS6231 Healthcare Systems and Quality Outcomes

Week 10 Assignment   

Innovation Presentation

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You have likely looked around your healthcare organization at some point and identified a problem. Perhaps you have said, “There must be an easier way,” or “That process just doesn’t make sense.” The issue may not have been addressed, due to time or money constraints—or due to legacy thinking about the right way to perform the function.

The good news is that healthcare develops at a rapid pace. By looking at the research landscape, nurse executives can identify tested innovations that may provide novel solutions for lingering organizational problems.

For this Assignment, you seek out innovations to address a workplace problem, and you pitch that innovation to colleagues at a staff meeting.

To Prepare:

Identify a systems or organizational performance problem in your current or previous workplace that may be helped by an innovation.

Search in the library databases for articles on healthcare innovations that may address the problem you have identified.

Select at least three research articles to use for this Assignment.

Use the PowerPoint template in the Learning Resources to complete this Assignment.

The Assignment (8- to 10-slide narrated PowerPoint presentation with speaker’s notes; no longer than 10 minutes)

Imagine that you are presenting on the identified problem at a staff meeting in your current or past workplace. For the meeting, develop an evidence-based narrated PowerPoint presentation to support application of an innovation drawing from the ones you have researched.

Your narrated presentation should be 8–10 slides long and include speaker’s notes. The narration should be no longer than 10 minutes. In your presentation, address the following: 

In your presentation, address the following:

Describe the problem you have identified and why it is important to address. Be specific.

Synthesize the three research articles you read and summarize the takeaways you can apply to your proposed innovation.

Explain your proposed innovation and how it would address the systems or organizational problem you have identified. Be specific and provide examples.

Describe the potential impact of the innovation on patient experience and outcomes. Be specific.

Explain how you would apply the innovation in the workplace, based on the research.

With the exception of?a title slide and reference slide, each slide should contain?speaker’s notes and voiceover narration that reflect what you would say were you to?give a live presentation.