Capstone Project and Research Investigation
Introduction
According to Kirkpatrick and Weaver (2013) the capstone project strives to focus on the practice that is the final project of the students in the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program. The characteristics of the DNP capstone project describe either how a practice issue affects the particular group, population, or community. The project also addresses how knowledge circulates through translation or integration of evidenced-base practice. The capstone project provides a foundation for future scholarship and reflects the student 's understanding of knowledge and expertise. Furthermore, the capstone project addresses the academic product that reflects the student 's involvement (Webb, 2014).
According to Campbell & Benn (2011) a capstone project includes identifying data as a problem in an actual setting and developing the means to address it. A capstone project can either be research-oriented or design-oriented. Resolutions of the project are usually collaborative and can result in the implementation and utilization. Also identifying a clinically significant teaching, learning need supported by the scientific literature is the priority of the capstone project. Individualizing the capstone project include a combination of an academic project with personal experiences, previous nursing knowledge, and newly acquired graduate skills (Cambell & Benn, 2011).
According to Njie-Carr, Cook and Glass (2010) the use of the
As I Reflect over this semester, it is difficult to believe that I am halfway through the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program. The (DNP) program has changed my life considerably by providing me with the tools I need to become successful in my nursing career. My goal in this program is to become the best care provider and nurse educator possible. Acquiring knowledge, technical skills, and examples of the reading assignments continue to help me meet my outcomes in this program. Also, each semester, my experience in writing continues to grow as well as my understanding of the purpose of a scholarly project (Kung, 2012).
Technological advances and genetic discoveries have increased the average individual’s life span. Today’s nurses regularly care for an aging population with a higher incidence of chronic illnesses. People are now living longer and the population is becoming more diverse creating a host of new challenges for nurses. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing has created nine essentials that may be incorporated into any university curriculum to prepare nurses to provide high quality patient care. The third essential discusses the importance of scholarship for evidence-based practice. The term scholarship differs from evidence-based practice. Scholarship involves asking thought provoking questions that may have the potential to better patient outcomes, researching these questions or the topic of interest, collaborating with the healthcare team to successfully incorporate interventions, and continually performing evaluations. Evidence-based practice is vital to quality patient outcomes, may take as long as seventeen years or more to integrate into the hospital setting, is based on numerous scientific research studies, and is best fostered through scholarship. Scholarship
They have to choose a capstone topic which has to be approved by a mentor and endorsed by the specialization chair or the appointed faculty designee. This ensures that they choose topic that is appropriate to their area of specialization. The capstone project proposal has to be approved by the mentor and by the specialization chair or appointed designee. An independent review of the proposed method and data analysis is conducted by the school for the empirical capstone projects. Transitioning learners work with their mentor to develop a capstone project proposal. There is an IRB/ethics review and approval of the capstone project proposal which the learners must complete and submit the application for review and approval. There is also a faculty approval of the completed capstone deliverance and report as well as school approval of the completed capstone deliverance and report. Other dimensions include capstone project planning, proposal development, project implementation and reporting, the final report and the capstone project review. All these dimensions make the project scholarly and of practical benefit to the different professions being
6. There has been a rapid growth in the valve revenues due to the new oil shale discoveries in Louisiana and Texas; therefore it would make it hard to find a false billing scheme because the revenues are rising anyway. In this case, companies are willing to pay a lot of money for a product, making it difficult to find the difference in high dollar invoices between invoices for quick deliveries or for false billing schemes.
In this 21st century, health care is advancing remarkably and achieving various results through research. Research is vital to bring about new inventions, techniques and improvements and create a new body of knowledge. In nursing, research helps to bring about improvements in current practice, knowledge, patient outcomes as well as to create new polices and upgrade the existing ones. For example, a “re-challenge protocol” was created by the researchers to reduce the drug reactions caused by two chemotherapeutic agents. Likewise, numerous research is conducted to improve scientific knowledge in various fields of science. One such knowledge in the field of science is the nursing knowledge.
Hain, D., & Fleck, L. (2014). Barriers to NP Practice That Impact Healthcare Redesign. Online J Issues Nurs, 19(2). Retrieved from http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/833516_print
The rationale for requiring a capstone project is well documented. A culminating assignment provides an opportunity for students to challenge themselves and explore a subject that they are passionate about and may even want to explore as a career option. It is an opportunity for them to synthesize and apply skillsets they have learned over the course of their education and apply them in new and exciting ways to create something of their own. It requires critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration with a mentor and self-management. The process also requires students to utilize and hone the soft skills that are necessary and valued in military service, employment and higher education.
In other words, implications are recommendations derived from the findings of an EBP project or study for future research and for advancement of nursing practice. To meet the challenges of health care, patient safety issues, health professions education, and leadership for nursing practice, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) established the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) as the terminal degree (AACN, 2006). In addition, the AACN recognized that nurses at the DNP level were adept in leadership, clinical practice, information technology and healthcare policy; the challenge was synthesizing nurses’ current expertise with new knowledge gained from DNP programs (Chism, 2016). As a result, the AACN presented the Essentials of Doctoral Education for Advanced Nursing Practice, which, are the “foundational competencies that are core to all advanced nursing practice roles” and required for all graduates of a DNP program regardless of the specialty or area of focus (AACN, 2016, p.8; Chism, 2016). To that end, the PI discussed the eight DNP essentials to make evident its relationship to the EBP change project as well as practice implications for future
A CAPSTONE PROJECT LIKE THE NAME IMPLIES, PROVIDE THE OPPORTUNITY TO INTEGRATE THE THREE BLOCK STUDIES SUMMARIZED IN SINGLE EXTENDED PROJECT IN ORDER TO GIVE FOCUS TO RN/BSN.
I also believe that MacMurray’s nursing program has helped me achieve this outcome by encouraging me to look up recent journal articles for my school work and incorporate this information in the care that I provide to my patients. One project that helped me achieve this outcome was the research paper and poster that I completed for NURS 401. This assignment encouraged me to research a current topic, find evidenced-based information, and determine how the topic could be improved or incorporated into the hospital to improve patient
The practice experience in this class will provide me with a better understanding of the advanced practice nurses role in research and promoting evidenced-based practice (American Sentinel University, 2016). Areas of competency improved by this experience are foundations of nursing informatics, specifically wisdom with evidenced-based practice, nursing informatics practice, in particular, applying current research findings.
To reflect on the recommendation by the IOM and the consensus by American Association of Colleges of Nursing (ANCN) to elevate the educational level for the advanced practice nurses to increase patient healthcare quality, safety, and positive health outcomes are the DNP essentials with healthcare policy and competencies that are relevant to advocacy (Melnyk, 2013). According to Potempa (2011), the DNP essentials are relevant to DNP graduates, as well as the DNP students to be prepared to involve proactively in the healthcare policy preparations and implementation in all system levels. In addition, it prepares the DNP nurses to lead and provide a critical boundary between the research, policy, and practice (Melnyk, B. M. (2013). Therefore, the
The Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) graduates function in the role of transferring the knowledge to practice. This article reports on the development of a DNP-level EBP course to help students evaluate and apply research findings to clinical practice. (Moore, E. R., & Watters, R., 2013). The DNP
Former U.S. Representative for Texas, Solomon Ortiz, once stated “Education is the key to success in life, and teachers make a lasting impact in the lives of their students.” For my capstone project, my team and I chose to develop an application for CBU’s School of Nursing. Our capstone project attempts to prove Ortiz correct by providing CBU’s Nurse Practitioner students with an educational application that prepares them for success in their health care environment and providing CBU’s Nurse Practitioner professors with the tools to make lasting impacts on their students. To make the utmost impact, our capstone team began by carefully eliciting the requirements from the head professors of CBU’s Nurse Practitioner program. After elicitation
Hector although a young man he only had a few close friends. One of the reasons being that because his family were immigrants, his family had moved a lot in search of greener pasture. Searching for greener pasture being one of the number one reasons people migrate to in Hector's family which was moving from Mexico to the United States made him lose a lot of the friends he had growing up. Migration is considered as one of the major life events which often involves profound changes including a disruption of well-established relationships. It challenges the adaptive capacity of the families collectively and each of their members individually (Roebers et Schneider, 1999 P 125). Although it is common that when a lot of people migrate to other countries they automatically lose the ties they had and are forced to start afresh, it is often hard for most people to adjust.