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Final Project Management Plan

  • Post category:Nursing
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Review the project management plan selected and developed in NURS 8502.
Meet with your clinical site to review your project plan for changes.
Review the Learning Resources covering available project management plan options.
The Assignment
Submit your revised and updated final project management plan.
For adult obesity patients (P), does the implementation of a staff education on obesity management (I) as compared to lack of staff education (C) improve Patients enrollment to weight loss program (O) over a period of 6 weeks(T)

Final Project Management Plan

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliations

Final Project Management Plan

One of the crucial phases of project management is planning. During project planning, the project team usually establishes the project scope, defines the project’s objectives, and documents a clear course of action that the project will take (McCaskell et al., 2019). Researchers, including nursing students completing their Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) projects, normally use project management tools to plan for their projects. These tools offer guidelines for accomplishing specific tasks to be accomplished at every stage of the project. It is highly imperative for doctorally-prepared nurses to have an adequate understanding of different types of project management tools, including how they can use those frameworks to plan and accomplish their projects (VanderKooi et al., 2018). DNP nurses should work with their preceptors to select appropriate project management tools and make necessary changes already documented plans. The purpose of this assignment is to present a revised and updated final project management plan that was developed after reviewing the original plan with the help of the preceptor.

Overview of The Proposed Practice Change

Students who are completing their DNP projects must ensure that there is adequate evidence to support the reforms that they are proposing at the practicum site. They utilize a research question to identify the target population, the proposed intervention, a comparison, the intended outcome, and the timeframe for the proposed project (Salmond & Echevarria, 2017). The proposed practice change that will be the focus of the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) project is the implementation of a staff education program on obesity management to improve patients’ enrolment in weight loss programs. The research question that the project will address is that “For adult obesity patients (P), does the implementation of a staff education on obesity management (I) as compared to lack of staff education (C) improve patient’s enrollment to weight loss program (O) over a period of 6 weeks(T)?”

Strategic Project Management Plan

 

Nurses who are taking part in research including DNP nurses can utilize the PDSA worksheet as the project management tool in their DNP projects. The PDSA worksheet guides them to clearly document a plan for testing the proposed change (Plan), conduct the actual tests (Do), observe the outcome and state the lessons learned from it (Study), and make modifications where necessary (Act) (Institute for Healthcare Improvement, 2022). The primary rationale for selecting the PDSA worksheet is that it will direct the DNP nurse and the project team to organize tasks, assess results, make adjustments where necessary, and perform a re-test (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2020). The plan below will give the project team an opportunity to evaluate varied measures based on the project objectives.

‘Plan’ Section: The project team will document the general objective of the project, specific objectives, the action that the team will implement to achieve the named objectives, the steps that the team will execute, members of the project team, measures that the team will use to evaluate the proposed change, and the timeframe for the project. The team will include the following information under the ‘Plan’ section of the PDSA worksheet.

  • General objective of the project: To improve staff knowledge regarding obesity management.
  • Specific objectives:
  1. To train all healthcare providers employed in the facility on obesity management in the next 4 weeks.
  2. To increase the number of obese patients receiving guidance from healthcare providers regarding obesity management by 50% in the next 6 weeks.
  3. To increase the number of obese patients enrolled in weight loss programs to 50% from the current percentage of 0% in the next 6 weeks.
  • The action that the team will implement to achieve the named objectives: Implement the obesity training program with staff employed in the facility.
  • The steps that the team will execute:
  1. Gather training/education resources
  2. Develop a training/education manual
  3. Conduct the actual staff education/training
  • Members of the project team: Principal investigator, nurse educator, nurse practitioner, project manager, and staff.
  • Specific measures that the team will use to evaluate the proposed change:
  1. The level of staff knowledge regarding obesity management.
  2. The number of obese patients receiving guidance from healthcare providers regarding obesity management.
  3. The number of obese patients enrolled in weight loss programs
  • Timeframe: 6 weeks.

‘Do’ Section: The project team will document its observations during the actual training. The team will document nurses’ reactions to the training including things that went as planned, those that did not go according to plan, and challenges/surprises experienced.

‘Study’ Section: The project team will document the project results and compare them with predictions, factors that contributed to the results, lessons learned, and next actions that it is planning to take to improve the situation (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2017).

‘Act’ Section: It is under the ‘Act’ section of the PDSA worksheet that the project team will document any modifications that it needs to make before proceeding to the next cycle. The team will roll out the change if there are no modifications required (Garay et al., 2021). It will also include the specific focus of the next cycle.

Conclusion

The student made minor changes to the original project management plan following a detailed review with the help of the preceptor. Like it was indicated in the original plan, the framework that guided the development of the project management plan in the DNP project is the PDSA Worksheet. As outlined in the plan, the project team will use the PDSA worksheet to break down tasks into four clear steps, evaluate outcomes, make necessary improvements, and test again. The project team will fill out the PDSA worksheet for every test it performs from the start to the end of the DNP project.

References

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (2017). Appendix D. PDSA Worksheet. https://www.ahrq.gov/hai/quality/tools/cauti-ltc/modules/resources/tools/implement/pdsa-worksheet.html

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (2020). Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) directions and examples. https://www.ahrq.gov/health-literacy/improve/precautions/tool2b.html

Garay, B., Erlanson, D., Binstadt, B. A., Correll, C. K., Fitzsimmons, N., Hobday, P. M., Hudson, A., Mahmud, S., Riskalla, M. M., Kramer, S., Xiong, S., Vehe, R. K., & Bullock, D. R. (2021). Using quality improvement methodology and tools to reduce patient wait time in a paediatric subspecialty rheumatology clinic. BMJ Open Quality, 10(4), e001550. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjoq-2021-001550

Institute for Healthcare Improvement. (2022). Tools. http://www.ihi.org/resources/Pages/Tools/default.aspx

McCaskell, D. S., Molloy, A. J., Childerhose, L., Costigan, F. A., Reid, J. C., McCaughan, M., Clarke, F., Cook, D. J., Rudkowski, J. C., Farley, C., Karachi, T., Rochwerg, B., Newman, A., Fox-Robichaud, A., Herridge, M. S., Lo, V., Feltracco, D., Burns, K. E., Porteous, R., Seely, A., … Kho, M. E. (2019). Project management lessons learned from the multi-centre CYCLE pilot randomized controlled trial. Trials, 20(1), 532. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-019-3634-7

Salmond, S. W., & Echevarria, M. (2017). Healthcare transformation and changing roles for nursing. Orthopedic Nursing, 36(1), 12–25. https://doi.org/10.1097/NOR.0000000000000308

VanderKooi, M. E., Conrad, D. M., & Spoelstra, S. L. (2018). An enhanced actualized DNP model to improve DNP project placements, rigor, and completion. Nursing Education Perspectives, 39(5), 299–301. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NEP.000000000000038.