In NURS-460, you will be assigned to a specific floor/ unit in a hospital and get real-world experience. Part of that real-world experience is identifying a problem or an area that needs improvement and coming up with a solution.
If you remember from NURS-450, you went over creating a PICO(T) question and the different types of nursing research that is out there. You will now take those same lessons and apply them to an idea that you have for improving your unit. In NURS-460, you will present your change project and do a poster presentation on your proposed intervention or implementation for your unit.
Before you start your research, there are a couple of things you need to do!
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Some professors will require a matrix, others may not. At the end of the day, using a literature review matrix will make it easier for you to keep track of your research and summarizing the main points from the research articles. Plus, it also allows you to see if your articles meet the research requirements.
When filling out the matrix, you will see a theoretical or conceptual framework. Remember learning about the various nursing theorists and their work in NURS 215? If a particular theory is mentioned in your article, you will write this down in the theoretical framework section. More often than not, nursing research articles will not mention a theory that their research is based around. What most nursing research articles do is base their research around a bigger picture or idea- this is known to be the conceptual framework. So if a research article is addressing CAUTI interventions and addresses how they are avoidable and can decrease the length of stay, the conceptual framework would be that CAUTIs are preventable and there are numerous ways to decrease them. This is just a very quick and brief example.
This is really important! Before you start to do any research, you need to have your topic and PICO(T) approved by both your NURS-460 professor and nurse educator/ manager. They will give you an idea of a direction you can go in and if your idea is realistic. Plus, having a topic and PICO(T) will make it much easier to start researching!
In addition to your clinicals, this class, other courses, studying, eating, sleeping and well, life... you do not have time to conduct original research. For this capstone, you will be relying on others' research to support your PICO(T) and intervention.
You will see in your capstone requirements that you need five (5) articles. This is specifically for the literature review section of your capstone. These articles must be original research on the use/ efficacy of your intervention or support the need of your intervention. This is where you will want to find those quantitative and qualitative research articles- look back at your notes from NURS-450 if you need a refresher.
If you find a literature review that sums up the best practices for the intervention, look at the reference list or bibliography. See if there are any research articles you could use instead of the literature review. These articles must meet the following criteria: written by a nurse, written for a nursing audience and published in a nursing journal. If it does not meet all three criterion, you cannot use it in your literature review section.
In addition to researching your intervention, you will also need to find support information for your introduction and background sections. Providing this information will not only make you more knowledgeable about your topic but also sets the stage for introducing your intervention. For the introduction and background sections, the information provided here can come from anywhere- books, websites, summary or best-practices articles, articles from trade journals, etc. Just make sure that you evaluate the information before using it in your paper!
In addition to proposing an intervention, you also need to address how you would implement your intervention on your unit. This is a requirement for your paper.
Fortunately, your professors have required you to use Lewin's Change Theory for implementing your intervention. Who is Lewin and what is his theory? Check out Petiprin, A. (n.d.). Lewin's Change Theory. Nursing Theory. https://nursing-theory.org/theories-and-models/lewin-change-theory.php.
Use the unfreezing, change and refreezing steps to discuss the implementation on your unit.