Nursing Theory
The nursing theory that was picked for the current capstone project was the Systems Model of the Action Research Process conceptualized by Kurt Lewin. This is a three-stage model that presupposes that every organizational change could be achieved in three steps: unfreezing, changing, refreezing (Husain et al., 2018). During the unfreezing stage, the team collects all the data and plans for the transformation. The change phase requires the team to engage in action steps and learning processes to instigate the transformation. Through the refreezing stage, the new approach to the given issue is evaluated and measured, with all the data being collected for further potential unfreezing.
Proposed Implementation Plan
The proposed implementation plan requires the team to launch a pressure ulcer prevention campaign and then improve it with the aid of feedback from the pilot program. The team would have to consider local ulcer prevention strategies and see how successful or unsuccessful those were in terms of bringing change (Al Mutair et al., 2020). Another step would be to deploy staff engagement strategies and ensure that the organization’s culture and values are also going to contribute to incremental change. At the unit level, there will be three teams mediating the change process: the implementation team (designing and deploying the project), the wound care team (providing day-to-day care), and the unit-based team (assessing patients and meeting patient care needs). The unit champion will be picked to become a liaison between the three aforementioned units.
Evidence-Based Practice
Based on the evidence on the subject of preventing pressure ulcers, it can be concluded that the proposed educational campaign and a pilot ulcer prevention project are going to transform the practice. According to Gaspar et al. (2019), relevant leadership support would make it possible to focus on stronger support for the equal patient and provider involvement. This means that awareness can be raised, with more stakeholders learning about required policies and procedures. All kinds of feedback have to be gathered in order to remove implementation barriers between units and help improve operations even beyond the given components of the team (Sumarno, 2019). The implementation team is going to have the most control over the deployment process in order to improve resource and responsibility allocation across the organization.
Evaluation of the Proposed Intervention
There are going to be two measures that could help the team evaluate the proposed intervention:
- Incidence of pressure ulcers. This variable is going to be investigated to describe the number of patients who developed pressure ulcers after admission (Sumarno, 2019). Hence, the incidence is going to represent a direct hint at the effectiveness of quality improvement efforts.
- Prevalence of pressure ulcers. This variable has to be assessed because it helps recognize both pre- and post-admission ulcers (Al Mutair et al., 2020). The information on point and period prevalence are necessary to generate a snapshot of the local pressure ulcer burden with no reference to the actual incidence of this health issue.
Potential Barriers
When deploying the current capstone project, the team could face a number of significant challenges, such as the lack of expertise, poor time management, obsolete information technology, and incorrectly allocated responsibilities. To overcome these barriers, the team would have to make the process of deploying the project much more streamlined, having team members access all the relevant information in real-time. All team members will be educated on the topic of pressure ulcer prevention. Valuable tips on information dissemination are going to be provided, helping the team address the risk of pressure ulcers by turning prevention activities into routine practice.
References
Al Mutair, A., Ambani, Z., Al Obaidan, F., Al Salman, K., Alhassan, H., & Al Mutairi, A. (2020). The effectiveness of pressure ulcer prevention programme: A comparative study. International Wound Journal, 17(1), 214-219. Web.
Gaspar, S., Peralta, M., Marques, A., Budri, A., & Gaspar de Matos, M. (2019). Effectiveness on hospital‐acquired pressure ulcers prevention: A systematic review. International Wound Journal, 16(5), 1087-1102. Web.
Hussain, S. T., Lei, S., Akram, T., Haider, M. J., Hussain, S. H., & Ali, M. (2018). Kurt Lewin’s change model: A critical review of the role of leadership and employee involvement in organizational change. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 3(3), 123-127. Web.
Sumarno, A. S. (2019). Pressure ulcers: The core, care and cure approach. British Journal of Community Nursing, 24(Sup12), S38-S42. Web.