DNP Draft Problem Statement Exercise Essay Example

This assignment is worth 100 points and is not an APA scholarly paper but a reflective exercise for drafting a healthcare problem statement.
Provide a title page.
Provide in-text citations and a Reference page as appropriate.
Submit the assignment free of grammar, punctuation and spelling errors.

Completing the Assignment:

Download the Draft Problem Statement Exercise. DNP Draft Problem Statement Exercise-2.docx download
Complete the exercise worksheet.
Upload the completed worksheet in the correct Submission area in this Canvas course by the due date on the course calendar.
Notify the Course Coordinator if you have any questions or concerns. Late work is not accepted unless an alternate submission date has been negotiated with the course instructor.

Rubric
DNP Draft Problem Statement Exercise Rubric
DNP Draft Problem Statement Exercise Rubric
Criteria Ratings Pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeAPA 7th Edition Title Page
5 pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomePart 1: Organizing Your Findings
Student had answered worksheet questions fully or indicated with N/A that the question is non-applicable.
17 pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomePart 2: Selecting the Problem and Drafting the Problem Statement.
Student had answered worksheet questions fully or indicated with N/A that the question is non-applicable.
17 pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomePart 3: Writing the Problem Statement
Student had answered worksheet questions fully or indicated with N/A that the question is non-applicable.
17 pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomePart 4: Revising the Problem Statement
Student had answered worksheet questions fully or indicated with N/A that the question is non-applicable.
17 pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomePart 5: Protecting Vulnerable Populations
Student had answered worksheet questions fully or indicated with N/A that the question is non-applicable.
17 pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning Outcome Scholarly writing
Used correct APA 7th Ed Manual formatting. Used correct spelling, punctuation and grammar.    DNP Draft Problem Statement Exercise Essay Example
10 pts
Total Points: 100

Topics of choice

Strategies to Improve Patient Flow in an Urgent Care Facility.
Treatment of hypertension in the urgent care setting.
A Medication Safety Education Program to Reduce the Risk of Harm Caused by Medication Errors.
Evidence-Based Practice Update for Nurse Practitioners in Urgent Care

DNP Draft Problem Statement Exercise: A Medication Safety Education Program to Reduce the Risk of Harm Caused by Medication Errors

PART 1:  Organizing Your Findings

Place your top three ideas from each section of the previous DNP Brainstorming Exercise in the correct areas below. Add lines as needed so that all of your thoughts are on one page.

1. Initial Ideas/thoughts, subjects, topics, and experiences.
   1. Leadership marked by quality improvement and systems thinking.
   2. Patient safety and medication safety as the topmost priorities of care.
   3. Chronic conditions like hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia as some of the conditions requiring polypharmacy and prone to medication errors.
   4. Medication errors committed by nurses are a danger to the safety of patients (Palatnik, 2016).
   5. Medication errors by nurses could be due to the lack of psychological safety at the workplace and stress.
   6. Errors are commonly committed by nurses who are not empowered.
   7. Medication errors are a quality improvement matter.
   8. Any medication errors occurring in the clinical area should be self-reported immediately in order for corrective action to be taken.
   9. I have witnessed instances of medication errors, but none too serious as to cause the patient harm.
   10. Patients can die or get disabled by medication errors such as giving the wrong medication to the wrong patient.
   11. Medication errors can be likened to wrong-site surgeries and therefore qualify as sentinel events (The Joint Commission, 2021).
   12. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) as a regulatory and supervisory body collects data on medication errors from healthcare facilities.
2. Global/National problems
   1. The need for constant quality improvement in healthcare and nursing.
   2. Improving workplace psychological safety to avoid low morale, burnout, and stress among nurses.
   3. Entrenching transformational leadership among nurse leaders in order to prevent medication errors through empowerment.
3. State/Local problems
   1. Aligning the Alabama state Nurse Practice Act with the nursing Code of Conduct and Standards of Practice.
   2. Training sufficient numbers of nurses to bridge the gap in skill set and nursing numbers caused by chronic nurse shortages.
   3. Nurse shortage as a leading cause of medication errors in the healthcare setting.
4. Other problems
   1. Lack of sufficient political goodwill to change healthcare policy and make the administration of medications by nurses safer.
   2. The rampant use of the goal-path theory approach to leadership by nurse leaders as opposed to using the situational approach to leadership exemplified by transformational leadership style (Choi et al., 2016; Phillips & Phillips, 2016).

Next steps:

1. Spend time reviewing and reflecting on the list. Are you seeing similar themes or common interests across populations or healthcare systems?

After reviewing and reflecting on the list, I am indeed seeing common interests and similar themes across healthcare systems and populations. These themes include:

• Preventable errors in medication by nurses
• Medication errors as a QI issue
• Psychological safety at the workplace
• Training and upskilling
• Transformational leadership
• Evidence-based practice (EBP)
• Staff empowerment
• Collective decision making
• Public positive reinforcement for exceptional performance,

PART 2: Selecting the Problem and Drafting the Problem Statement

BUY A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE

2. Select two problems from the list above, add them below and complete the exercise.
3. Poor psychological safety at the workplace
4. Preventable medication errors by nurses

Problem A:                                                                  Problem B

I selected this problem because: Many nurse leaders adopt an authoritarian type of leadership using the path-goal theory. Their word is law and the nurses working under them are terrified and cannot do anything that they have not ordered.	I selected this problem because: The Institute of Medicine (IOM) produced a report in 1999 entitled To Err Is Human (Palatnik, 2016). The report stated that preventable medical errors were a cause of about 98,000 patient deaths annually in the United States alone.
I know it’s a  problem because: The reasons that a majority of nurses give for turnover intention is dissatisfaction at the workplace and lack of empowerment or motivation from the leadership.	I know it’s a  problem because: It puts the lives of patients at risk and affects patient satisfaction as scored by the Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire (Q-LES-Q) tool (Rush et al., 2019).

DNP Draft Problem Statement Exercise Essay Example

3. Now list the Pros and Cons for each problem. Will, it cost a lot to implement?  Can the process be addressed within a four to six-month timeframe?  Do you think you have a supportive person and agency in which to implement a project?

Problem A Pros	Cons	Problem B Pros	Cons
Easily solved by giving responsibility to transformational nurse leaders. Does not cost much, maybe just for recruiting the right nurse managers. The change can be made within 6 months. The organization’s top leadership is supportive of the change process.	It causes high staff turnover. It is a source of low morale among staff. It contributes to burnout. It causes frequent workplace conflicts. It leads t mental health problems like stress and depression. It leads to commission of medication errors by nurses who are stressed up and depressed.	It can be solved by evidence-based interventions such as the use of barcodes, awareness of look-alike sound-alike medications, and counterchecking of prescriptions by another nurse. It does not cost much to implement. The change process can take six months only. The organization is supportive of the change process/ initiative.	It can cause the disability of a patient. It can cause the death of a patient. It can result in malpractice litigation of the nurse involved. It causes reduced patient satisfaction.

4. My final selected problem for my DNP Project is:

The prevention of medication errors committed by nurses through the designing of an effective medication safety educational program for nurses. This program will be included in the orientation program for newly recruited nurses and will also feature at regular intervals in the professional development program of the hospital. To make it official, it will earn continuous education (CE) points for licensure and recertification.  DNP Draft Problem Statement Exercise Essay Example

PART 3: Writing A Problem Statement

Read the questions below and study the exemplars, then write a response for your problem.

1. Start with your lead-in (this will answer a reader’s “why should I care” question):

Patients are often disabled and even killed when nurses make medication errors in the process of administering the prescribed medications for the patient.

2. Next is your declaration or presentation of originality (this will answer a reader’s “so what” question):

The IOM was the first organization to officially sound the alarm on preventable medication errors in 1999 when they released the famous and significant To Err Is Human report. Various other scientific studies have subsequently proven that indeed human error is a significant factor in morbidity and mortality in healthcare settings. It has been concluded that these errors can be prevented through the use of evidence-based strategies which begin by staff empowerment. In the 1999 report by the IOM, they suggested that technology can be one of the solutions to this problem of medication errors. Indeed, at present some of the technological applications such as Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE), Automated Medication Dispensing Cabinets (ADCs), Electronic Medical Record (EMR), and Patient Data Management Systems (PDMS) are greatly cutting down medication errors (Alotaibi & Federico, 2017).

3. Next comes your explanation (this will answer a reader’s “what will we gain from this” question):

Correction of this problem as suggested will reduce the number of sentinel events related to medication errors. This will mean better patient safety, increased patient confidence in the healthcare system, greater patient satisfaction, and fewer malpractice claims against nurses.

4. End with the indication of the central focus (this will answer a reader’s “how so” question):

The change project will aim at educating nurses on the underlying causes of medication errors and how to avoid them. Because some of the underlying causes are beyond the control of the nurses themselves, the project will also involve nurse leaders and the leadership of the healthcare organization.

5. Write your problem statement below:

Medication errors by nurses are a major cause of morbidity, mortality, and disability. They also result in the sanctioning of the nurse involved by both the organization and regulatory bodies. Moreover, the nurse involved may face a malpractice suit that involves monetary compensation as a remedy. These errors are preventable through a well-planned nurse education by resource persons.

PART 4: Revising the Problem Statement

Complete the following questions and statements. Be concise. Write one to two sentences for each item.

1. What is the problem you have identified?

The problem that I have identified is that of medication errors committed by nurses.

2. How do you know it’s a problem?

I know it is a problem because literature has given statistics on the impact of the problem on patients. The IOM for instance stated that by 1999 the number of patent deaths caused by the problem annually in the US was 98,000 (Palatnik, 2016).

3. What population(s) is affected by the problem? Make a list.

• Children
• Adolescents
• Adults
• The elderly

4. How do you know the population is impacted?

I know the population is impacted because the problem of medication errors cuts across all patient demographics.

5. Where (context) does the problem occur?

The problem occurs in all healthcare settings where treatment in terms of drugs is given by nurses after a prescription has been made

References

Alotaibi, Y., & Federico, F. (2017). The impact of health information technology on patient safety. Saudi Medical Journal, 38(12), 1173–1180. https://doi.org/10.15537/smj.2017.12.20631

Choi, S.L., Goh, C.F., Adam, M.B.H., & Tan, O.K. (2016). Transformational leadership, empowerment, and job satisfaction: The mediating role of employee empowerment. Human Resources for Health, 14(1), 73. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-016-0171-2

The Joint Commission (2021). Sentinel event. https://www.jointcommission.org/resources/patient-safety-topics/sentinel-event/

Palatnik, A. (2016). To err is human. Nursing Critical Care, 11(5), 4. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.CCN.0000490961.44977.8d

Phillips, A.S., & Phillips, C.R. (2016). Behavioral styles of path-goal theory: An exercise for developing leadership skills. Management Teaching Review, 1(3), 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1177/2379298116639725

Rush, A.J., South, C.C., Jha, M.K., Grannemann, B.D., & Trivedi, M.H. (2019). Toward a very brief quality of life enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire. Journal of Affective Disorders, 242, 87–95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2018.08.052  DNP Draft Problem Statement Exercise Essay Example