To Prepare
• Review your work on your practice problem throughout the course, reflecting specifically on your meetings with your preceptor and team.
• Consider the impact of how a practice change may impact your healthcare organization or nursing practice in addressing the practice problem.
• Reflect on your role as a nurse leader in promoting and supporting a proposed practice change.
By Day 3 of Week 10
Post a response detailing the impact of the practice problem you initially identified. Be specific. Now that a practice change has been proposed and implemented, describe the lasting impact of this practice change on your healthcare organization or nursing practice. Be specific and provide examples. What value have you found in making this practice change, meeting with your preceptor, and leading a team?
NB: please do not put physician as a stakeholder instead put Nurse Practitioner.
Impact of the Problem
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliations
Impact of the Problem
Clinical practice problems usually have direct impacts on healthcare quality and patient safety. Nurse practitioners have the responsibility of identifying reforms that when implemented will result in an improvement of a practice problem in their practice settings (Lamb et al., 2018). In the practice setting, limited staff education on obesity management is associated with the lack of proper patient education regarding disease management after obesity diagnosis. This is preventing patients from enrolling in weight loss programs. The research question that the practice change aimed to answer 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)?” The purpose of this assignment is to describe the impacts of both the practice problem and the implemented change on the organization and to discuss the value of making the change, working with the preceptor, and collaborating with teams.
Impact of the Practice Problem
The lack of patient education on obesity management after disease diagnosis is linked to huge financial losses for the organization. Due to limited staff knowledge regarding obesity management, nurses are unable to provide proper direction to obesity patients at the time of diagnosis regarding how best they can manage their conditions (Osmundsen et al., 2019). As a result, 50-60% of patients receiving care at the practicum site are obese and the facility must provide resources for treating them every time they visit. For instance, the organization ensures that there are adequate healthcare professionals to attend to the patients and that enough drugs are available to be prescribed to the patients. Moreover, the increased workload caused by a high number of patients is putting a strain on the nurses (Okunogbe et al., 2021). An intervention that strengthens patients’ self-care management skills will help to address the clinical practice problem.
Lasting Impact of the Practice Change on the Organization
It is the responsibility of nurse practitioners to promote change sustainability by preventing the organization from falling back into its past ways. The implemented change concerning staff education about obesity management caused positive impacts on the healthcare organization and nursing practice. For instance, it improved nursing practice by enabling nurses to educate patients about obesity management at the time of diagnosis. With such education, patients are now enrolling in weight loss programs at a rapid rate (Osmundsen et al., 2019). Nurse practitioners can promote sustainability by advising the organization to either hire additional nurses to work with patients or to integrate telehealth into healthcare delivery to promote patient engagement at home (Salmond & Echevarria, 2017). In the long run, the healthcare organization will minimize healthcare costs and reduce the workload for nurses.
The Value Found in Making the Practice Change, Meeting with the Preceptor, and Leading a Team
Nurses in their Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) programs should work with teams and collaborate with their preceptors to ensure successful change implementation. Making the practice change created value by enabling the nurse practitioner to recognize her roles and capabilities in influencing change in a clinical practice setting (Salmond & Echevarria, 2017). Additionally, the preceptor offered direction, and working with teams promoted interdisciplinary collaboration and speedy completion of tasks (Lamb et al., 2018).
Conclusion
Nurse practitioners act as change agents in their organizations by influencing reforms that improve patient outcomes and promote organizational efficiency. The rise in the number of obese patients due to limited staff knowledge regarding obesity management caused negative impacts on the healthcare organization and nursing practice. Therefore, implementing staff education on obesity management improved self-care management skills among obese patients thereby minimizing healthcare costs and reducing workload for nurses.
References
Lamb, A., Martin-Misener, R., Bryant-Lukosius, D., & Latimer, M. (2018). Describing the leadership capabilities of advanced practice nurses using a qualitative descriptive study. Nursing Open, 5(3), 400–413. https://doi.org/10.1002/nop2.150
Okunogbe, A., Nugent, R., Spencer, G., Ralston, J., & Wilding, J. (2021). Economic impacts of overweight and obesity: current and future estimates for eight countries. BMJ Global Health, 6(10), e006351. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-006351
Osmundsen, T.C., Dahl, U. & Kulseng, B. (2019). Enhancing knowledge and coordination in obesity treatment: a case study of an innovative educational program. BMC Health Services Research, 19, 278. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-019-4119-9
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