Reflect on which project management tools might be the most appropriate for your practice problem, team, and practice or organizational setting.
The Assignment: (2–3 pages)
Select an appropriate project management tool (for example: a Gantt chart or other tool) to design and plan your proposed practice change. Develop a strategic project management plan related to your practice problem and proposed practice change. Be sure to also include SMART objectives. Be specific.

Note: this is the practice problem that need to be used
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)?”

Project Management Tool Selection and Project Management Plan

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliations

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Project Management Tool Selection and Project Management Plan

Project management tools help healthcare organizations to plan and accelerate change. While some healthcare organizations develop project management tools in the course of their improvement efforts, some of them utilize published frameworks that have worked well for other entities in the past (Institute for Healthcare Improvement, 2022). The project management tool that is the most appropriate for the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) project is the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) Worksheet. The purpose of this assignment is to utilize the PDSA worksheet to describe a strategic project management plan related to the practice problem and the proposed practice change.

Clinical Practice Problem Overview

The clinical practice problem that will be the focus of the proposed project is that 50-60% of patients receiving care at the practicum site are obese. These patients do not engage in weight management activities because they are not getting enough education from healthcare professionals at the site on how to manage obesity. Most nurses have limited knowledge regarding obesity management and are therefore unable to provide proper guidance to patients. Therefore, the proposed practice change 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

Healthcare organizations use the PDSA worksheet to test reforms that they are implementing. They utilize the worksheet to document a clear plan to test the proposed reform (Plan), perform the actual tests (Do), observe and learn from the outcome (Study), and identify what to modify to generate the desired outcomes (Act) (Institute for Healthcare Improvement, 2022). According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (2020), a PDSA worksheet directs project management by helping healthcare organizations to break down tasks into four clear steps, evaluate outcomes, make necessary improvements, and test again. In the proposed DNP project, the project team will fill out the PDSA worksheet below for every test it performs. In this manner, the project team will be able to evaluate varied measures based on the project objectives.

‘Plan’ Section

Under the ‘Plan’ section of the PDSA worksheet, 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, physician, 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

Under the ‘Do’ section of the PDSA worksheet, the project team will document its observations during the actual training. According to Harrison et al. (2021), implementation usually follows planning in various models of change management. 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 take time to analyze results and document resolutions under the ‘Study’ section of the PDSA worksheet. Here, the 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). In project management, it is important for the project team to study whether it met the measures identified in the objectives or not.

‘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 (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2021; Garay et al., 2021). It will also include the specific focus of the next cycle.

Conclusion

The project management tool that is the most appropriate for the proposed project is the PDSA Worksheet. A PDSA worksheet will direct the project team 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 below for every test it performs and make adjustments where necessary in order to achieve the overall goal of the 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

Harrison, R., Fischer, S., Walpola, R. L., Chauhan, A., Babalola, T., Mears, S., & Le-Dao, H. (2021). Where do models for change management, improvement and implementation meet? A systematic review of the applications of change management models in healthcare. Journal of Healthcare Leadership, 13, 85–108. https://doi.org/10.2147/JHL.S289176

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