DNP Project Workflow

Advanced nursing practice remains vital in bolstering the position of nurses in the clinical environment. In the pursuit of quality improvements in healthcare, Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degrees not only prepare graduates for more effective integration of nursing science into practice but also prepares them for an expanded role in the healthcare space (Wright et al., 2022). DNP projects often mark a culmination of learning advancements and demonstrate the learners’ ability to lead and provide improved patient care: DNP Project Workflow.

Notwithstanding, the success of DNP projects is often pegged on the project’s operationalization and planning. DNP project workflows outline the logical steps that guided and informed the project. This paper outlines the workflow for the DNP project: Implementing a Fall Prevention Tool in a Nursing Care Facility. Implementing the Fall TIPS Tool.

Overview of the Project

The DNP project “Implementing a Fall Prevention Tool in a Nursing Care Facility. Implementing the Fall TIPS Tool” proposed Fall TIPS as a fall prevention tool utilizable in mitigating falls in skilled nursing care facilities. The project was informed by a growing concern about patient falls within the nursing care facility and the need for quality and safety improvement within the care setting.

Fall TIPS is a fall prevention tool that is effective in mitigating hospital falls. As a nurse-led intervention, Fall TIPS demonstrates nurses’ competency in addressing emerging safety concerns within inpatient care. It also shows nurses’ ability to leverage existing hospital resources to optimize the clinical outcomes of the patients (Shao et al., 2023).

Project Workflow

The DNP project integrated the five steps of project workflows: initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, and completion. The project was evaluated after each step to ensure conformance with the project goals and objectives.

Initiation

Initiation is the first step in the project workflow. It involves identifying the task and capturing the objectives. A clear determination of what is supposed to be done in the project enables a seamless workflow (Koolen et al., 2020).

In the DNP project, the initiation stage involved needs assessment and project description. During the needs assessment, the healthcare problem the project was targeting to resolve was identified. In this case, it was established that falls within the nursing care facility was a safety and quality compromise that should be addressed.

The project description phase involved identification of the project interventions, sequential description of the project’s deliverables, and outlining the project’s expected outcomes. In this case, Fall TIPS was identified as a fall prevention tool that would effectively address the identified healthcare problem. Subsequently, a sequential description of the Fall TIPS tool was provided, including the exact intervention that would facilitate its implementation within the skilled nursing care facility.

Its effectiveness, as per literature findings, was also evaluated to ensure a superior fall prevention tool was selected. The phase culminated in the identification of the expected outcomes of the project. These project outcomes guided the operationalization of the project. They also formed the basis for summative and formative evaluation of the project.

Planning

Planning is the second step in the project workflow. It involves task organization and resource allocation. Likewise, timelines for the project are set during planning. Effective planning remains crucial to project implementation as it ensures the set timelines are met.

Likewise, it helps streamline roles and prevent apparent confusion that may result in time wastage. The planning stage also allows the project organizers to forecast, identify, and prepare for possible challenges, as well as set realistic expectations (Loiro et al., 2019). This highlights its significance in DNP projects.

In the DNP project, specific tasks necessary to execute the project were outlined during the planning phase. Foremost, the stakeholders involved in the project were mobilized and educated on the project’s deliverables and their roles. In this respect, staff members at the nursing care facility were notified of the project, and those willing to participate were educated on the Fall TIPS. They were also educated on how they can leverage Fall TIPS to prevent falls within the care setting.

The resources required to execute the project were also identified and allocated. In this case, human and financial resources were mobilized to ensure seamless workflow and execution of the project. Staff members at the skilled nursing care facility were the target audience for the project.

The project planned to meet the human resource needs of the project by recruiting participants from a pool of healthcare providers of the facility. The estimated budget for the project was 45 dollars. The funds were secured during the planning phase.

The timelines for the project were also set during the planning phase. The project was expected to last six weeks. The time would be distributed to cover the recruitment, implementation, and evaluation phases. The project would be successful if the deliverables and outcomes were met within the estimated time frame.

Execution

Execution is the third step in the project workflow. Proper execution requires conformance with the project plans and deliverables (Koolen et al., 2020). Integral to the stage is task completion. In the DNP project, the execution phase involved implementing the Fall TIPS tool in the skilled nursing care facility.

The first step in implementing the project included printing Fall TIPS posters. The posters were then displayed at the bedside of all residents at high risk for falls. The study participants were then educated on how they could utilize the tool to implement a three-step approach to prevent residents from falling. Data was collected continuously during the implementation phase to help evaluate the project, as well as ascertain whether it was meeting its outcomes.

Monitoring

Monitoring is another crucial step in the project workflow. It allows tracking of the project’s progress and informs potential adjustments (Loiro et al., 2019). Continuous monitoring can also help identify possible improvement areas. The DNP project was monitored continuously to ensure its alignment with the plan.

A formative evaluation was performed as a monitoring tool to ensure the project was implemented as planned. Data was collected periodically to check whether the project deliverables and interventions were met and implemented. Likewise, the collected data formed the basis for the summative evaluation of the project.

Completion

The completion step in the workflow concluded the delivery of the project. It involves evaluating the projects’ outcomes against the expected outcomes. In the DNP project, a summative evaluation was done to ensure the project met its objectives.

In this case, Fall TIPS was established to be effective in reducing fall rates within skilled nursing care facilities. Its implementation enhances nurses’ accountability in implementing fall interventions within inpatient care settings.

Evaluation of the Strengths and Weaknesses of the Informatics Tools and Databases Used in the DNP Project

The DNP project utilized diverse databases and informatics tools. These included scholarly databases to support the project’s interventions and operationalizations and data collection tools such as surveys. Reputable scholarly databases formed the source of literature used to back up the study and select the interventions.

PubMed, Cochrane Libraries, and CINAHL were the primary databases used for the project. These databases contain a wide array of biomedical articles and were thus valuable in obtaining information on Fall TIPS and other fall prevention interventions. However, the articles included in the databases were not specific to the study setting.

The informatics tools utilized in the DNP project facilitated data collection and analysis. The strengths of these tools were their ability to capture the experiences of the participants during the implementation phase and subsequently inform improvement areas. They were also valuable in the formative evaluation phase.

Likewise, surveys are time and cost-saving as they enable seamless data collection and analysis. Nonetheless, their narrow scope and possibility of bias are some of their weaknesses. In this case, the surveys were unable to capture the client’s feelings and other environmental factors that may have informed their decision-making processes.

Schematic Representation of the Workflow Process

Conclusion

DNP projects utilize a project’s workflow to optimize their effectiveness. The project management workflow is a five-step process that enables planners to sequentially implement the project. As evident in the project workflow above, integrating a DNP workflow enables it to meet its timelines and the expected outcomes. Utilizing the workflow, the project met its outcomes within the anticipated timelines.

References

Koolen, M., Kumpulainen, S., & Melgar-Estrada, L. (2020). A workflow analysis perspective to scholarly research tasks. Proceedings of the 2020 Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval, 183–192. https://doi.org/10.1145/3343413.3377969

Loiro, C., Castro, H., Ávila, P., Cruz-Cunha, M. M., Putnik, G. D., & Ferreira, L. (2019). Agile project management: A communicational workflow proposal. Procedia Computer Science, 164, 485–490. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2019.12.210

Shao, L., Shi, Y., Xie, X.-Y., Wang, Z., Wang, Z.-A., & Zhang, J.-E. (2023). Incidence and risk factors of falls among older people in nursing homes: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 24(11), 1708–1717. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jamda.2023.06.002

Wright, R., Lee, Y.-J., Yoo, A., McIltrot, K., VanGraafeiland, B., Saylor, M. A., Taylor, J., & Han, H.-R. (2022). Doctor of nursing practice project: Key challenges and possible solutions. Journal of Professional Nursing, 41, 53–57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.profnurs.2022.04.004

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Develop a workflow of your DNP project.

• Write a 5- to 7-page document (excluding the title and reference pages).
• Describe each step of the workflow process and how you incorporated each into your project.
• Provide an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the informatics tools and databases used in the DNP project.
• Develop a schematic or visual representation of the workflow process of your DNP project.
• Support your content with a minimum of three scholarly, peer-reviewed sources external to those assigned for this unit.
  

  DNP Project Workflow