The Capstone Paper is the culminating assignment of your undergraduate-nursing program. In this assignment you will identify a quality improvement practice problem, review
and synthesize evidence-based practice evidence, and propose an evidence-based quality
improvement plan that you will use to address your practice problem.
Capstone Paper Overview
The Capstone Paper is written in sections each week and submitted for grading in two parts.
Capstone Paper: Part I (3-4 pages) includes the Practice Problem; Analysis of Evidence; and Quality
Improvement Process sections that are written during the first three weeks of the course. The
Capstone Paper, Part I will be submitted for grading at the conclusion of Week 3.
For the Week 3 Assignment, you will combine your Week 1, 2 and 3 assignments and submit a 3-4-page paper that addresses the following:
Practice Problem: The patient-centered problem is: To Improve rates for Hospital-Acquired Pressure Ulcers (HAPU)
Practice Problem (Completed in Week 1)
State the practice problem in measurable terms and that reflect quality indicators. Include data that suggests a practice problem exists. Do not use anecdotal experiences or opinions.
Provide a purpose statement including the importance of improving patient outcomes.
Analysis of the Existing Evidence (Completed in Week 2)
Summarize the findings from the evidence analysis that support your practice problem. Include minimum of at least 5 evidence-based practice sources that support your practice problem. Identify research, clinical guidelines, expert opinions, and other relevant information. You must include two-three research studies in your analysis. Using your own words synthesize the evidence that supports your identified practice problem. There should be no quotes or personal opinions included in this section.
Quality Improvement Process (Completed this Week) (Approximately 2-3 paragraphs)
Describe the quality improvement process and the quality model that will be used. This is not your entire quality improvement plan, only a description of the quality improvement process and the quality model you chose. You will develop your specific quality improvement plan in week 4. Include a description of a quality improvement tool(s) that you will use in your quality improvement plan. See Spath, (2018) chapter 6 for examples.
Explain why the specific process was selected and document your explanation with references.
Conclusion