As a foundation for engaging in scholarly writing, the nurse leader-manager or nurse informaticist must be able to engage in critical thinking and anticipate the needs, questions, and concerns of the intended audience. A scholarly writer must be able to craft a paper that demonstrates clarity, specificity, fairness, relevance, and consistency (Dexter, 2000).

As you reflect on the development of your Practicum Project Plan, take some time to consider how you will communicate your proposal objectively yet persuasively.

To prepare:

• Review the information in the Practicum Project Plan (PPP) Overview document introduced in Week 3. The overview describes the components that must be included in your plan.
• Reflect on the development of your Practicum Project Plan thus far. Address any questions you have and/or identify areas in need of further consideration or improvement.
• Develop any outstanding components of your Practicum Project Plan. For instance, you may need to continue your review of literature that justifies your project and create your project timeline.
• Review the information on scholarly writing in this week’s Learning Resources; be sure to integrate these principles as you develop your Practicum Project Plan.
• If you posted a draft of Practicum Project Plan in this week’s optional Discussion, incorporate, as appropriate, feedback you received from your colleagues.

To complete the Practicum Project Plan:

Write a 4- to 6-page scholarly paper that includes the following:

• Title
• Introduction
• Goal statement
• Project objectives
• Evidence-based review of the literature for project justification
• Methodology
• Resources
• Formative evaluation
• Summative evaluation
• Timeline
• Reference
• FOLLOW RUBRIC, USE HEADINGS, HAVE REFERENCES, DO LITERATURE REVIEW, USE THE MATIERIALS PROVIDED.  BE ON TIME

Develop a population health improvement plan, based on your evaluation of the best available demographic, environmental, and epidemiological data, that focuses on your diagnosis of a widespread population health issue.

Part of effectively engaging in evidence-based practice is the ability to synthesize raw health data with research studies and other relevant information in the literature. This will enable you to develop sound interventions, initiatives, and outcomes to address health concerns that you find in data during the course of your practice.

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In this assessment, you have an opportunity to evaluate community demographic, environmental, and epidemiological data to diagnose a widespread population health issue, which will be the focus of a health improvement plan that you develop.

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:

• Competency 2: Apply evidence-based practice to design interventions to improve population health.
  • Evaluate community demographic, epidemiological, and environmental data to diagnose widespread population health issues.
  • Develop an ethical health improvement plan to address a population health issue within a community.
• Competency 3: Evaluate outcomes of evidence-based interventions.
  • Propose criteria for evaluating population health improvement plan outcomes.
• Competency 4: Evaluate the value and relative weight of available evidence upon which to make a clinical decision.
  • Justify the value and relevance of evidence used as the basis of a population health improvement plan.
• Competency 5: Synthesize evidence-based practice and academic research to communicate effective solutions.
  • Develop a strategy for communicating with colleagues and members of the community in an ethical, culturally sensitive, and inclusive way.
  • Integrate relevant and credible sources of evidence to support assertions, correctly formatting citations and references using APA style.
• Toggle Drawer  Questions to Consider
  As you prepare to complete this assessment, you may want to think about other related issues to deepen your understanding or broaden your viewpoint. You are encouraged to consider the questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work associate, an interested friend, or a member of your professional community. Note that these questions are for your own development and exploration and do not need to be completed or submitted as part of your assessment.
  Recall an experience you have had working with a population, or as part of a community health improvement initiative, or a time in your care setting that you observed this type of work within your organization or community.
  • How were data and information about the community incorporated into the work?
    • Was the diversity of culture and beliefs in the community taken into account?
    • Were other, secondary, health concerns of the community also taken into account?
    • Were the economic and daily environmental realities of the community taken into account?
  • What, if any, ethical issues were considered in working with specific groups and stakeholders in the community?
  • What suggestions might you offer for doing things differently, if you could revisit that work?
    • Would you set different goals?
  • What evidence would you present to support your recommendations?
• Toggle Drawer  Resources
  Suggested Resources
  The resources provided here are optional. You may use other resources of your choice to prepare for this assessment; however, you will need to ensure that they are appropriate, credible, and valid. The MSN-FP6011 – Evidence-Based Practice for Patient-Centered Care and Population Health Library Guide can help direct your research, and the Supplemental Resources and Research Resources, both linked from the left navigation menu in your courseroom, provide additional resources to help support you.
  Evidence-Based Practice
  • Cabassa, L. J., Stefancic, A., O’Hara, K., El-Bassel, N., Lewis-Fernández, R., Luchsinger, J. A., . . . Palinkas, L. A. (2015). Peer-led healthy lifestyle program in supportive housing: Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Trials, 16, 388–401.
  • Dombrowski, J. J., Snelling, A. M., & Kalicki, M. (2014). Health promotion overview: Evidence-based strategies for occupational health nursing practice. Workplace Health & Safety, 62(8), 342–9, 350.
  • Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing & Health Sciences.
  • Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing & Health Sciences: Review Levels of Evidence.
  • The Joint Commission. (2016). Health care leaders meet, address health care disparity. Retrieved from www.jointcommission.org/health_care_leaders_meet_address_health_care_disparity_/
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•  Assessment Instructions
  Preparation
  Your organization is undertaking a population health improvement initiative focused on one of the pervasive and chronic health concerns in the local community. Examples of health improvement initiatives include nationwide concerns, such as type 2 diabetes, HIV, obesity, and Zika. However, your organization has asked you to determine which widespread health concern should be addressed in a population health improvement plan for the community in which you practice and has entrusted you with gathering and evaluating the relevant data.
  Requirements
  Note: The requirements outlined below correspond to the grading criteria in the scoring guide, so be sure to address each point. In addition, you may want to review the performance level descriptions for each criterion to see how your work will be assessed.
  Data Evaluation
  Evaluate community demographic, epidemiological, and environmental data.
  • Identify the relevant data.
  • Describe the major community health concerns suggested by the data.
  • Explain how environmental factors affect the health of community residents.
  • Health Improvement Plan
    Develop an ethical health improvement plan that effectively addresses the population health concern that you identified in your evaluation of the relevant data.
  • Base your plan on the best available evidence from a minimum of 3–5 current scholarly or professional sources.
    • Apply correct APA formatting to all in-text citations and references.
    • Attach a reference list to your plan.
  • Ensure that your plan meets the cultural and environmental needs of your community and will likely lead to some improvement in the community’s health related to this concern.
    • Consider the environmental realities and challenges that exist in the community.
    • Address potential barriers or misunderstandings related to the various cultures prevalent in the community.
  • Justify the value and relevance of the evidence you used as the basis of your plan.
    • Explain why the evidence is valuable and relevant to the community health concern you are addressing.
    • Explain why each piece of evidence is appropriate and informs the goal of improving the health of the community.
  • Propose relevant and measurable criteria for evaluating the outcomes of your plan.
    • Explain why your proposed criteria are appropriate and useful measures of success.
  • Explain how you will communicate with colleagues and members of the community, in an ethical, culturally sensitive, and inclusive way, with regard to the development and implementation of your plan.
    • Develop a clear communications strategy mindful of the cultural and ethical expectations of colleagues and community members regarding data privacy.
    • Ensure that your strategy enables you to make complex medical terms and concepts understandable to members of the community, regardless of language, disabilities, or level of education.
  • Note: Faculty may use the Writing Feedback Tool when grading this assessment. The Writing Feedback Tool is designed to provide you with guidance and resources to develop your writing based on five core skills. You will find writing feedback in the Scoring Guide for the assessment, once your work has been evaluated.

Grading Rubrik

1. Evaluate community demographic, epidemiological, and environmental data to diagnose widespread population health issues.

Passing Grade: Evaluates community demographic, epidemiological, and environmental data in the diagnosis of a widespread population health issue. Identifies knowledge gaps, unknowns, missing information, unanswered questions, or areas of uncertainty (where further information could improve the evaluation).

2. Develop an ethical health improvement plan to address a population health issue within a community.

Passing Grade: Develops an ethical health improvement plan to address a population health issue within a community, and identifies assumptions on which the plan is based.

3. Justify the value and relevance of evidence used as the basis of a population health improvement plan.

Passing Grade: Justifies the value and relevance of evidence used as the basis of a population health improvement plan, and impartially considers conflicting data and other perspectives.

4) Propose criteria for evaluating population health improvement plan outcomes.

Passing Grade: Proposes criteria for evaluating population health improvement plan outcomes, and explains why other possible criteria were considered and rejected.

5) Develop a strategy for communicating with colleagues and members of the community in an ethical, culturally sensitive, and inclusive way.

Passing Grade: Develops a strategy for communicating with colleagues and members of the community in an ethical, culturally sensitive, and inclusive way; acknowledges potential difficulties and how those challenges will be met.

6) Integrate relevant and credible sources of evidence to support assertions, correctly formatting citations and references using APA style.

Passing Grade: Integrates relevant and credible sources of evidence to support assertions, correctly formatting citations and references using APA style. Citations are error-free.

Assignment: Looking Ahead: Application Assignment Net Revenue and Budgeting

You will begin this assignment in Week 4 and it will be due by Day 7 of Week 5.

No one can predict the future, but accountants and financial managers must try and do exactly that!  By examining net revenue, costs, and cash flow, you can get a clearer picture of what to expect in your organization’s (or one with which you are familiar) fiscal future. Using these metrics to look forward will enable you to more effectively plan budgets that accomplish organizational goals.

When developing a budget, what variables do you have to take into account? In health care organizations, two of the largest groups of factors that you must consider are first, volume, and second, staffing and supply. The number of patients and tests performed each day, as well as employees and their pay rates are all crucial pieces of information when determining a budget.

In this Assignment, you address five scenarios: net revenue, fixed and variable costs, cash flow, volume budget, and staffing and supplies budget.

Note: For those Assignments in this course that require you to perform calculations you must:

• Use the Excel spreadsheet template for the Week 5 assignment.
• Show all your calculations and formulas in the spreadsheet.
• Answer any questions included with the problems (as text in the Excel spreadsheet).

 

A title and reference page are NOT needed in this assignment.  Put your name and assignment at the top of the Excel spreadsheet.

For those not comfortable with the use of Microsoft Excel, this week’s Optional Resources suggest several tutorials.

To prepare:

• Review the information in this week’s Learning Resources regarding net revenue, fixed and variable costs, and cash flow, and how they are used in financial decision making.
• Review the budgeting information in Week 5 Learning Resources dealing with volume, staffing, and supplies budget.
• View the following tutorial videos, provided in this week’s Learning Resources.
  • Week 5 Application Assignment Tutorial: Cash Flow Scenario
  • Week 5 Application Assignment Tutorial: Fixed Variable Scenario
  • Week 5 Application Assignment Tutorial: Net Revenue Scenario
  • Week 5 Application Assignment Tutorial: Staffing and Supply Budget Scenario
  • Week 5 Application Assignment Tutorial: Volume Budget Scenario

• Use the Week 5 Application Assignment Template, provided in this week’s Learning Resources, to complete this assignment. Carefully examine the information in each of the scenarios and provide the necessary calculations. Using this information will help you answer the questions.

Note: All the scenarios will be submitted as one document.  Each scenario will be on a different tab in the spreadsheet.

Scenario 1: Net Revenue Scenario

Your clinic provides four kinds of services:

• Comprehensive initial medical consultation is priced at $250
• Established patient limited visit is priced at $75
• Established patient intermediate visit is priced at $125
• Established patient comprehensive visit is priced at $250

Question: The profile of your patients is such that the average collection rate is 75%. Assuming you have 100 visits of each type each month, what amount of new revenue will you generate in the next 12 months?

Scenario 2: Fixed/Variable Cost Scenario

You have performed a cost analysis of your health care organization and have determined the following: based on the latest three years of information, your annual cost of operations is $1,600,000 with annual volume of 10,000 procedures. You have determined that certain of your supply items are fixed in nature (those marked with an F) while others are variable (marked with a V).

Question: An insurance company that is considering directing its 1,000 units per year of procedure business to your organization has approached you. For the last three years, you have been charging a price of $165 per procedure (with a 100% collection rate). Your board has mandated that you make $5 of profit from each of the procedures. You obviously want the highest possible price, but as you enter the negotiations, what is the lowest possible price you would be willing to accept from this payer?

Hint: Calculate the variable cost.

Scenario 3: Cash Flow Scenario

Your new business venture will begin operation on July 1, 20X2. You will hire staff effective January 1, 20X2 with a cost of $40,000 per month. You know from experience that collections lag billing by 3 months (in other words, once you bill for a service, you must wait 90 days for the payment to be received.) Your business volume is projected to be as follows:

Question: If you have $380,000 of cash on hand on January 1, 20X2, how much cash will you have at the end of June 20X3?  Assume a 100% collection rate.

Scenario 4: Volume Budget Scenario

You manage lab services in a large hospital. You have the following data on both the hospital’s budgeted patient days and visits for budget year 20XX along with the ratio of lab tests to patient days or visits.

Question: Based on this raw data provided , how many lab tests would you anticipate for the coming budget year? If each test is priced at $20.00, how much gross revenue would you budget? Assuming each full-time lab technician (FTE) can perform 200,000 tests each year, how many full-time lab technicians would you plan for?

Example on Template: 2 North Bldg calculated.  You will need to complete 2 South Bldg, ICU and OPD

Scenario 5: Staffing and Supply Budget Scenario

Calculate the supplies budget necessary to operate your unit for the fiscal year beginning January 1, 20X8. It is your expectation that you will perform 24,820 procedures in the budget year. The following spending data is available for the period January 1 to March 31, 20X7 during which time procedure volume amounted to 3,240. Items marked (F) are considered fixed, those marked (V) are considered variable. Inflation is planned at 4%.

In reviewing performance to date, you note that in January, you purchased $150,000 of D5W fluid replacement charged to IV solutions, which represents an entire year’s supply. In addition, you returned $2,800 of office supplies for credit from the vendor in Febuary. These supplies were purchased in a previous fiscal year.

You also need to prepare the salary budget for the same fiscal year. You have determined that staff needs are for 6.5 FTEs.

A pay raise will be given to all staff on October 1st of each year at a rate of 8 percent. In making your calculations, always round to the nearest whole dollar for annual salary amounts, but keep pennies in the hourly pay rates. New staff begins the new fiscal year at $16.00 per hour.

This Assignment will be due by Day 7 of Week 5. Be sure and include all of your calculations.

Legal and Ethical Considerations for Group and Family Therapy

Considering the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA), the idea of discussing confidential information with a patient in front of an audience is probably quite foreign to you. However, in group and family therapy, this is precisely what the psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner does. In your role, learning how to provide this type of therapy within the limits of confidentiality is essential. For this Discussion, consider how limited confidentiality and other legal and ethical considerations might impact therapeutic approaches for clients in group and family therapy.

Learning Objectives

Students will:

· Compare legal and ethical considerations for group and family therapy to legal and ethical considerations for individual therapy

· Analyze the impact of legal and ethical considerations on therapeutic approaches for clients in group and family therapy

· Recommend strategies to address legal and ethical considerations for group and family therapy

To prepare:

· Review this week’s Learning Resources and consider the insights they provide on group and family therapy.

Ø Write:

Ø An explanation of how legal and ethical considerations for group and family therapy differ from those for individual therapy.

Ø Then, explain how these differences might impact your therapeutic approaches for clients in group and family therapy.

Ø Support your rationale with evidence-based literature.

For this assignment, you will utilize the CSU Online Library to find a peer-reviewed article regarding health disparities and/or the social determinants of health. Write a review of the article that includes the following information:

Briefly introduce and summarize the article.

Identify the author’s main points.

Who is the author’s intended audience?

Were any specific issues addressed in the article?

What were they?

How does the information in the article apply to this course?

Does it support the information in your textbook?

How could the author expand on the main points?

The article must be at least three to five pages in length, not including the title and reference pages, and must be no more than five years old. The article used must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations. The assignment must be formatted using APA style.