• Define a patient, family, or population health problem that’s relevant to your practice.
    • Summarize the problem you’ll explore.
    • Identify the patient, family, or group you intend to work with during your practicum.
    • Provide context, data, or information that substantiates the presence of the problem and its significance and relevance to the patient, family, or population.
    • Explain why this problem is relevant to your practice as a baccalaureate-prepared nurse.
  • Analyze evidence from peer-reviewed literature and professional sources that describes and guides nursing actions related to the patient, family, or population problem you’ve defined.
    • Note whether the authors provide supporting evidence from the literature that’s consistent with what you see in your nursing practice.
    • Explain how you would know if the data are unreliable.
    • Describe what the literature says about barriers to the implementation of evidence-based practice in addressing the problem you’ve defined.
    • Describe research that has tested the effectiveness of nursing standards and/or policies in improving patient, family, or population outcomes for this problem.
    • Describe current literature on the role of nurses in policy making to improve outcomes, prevent illness, and reduce hospital readmissions.
    • Describe what the literature says about a nursing theory or conceptual framework that might frame and guide your actions during your practicum.
  • Explain how state board nursing practice standards and/or organizational or governmental policies could affect the patient, family, or population problem you’ve defined.
    • Describe research that has tested the effectiveness of these standards and/or policies in improving patient, family, or population outcomes for this problem.
    • Describe current literature on the role of nurses in policy making to improve outcomes, prevent illness, and reduce hospital readmissions.
    • Describe the effects of local, state, and federal policies or legislation on your nursing scope of practice, within the context of this problem.
  • Propose leadership strategies to improve outcomes, patient-centered care, and the patient experience related to the patient, family, or population problem you’ve defined.
    • Discuss research on the effectiveness of leadership strategies.
    • Define the role that you anticipate leadership must play in addressing the problem.
    • Describe collaboration and communication strategies that you anticipate will be needed to address the problem.
    • Describe the change management strategies that you anticipate will be required to address the problem.
    • Document the time spent (your practicum hours) with these individuals or group in the Capella Academic Portal Volunteer Experience Form.
  • Organize content so ideas flow logically with smooth transitions.
  • Apply APA style and formatting to scholarly writing.
Additional Requirements
  • Format: Format your paper using APA style.APA Style Paper Tutorial [DOCX] is provided to help you in writing and formatting your paper. Be sure to include:
    • A title page and reference page. An abstract is not required.
    • Appropriate section headings.
  • Length: Your paper should be approximately 5–7 pages in length, not including the reference page.
  • Supporting evidence: Cite at least five sources of scholarly or professional evidence that support your central ideas. Resources should be no more than five years old. Provide in-text citations and references in APA format.
  • Proofreading: Proofread your paper, before you submit it, to minimize errors that could distract readers and make it more difficult for them to focus on its substance.