In order to evaluate an evidence-based practice project, it is important to be able to determine the effectiveness of your change. Discuss one way you will be able to assess whether or not your project made a difference in practice.

Capstone Change Project Evaluation-Nursing Shortage

My evidence-based practice change project is on the nursing shortage. The project proposes policies that can be implemented to address the problem of nursing shortage. The proposed guidelines are aimed at increasing the number and capacity of nursing training institutions and providing fellowships to graduates. An improvement or change in practice can manifest the effectiveness of the change project. To evaluate whether the evidence-based project made a difference in practice, the ratio of nurses to patients in various healthcare facilities will be considered.

An increase in the number and capacity of nursing training institutions is expected to increase the enrolment of qualified applicants. This will lead to a rise in the number of trained and registered nurses (Abhicharttibutra et al., 2017). Therefore, the number of registered nurses available to be incorporated into the workforce will increase. An increase in the number of nurses will help to address the problem of the nursing shortage. This will be handled by optimizing the ratio of nurses to patients.

Implementing the change project is expected to lower the ratio of nurses to patients. This will be demonstrated by the number of patients served by one nurse in each of the hospital departments. Optimized percentages of nurses to patients differ based on the hospital department. In critical care units, the rate of nurses to patients should be 1:2 or lower. In the emergency department, the balance should be less than 1:5 or lower (Zhang et al., 2018). Therefore, an evaluation of the nurse-to-patient balance will help to determine the effectiveness of the change project.

A high nurse-patient ratio due to nursing shortage is associated with burnout and increased stress levels. Furthermore, the nursing workforce is overwhelmed with patients, and their productivity decreases (Zhang et al., 2018). The incidences of medication errors and hospital readmissions are high in such settings. Therefore, an evaluation of nurse-to-patient ratios will help to determine whether the evidence-based project made a difference in practice.

References

Abhicharttibutra, K., Kunaviktikul, W., Turale, S., Wichaikhum, O. A., & Srisuphan, W. (2017). Analysis of a Government Policy to Address Nursing Shortage and Nursing Education Quality. International Nursing Review, 64(1), 22–32. https://doi.org/10.1111/inr.12257