In scholarly writing, to synthesize means to bring various ideas and pieces of information together. In this “bringing together,” new comparisons are drawn and new meanings derived. Your Practicum Project Plan includes a synthesis of scholarly research justifying your project topic as well as a formal plan for the implementation of your project and evaluation of your objectives.
To Prepare:
- Review the information in the Practicum Project Plan Overview document. 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.
Submit a 4- to 6-page scholarly paper, referred to as your Practicum Project Plan (PPP), in which you formulate findings, conclusions, and recommendations in relation to the problem or issue you are examining. Your paper should include the following:
- Title. The title should include the name of your project and should follow the Uniform-Guidelines format.
- Introduction. The introduction includes the purpose of the paper, the goal of the project, and the name of the project. It also outlines the structure of the paper.
- Goal statement. A goal statement identifies what you expect to accomplish, the focus area, and the population. It introduces the project and conveys, in broad terms, how you plan to solve a particular problem or issue.
- Project objectives. Project objectives delineate your strategy for reaching the goal and the steps you will follow to complete the project. You must include two or three measurable objectives that use application-level or higher verbs from Bloom’s Taxonomy.
- Evidence-based review of the literature for project justification. This review provides evidence-based support for your identified problem, project methods, and evaluation (presented in Week 4). The literature should be directed toward justifying the project, not focus on potential solutions. You must include a review of your specialization’s professional-practice standards and guidelines related to your project and a minimum of five (5) scholarly references for this section of the paper.
- Methodology. This section addresses in detail how you will accomplish the project objectives. Include, as relevant, the who, when, where, and how of each objective.
- Resources. Identify and justify the human, physical, and/or technical resources you will need to complete this project. Note that for this assignment, you do not have to address the financial aspects of your plan.
- Formative evaluation. Describe how and when you will conduct a formative evaluation of your project. Explain how you will use the evaluation results and how you will determine if the project is proceeding as planned.
- Summative evaluation. Describe how and when you will conduct a summative evaluation of your project. Explain how you will use the evaluation results.
- Timeline. Create a graphic timeline representing significant stages of your project. Provide a narrative to help your Instructor understand the timeline. Include the timeline in an Appendix to your Practicum Project Plan.
Note: You must use APA-style headings, but you are not required to title the headings as listed above.
Practicum Project Topic
Oral Care Documentation Discrepancies: A Systemic Challenge
As bedside nurses, we understand the importance of oral care—especially for ventilated patients or at high risk for hospital-acquired infections. Munro and Grap (2004) emphasize that oral care in ventilated patients is critical for preventing ventilator-associated pneumonia. However, many of us have noticed a recurring issue in the VAAES system. When we document oral care in the “frequent documentation” flowsheets, it does not consistently appear in the official charts or reports as completed oral care. This issue raises a few concerns from both a nursing and informatics perspective:
- Underreporting of Completed Care
Nurses perform oral care and properly document it in the frequent documentation sections. However, because the system may not pull data from those specific fields, the care was never completed. This can be frustrating, primarily when compliance reports reflect low oral care completion rates that don’t match what’s happening at the bedside.
- Documentation Mismatch
There is a disconnect between where nurses document and where the system pulls data from. If the reports only count entries made in a specific oral care note or flowsheet (instead of the frequent documentation), our hard work isn’t recognized or recorded correctly. Topaz and Pruinelli (2017) highlight how incomplete or misaligned EHR documentation can negatively impact data analytics and nursing performance measures.
- Implications for Quality Metrics
This affects individual performance and unit-wide and facility-wide quality measures, such as infection control metrics (e.g., prevention of VAP). Inaccurate data could lead to incorrect conclusions about care delivery and may even influence audits or evaluations.
What Can Help:
- Clear guidance on where oral care should be documentedso that it is reflected in performance metrics and dashboards.
- Collaboration with the informatics or IT team to ensure all relevant documentation fields are capturedin oral care reporting.
- Possible system updates or retrainingto align documentation workflows with how data is tracked.
As nurses, our time is valuable, and duplicating documentation to ensure it’s “seen” in the system is not efficient or fair.
Goal Statement
This practicum project aims to improve the accuracy and visibility of oral care documentation within the VAAES system by identifying gaps between bedside nursing workflows and data reporting mechanisms. This project seeks to collaborate with clinical informatics and IT teams to optimize documentation processes, ensure that completed oral care is accurately reflected in performance dashboards, and support compliance with infection prevention quality metrics.
Project Objectives
1. Identify discrepancies between where nurses document oral care and where the system pulls data for compliance and reporting dashboards.
2. Collaborate with clinical informatics and IT teams to analyze system configurations and reporting logic that contribute to underreporting of documented oral care.
3. Measure baseline and post-intervention compliance rates to evaluate improvements in data capture and documentation visibility.
As a result of this practicum project, oral care documentation by bedside nurses will be more accurately reflected in compliance reports and performance dashboards, reducing discrepancies between actual care provided and what is reported. Documentation workflows will be streamlined, enabling nurses to document efficiently without redundancy while ensuring their work is captured in system metrics. Staff awareness and compliance are expected to improve through targeted education and clearly defined documentation guidelines. Additionally, the project will foster enhanced collaboration between nursing, informatics, and IT teams, promoting long-term alignment on system usability and data integrity. More accurate documentation will directly support infection prevention initiatives, particularly in reducing the risk of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) and other hospital-acquired infections.
References
Munro, C. L., & Grap, M. J. (2004). Oral health and care in the intensive care unit: State of the science. American Journal of Critical Care, 13(1), 25–33. https://doi.org/10.4037/ajcc2004.13.1.25
The Joint Commission. (2021). Improving America’s hospitals: The Joint Commission’s annual report on quality and safety. https://www.jointcommission.org/resources/news-and-multimedia/newsletters/newsletters/joint-commission-online/nov-17-2021/
Topaz, M., & Pruinelli, L. (2017). Big data and nursing: Implications for the future. In R. H. Randell, P. M. Scott, & S. E. Wright (Eds.), Studies in Health Technology and Informatics (Vol. 232, pp. 165–171). IOS Press. https://doi.org/10.3233/978-1-61499-738-2-165