NURS FPX 6030 Assessment 2 Problem Statement (PICOT)

NURS FPX 6030 Assessment 2 Problem Statement (PICOT)

Student Name

Capella University

NURS-FPX 6030 MSN Practicum and Capstone

Prof. Name:

Date

Problem Statement (PICOT)

In the ever-evolving landscape of nursing education, the importance of faculty training related to teaching methodologies cannot be overemphasized. Despite advancements in curricula and teaching methods, a noticeable gap exists concerning using advanced versus traditional teaching methodologies. Therefore, the focus of this problem statement is guided by the following PICOT research question: “Does among faculty teaching LPN program, training on different teaching methods, including case-based teaching, simulation, and interprofessional education, compared to no training, enhance the effectiveness of their use of teaching methods over one semester?” Through this PICOT-oriented approach, we aim to propose a targeted intervention to bridge the existing gap in the nursing education landscape.

Need Assessment

This project targets an urgent need to train faculty members about diverse interactive and evidence-based teaching methodologies to elevate student engagement and bridge the gap between traditional and integrated nursing education. Batista et al. (2021) revealed a prevalence of 30.2% burnout cases among nursing students due to traditional learning methodologies, which downsized by approximately 50% after using integrated teaching methods (active and diversified teaching methods). Furthermore, students showed significant improvements in academic and social interaction abilities in the integrated curriculum.

These measures indicate the need to improve the quality of education and enhance students’ engagement by training faculty members to use diverse teaching methodologies such as case-based teaching, simulation, and interprofessional education. These critical elements justify the importance of addressing the need: increasing teaching effectiveness and improving student learning outcomes. Student engagement is essential to progress in academic success and produce significant student learning outcomes, especially for student populations from various backgrounds.

NURS FPX 6030 Assessment 2 Problem Statement (PICOT)

Effective faculty training on diverse teaching methods can enhance their ability to engage students, cater to different learning styles, and ultimately improve the quality of education (Iduye et al., 2021). Moreover, by equipping faculty with the skills to employ these methods effectively, the project aims to contribute to improved academic performance and better-prepared healthcare professionals.

The foundational assumptions guiding this project are making educational experiences interactive, increasing student engagement, and improving their learning outcomes. Secondly, it is hypothesized that training faculty members to incorporate varied learning methods such as case-based learning, simulation, and interprofessional education in their teaching and curriculum design will be more effective than having no specific training regarding this as trained faculty are equipped with necessary techniques of curriculum development, ensuring effective teaching methods are utilized. 

Population and Settings

The target population for this quality improvement project is faculty members teaching the LPN program within the Metropolitan Community College. Enhancing faculty skills to integrate diverse teaching methods for LPN students is critical to improving the quality of education to prepare future healthcare professionals. Integrating active learning and practical teaching methods will help students connect theory to practice, eventually shaping their clinical competencies and making them adaptable to meet the evolving demands of the healthcare sector.

Similarly, addressing the needs of Metropolitan Community College is essential to fulfill the organization’s commitment to providing high-quality education and equipping faculty with innovative teaching approaches, aligning with the organization’s mission to produce skilled healthcare professionals. The quality improvement method proposed to address this need is the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA).

NURS FPX 6030 Assessment 2 Problem Statement (PICOT)

The PDSA cycle will facilitate iterative testing of the new training program for faculty, which focuses on integrating case-based learning, simulation, and interprofessional education in the nursing curriculum. Using PDSA, small-scale changes can be tested and modified based on feedback before more comprehensive implementation, thus improving the likelihood of successful uptake within the organization (Baandrup et al., 2023).

The challenges we may encounter while working with the target population are resistance to change and time constraints. Faculty members, particularly those with vast experience, may resist adopting new teaching methods and will require effective change management strategies. Moreover, due to their dual roles as educators and practitioners, these faculty may face time management issues, necessitating a balance between professional roles and skill development. Conversely, resource constraints may become a significant challenge for the organization, requiring adequate budgeting and external funding. 

Intervention Overview

The project interventions include case-based teaching, simulation training, and interprofessional education. Through case-based teaching, we aim to present real-world and hypothetical scenarios related to patient care to guide faculty in creating teaching materials, engaging students, and facilitating discussions around these case studies. Although case-based teaching effectively enhances critical thinking abilities among nursing students (Sapeni & Said, 2020), this may compromise real-world application as situations for actual patients may differ or have varied perspectives, which case scenarios might not cover. Simulation training, on the other side, provides students with hands-on experiences with simulation tools and scenarios to impersonate real-world patient situations (Mulyadi et al., 2021).

This intervention plans to train faculty about the effective use of simulators, conduct debriefing sessions, and integrate simulation-based learning into their curriculum. Nevertheless, the downside associated with simulation education is the high costs. Finally, to integrate interprofessional education, our objective is to train faculty through workshops and interactive sessions where faculty can collaborate with other professors from various disciplines. This training helps them integrate interprofessional education into the LPN curriculum to foster teamwork, effective communication, and collaboration among future healthcare professionals. However, arranging sessions for multidisciplinary faculty members could be complex and challenging. 

Comparison of Approaches 

The interprofessional alternative that can address our project need is technology-enhanced Faculty Learning Communities (FLC). FLC is a well-structured academic community comprising faculty members from various disciplines. The community aims to collaborate and foster evidence-based teaching to enhance student learning outcomes (Tinnell et al., 2019). While replicating interprofessional scenarios through case-based teaching and simulation, the focus is on developing clinical competencies and technical skills.

On the other hand, technology-based FLC fosters collaboration among faculty members from various disciplines, promotes continuous exchange of ideas, and minimizes communication barriers through technological mediums, creating an ongoing collaborative environment. Although interprofessional education plays a similar role in providing a chance for coordinating with faculty across disciplines, it doesn’t create a continuous collaborative environment. 

FLCs align best with the LPN faculty as they belong to diverse backgrounds and experiences, thus requiring ongoing support from multifarious perspectives to build an educated and sound community. Ultimately, these shared experiences help to improve teaching methodologies and students’ learning outcomes from the curriculum. Simultaneously, FLCs are well-suited for Metropolitan Community College as they promote a culture of continuous improvement of curriculum design, fostering effective collaboration among faculty members. These outcomes are aligned with the college’s mission and commitment to continuous professional development. However, the challenges associated with technology-based FLC are complex and lengthier due to adequate structurization. Moreover, technological glitches and limited in-person interactions may cause collaboration gaps. 

Initial Outcome Draft

The primary outcome of this quality improvement project is to enhance faculty effectiveness in using case-based learning, simulation, and interprofessional education in their curriculum design over one semester. This outcome improves the quality of nursing education. It potentially enhances patient care, as more integrated teaching methods will improve student engagement and satisfaction, making students more diligent and clinically competent. A rigorous evaluation framework could be established to quantify this improvement, utilizing pre- and post-intervention faculty surveys to collect data about their effective use of advanced teaching methods.

Students’ feedback about their engagement and satisfaction with curriculum and performance indicators, like clinical competency scores, are essential. These criteria will create a comprehensive measure of the project’s impact, aligning closely with the broader goal of improving the quality of education, patient safety, and overall patient care in healthcare settings. 

Time Estimate

For the development and refinement of the interventions—namely case-based learning, simulation, and interprofessional education a time frame of 2 months at the start of the 6-month semester is proposed. This duration should allow for the development of training materials, which include gathering practical and real-world case scenarios and integrating them into simulators. This duration also covers technology procurement for simulation and content designing for interactive workshops for interprofessional faculty members. Since these actions require complex and extensive processes, it is a realistic time frame for development. However, this timeframe could be affected by faculty’s availability and readiness to adapt to new teaching methods.

Moreover, acquiring the necessary technological resources for simulation may impede the project’s duration. The implementation of the faculty training intervention is planned to occur over the subsequent four months of the semester. The time frame for implementation is also realistic but is subject to challenges, such as managing time from busy class schedules, faculty’s level of understanding, and other resource constraints. Similarly, unexpected institutional or hospital policy changes and the unavailability of interprofessional faculty for collaborative efforts are other uncertain situations that may pose challenges. 

Literature Review

Various literature studies emphasize the need for faculty training and the inclusion of innovative teaching methodologies in nursing education. The literature review below indicates several studies from trustworthy and credible resources. The resources fulfill the CRAAP criteria – currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose. These criteria examine the sources of information based on their updated version, relevance to the research topic, credibility of authors and the journal, accuracy of the claims, and the alignment of the study’s purpose to the objective of the PICOT inquiry. The literature studies are as follows: 

• According to Iduye et al. (2021), engaging students from diverse backgrounds requires effective strategies to recognize student’s diversity and enhance their experiences. Faculty training in this regard is essential to instill innovative and varied teaching methodologies, ensuring the inclusion of a diverse population. Since LPN students in the Metropolitan Community College have various backgrounds and educational experiences, this study is relevant and valuable to the PICO(T) project.
• The article by Smith et al. (2023) stresses the need for continuing professional education for nurse educators and faculty members. They explain that with the evolving nature of healthcare practices, a constant need is identified to improve professional competence among the target population. Thus, a structured and comprehensive educational program must instill updated knowledge and skills to progress nursing education and transfer that knowledge and skills to nursing students as future healthcare professionals. 
• Nursing students are prone to encounter stressful situations, leading to poor academic performance, physical illnesses, and a high turnover rate. Such situations require experiential and case-based learning to enhance clinical competencies by combining clinical practices and theoretical knowledge. Training nursing faculty using a case-based scenario to integrate the teaching methodology into the curriculum improves students’ resilience and skills to cope with the challenges of professional practice (Walsh et al., 2020).  

NURS FPX 6030 Assessment 2 Problem Statement (PICOT)

• Sapeni and Said (2020) explain the effectiveness of case-based learning in improving nursing students’ critical thinking abilities in their study. This study also stresses the need for faculty training to integrate case-based learning into the curriculum. Faculty plays a crucial role in designing curriculum to improve student learning outcomes. Thus, this study is relevant to our PICO(T) project in implementing case-based learning as a teaching methodology for the LPN student population. 
• Another study by Cimino et al. (2022) suggests that faculty members play a crucial role in incorporating educational interventions, specifically interprofessional education (IPE). Thus, equipping them with the required skills, materials, tools, and ongoing support is essential to make IPE successful. This study is relevant to the project population and setting as it focuses on enhancing interprofessional coordination, which is essential for LPN students because of their diversity, fulfilling the college’s mission. 
• Bogossian et al. (2023) explain the crucial role of faculty in implementing interprofessional education. This study emphasizes faculty development about the critical knowledge and skills required to implement interprofessional education. Therefore, it highlights the importance of faculty training in improving nursing education for diverse populations like LPN students in Metropolitan Community College. 
• The evolving roles of faculty teaching health professions need a thorough development of faculty enhancement programs. These programs aim to improve teaching performances, augment their capabilities, develop curricula based on new and innovative teaching methods, and increase students’ academic output (Kohan et al., 2023). This study is relevant to the identified need of the project – faculty training through integrated methods using workshops and interactive sessions. 

NURS FPX 6030 Assessment 2 Problem Statement (PICOT)

• Mulyadi et al. (2021) focus on the importance of simulation-based learning to bridge the gap between theory and practice. This study necessitates the integration of simulation in nursing education through patient care scenarios. The authors also emphasize faculty training to ensure these active learning methodologies are adequately incorporated into professional education and nursing curricula. This study is relevant for Metropolitan Community College as technological integration and educational advancement are part of its core mission. 
• The study by Repsha et al. (2020) emphasizes the need to implement concept-based training revolving around curriculum development. This need is recognized due to the complex nature of the healthcare profession, where there is a gap between theory and practice. Thus, faculty must be taught to integrate effective teaching methodologies into the nursing curriculum. This need is relevant to the PICO(T) project and project population as there is a significant need to improve student learning outcomes. 
• Rossini et al. (2021) claim that the faculty’s style of instruction and teaching methodologies significantly impact student satisfaction with the curriculum. Thus, an effective training program is essential to teach faculty diverse teaching methods that can be integrated into the nursing curriculum. This study is relevant to the targeted project as the objective of the PICO(T) inquiry is to integrate diverse methods and improve student learning experiences effectively

Evaluation and Synthesis of Relevant Health Policies

Higher Education Opportunity Act is a policy that impacts higher education by establishing the ground rules for federal aid and accreditation of nursing programs (Wang & Zegers, 2023). The available financial assistance through this act can be beneficial for the successful implementation of our project, where we need resources for training materials and simulation activities. Furthermore, healthcare technologies such as remote learning mediums and e-simulations can be integrated into the project, necessitating strict compliance with tech-based policies such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). This act imposes stringent patient confidentiality guidelines, potentially limiting the design and implementation of case-based and simulation modules that utilize real-life clinical scenarios involving patient data (Jones et al., 2023).

Additionally, the guidelines, materials, and standards of education set by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) can be used as a comprehensive framework to improve the efficacy of nursing education by incorporating diverse teaching methodologies, abiding by the accreditation standards of this body. However, further knowledge regarding the eligibility of the Higher Education Opportunity Act policy is essential to scrutinize our project population and educational setting. Moreover, more information about the organization’s technological infrastructure is necessary to strengthen the security channels for effective compliance with HIPAA policy. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, this quality improvement project aims to address the pressing issue of faculty training in effectively utilizing diverse teaching methods. Through a multi-modal approach of case-based learning, simulation, and interprofessional education, the project seeks to enrich nursing faculty’s effective curriculum development skills within one semester. While supported by recent, robust research, the project’s success hinges on navigating logistical challenges and aligning with existing educational and healthcare policies. Ultimately, the endeavor aims to improve educational outcomes and positively impact patient care quality.

References

Baandrup, L., Dons, A. M., Bartholdy, K. V., Holm, K. O., & Hageman, I. (2023). Changing prescribing practice for rapid tranquillization–a quality improvement project based on the Plan-Do-Study-Act method. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-023-02461-9 

Batista, R. D. S., Santos, M. S. D., Melo, E. C., Moreira, R. C., Martins, J. T., & Galdino, M. J. Q. (2021). Burnout and academic satisfaction of nursing students in traditional and integrated curricula. Revista Da Escola de Enfermagem Da USP, 55, e03713. https://doi.org/10.1590/s1980-220×2020002003713 

Bogossian, F., New, K., George, K., Barr, N., Dodd, N., Hamilton, A. L., Nash, G., Masters, N., Pelly, F., Reid, C., Shakhovskoy, R., & Taylor, J. (2023). The implementation of interprofessional education: A scoping review. Advances in Health Sciences Education, 28(1), 243–277. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10459-022-10128-4 

Cimino, F. M., Varpio, L., W. Konopasky, A., Barker, A., Stalmeijer, R. E., & Ma, T.-L. (2022). Can we realize our collaborative potential? A critical review of faculty roles and experiences in interprofessional education. Academic Medicine, 97(11S), S87. https://doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0000000000004909 

NURS FPX 6030 Assessment 2 Problem Statement (PICOT)

Iduye, D., Vukic, A., Waldron, I., Price, S., Sheffer, C., McKibbon, S., Dorey, R., & Yu, Z. (2021). Educators’ strategies for engaging diverse students in undergraduate nursing education programs: A scoping review protocol. JBI Evidence Synthesis, 19(5), 1178–1185. https://doi.org/10.11124/JBIES-20-00039 

Jones, H. M., Ammerman, B. A., Joiner, K. L., Lee, D. R., Bigelow, A., & Kuzma, E. K. (2023). Evaluating an intervention of telehealth education and simulation for advanced practice registered nurse students: A single group comparison study. Nursing Open. https://doi.org/10.1002/nop2.1620 

Kohan, M., Changiz, T., & Yamani, N. (2023). A systematic review of faculty development programs based on the Harden teacher’s role framework model. BMC Medical Education, 23(1), 910. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-023-04863-4 

Mulyadi, M., Tonapa, S. I., Rompas, S. S. J., Wang, R.-H., & Lee, B.-O. (2021). Effects of simulation technology-based learning on nursing students’ learning outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis of experimental studies. Nurse Education Today, 107, 105127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2021.105127 

Repsha, C. L., Quinn, B. L., & Peters, A. B. (2020). Implementing a concept-based nursing curriculum: A review of the literature. Teaching and Learning in Nursing, 15(1), 66–71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.teln.2019.09.006 

Rossini, S., Bulfone, G., Vellone, E., & Alvaro, R. (2021). Nursing students’ satisfaction with the curriculum: An integrative review. Journal of Professional Nursing, 37(3), 648–661. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.profnurs.2021.02.003 

Sapeni, M. A.-A. R., & Said, S. (2020). The effectiveness of case-based learning in increasing critical thinking of nursing students: A literature review. Enfermería Clínica, 30, 182–185. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enfcli.2019.07.073 

NURS FPX 6030 Assessment 2 Problem Statement (PICOT)

Smith, J., Kean, S., Vauhkonen, A., Elonen, I., Silva, S. C., Pajari, J., Cassar, M., Martín-Delgado, L., Zrubcova, D., & Salminen, L. (2023). An integrative review of the continuing professional development needs for nurse educators. Nurse Education Today, 121, 105695. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2022.105695 

Tinnell, T. L., Ralston, P. A. S., Tretter, T. R., & Mills, M. E. (2019). Sustaining pedagogical change via faculty learning community. International Journal of STEM Education, 6(1), 26. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-019-0180-5 

Walsh, P., Owen, P. A., Mustafa, N., & Beech, R. (2020). Learning and teaching approaches promoting resilience in student nurses: An integrated review of the literature. Nurse Education in Practice, 45, 102748. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2020.102748 

Wang, J., & Zegers, C. (2023). Creating a shared agenda to achieve health equity. Springer EBooks, 145–157. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29746-5_11