NPR4003 - Practice Improvement Plan (PIP) & Disseratiosn Module Handbook - Nursing Assignment Help

Assignment Task

Introduction

Nurses are expected to be able to explain the evidence base for their practice (NMC 2015). They are also best placed for seeing practice through ‘fresh eyes’, identifying areas for improvement and innovation. Consequently, nurses often need to draw on a range of skills and research methods to propose practice improvement.A Practice Improvement Plan (PIP) in the form of a research proposal is the dissertation for your BSc Hons Nursing course. The focus for your PIP review must be relevant to your field of practice. Your Year 3 ‘taster week’ may have helped you form the idea but you may still wish to discuss possible practice improvement ideas with your mentors and service colleagues. These stages will provide the material for the final piece of work - the dissertation. You will work independently throughout the process, supported by workshops and a dissertation supervisor. This means that there are limited workshops and supervision time, which is a normal requirement of a dissertation. You are expected to organise your time wisely to complete the module successfully and therefore lead and manage the process.

How do I choose a topic for my PIP?

The selection of your topic areas is an important first step. You should keep the following concerns in mind:

• What have you seen that needs improving?

You are going to spend a long time on this part of your course. You will need persistence – through sometimes rather laborious stages – and motivation. Having a clear idea of what needs improving - for the topic will help you to sustain the effort required through some of the more arduous stages of the process.

• Is it appropriate?

The topic must be applicable in some way to your field of nursing practice and have a patient impact. It is a good idea to discuss possible topics with mentors, service colleagues and your Personal Academic Tutor

• Is it feasible (do-able)?

You should identify an aspect that needs improvement and that is do-able. You need to consider all aspects of this proposed change e.g. is there literature on this subject already, is the idea too broad, is the technology available to support your idea. Your supervisor will be able to help you to focus your idea appropriately.

• Is it relevant to your profession, workplace or career?

Choosing a topic which is relevant to your professional practice, may enhance the support and help you can secure from colleagues. You should be able to use your dissertation beyond the course to demonstrate both your understanding of the process and your capacity to investigate issues of importance to your field of practice.We encourage you to discuss your ideas with staff in relevant practice placements and to use your practice experiences to inform your choice of topic. You may undertake visits to relevant areas for informal discussion about the focus of your PIP. However, under no circumstances are you to gather any primary research data from staff or patients. You do not have ethical or Trust approval to engage in data collection. These approval processes take a long time and are one of the reasons why undergraduate nursing dissertations use different methods.

For example, when you were last in practice, did you see anything that you thought could be done better? Did you see a solution to a problem? Use your “fresh eyes”. Make a list in your journal.

Why is it important to identify a PIP that is relevant to my field of nursing?

Whilst being on your practice placements you may have observed or taken part in practice that could benefit from improvement. The area for improvement maybe small (micro) or large (macro). The improvement needs to relate to and or have impact on patient’s outcome or experience. It should not be on an experience(s) of staff or relationships between you and your mentor or as a direct result of clinical incident. Do discuss your ideas and concerns with your supervisor for clarification. *Clency’s top tip – Keep your project as simple as possible. Remember you are not doing this for real and that it is an assignment; therefore, a simple improvement and straightforward research approach are advised so that you can demonstrate a critical approach consistent with level 6 work.

Do I have to keep a project journal?

Yes, it is a good idea to do so. Past students have commented that managing time in placement, keeping track of assignments and thoughts when busy is best achieved when keeping a journal. This is an important part of the process as it will help you keep track of where you are in creating the design. At times you will need to search for literature to support your design and keeping a journal will aid this process. It may include your assumptions and beliefs, notes on methods and sources of useful information, records of interactions with practice settings relevant to your review, records from your supervision sessions, observations and ideas concerning the clinical environment or the client group and their potential influence on research conducted etc. You may also wish to include in your journal a Dissertation Progress sheet like the one in the Appendix. 

Will I need to do an outline of my PIP before I get started?

Yes, this will help with your first meeting with your supervisor. At this stage it is important that you spend some time learning about how to structure a PIP research proposal. Several of the texts in the reading list will help you understand the research process and research design. These texts will help you to understand what a research proposal looks like and how to do it. You are expected to define and explain your proposal and its components.

Will I need to search for literature to support my PIP?

 Yes, you will need to justify the methods you propose. Your initial search of the literature (perhaps using a crude search tool, such as Google Scholar) should help you to find out how much research has been done on your practice improvement idea and to help you identify the aim(s) and research questions. You will then need to think carefully about the strategies that you are going to use to search the literature. You will already have undertaken a literature search and review in year two. Below is a brief guide to undertaking this process.

You need to ask yourself the following questions:

• What are my keywords? These are the words you will use in bibliographic databases.

• What are the parameters, inclusion and exclusion criteria for my search and why?

• To which libraries do I have access and when?

• Which databases am I going to use and why?

• How can I gain access to these databases?

• Which journals do I need to search and why?

• Where can I access these journals?

• How can I obtain papers not available in my local libraries?

• When am I going to make time to search the literature?

These questions are not an exhaustive list – just a starting point. The Skills hub will have further information on how to search the literature; you will find a link to this on the NILE site. There is online support available for literature searching on the PIP. You can also book a one to one appointment with the Academic Librarian for the Faculty of Health and Society to look at literature searching in your topic area. You may also find it helpful to read around the subject of searching the literature in research methods textbooks or relevant journal papers (see the Aspire Reading List).

What do I include in the PIP?

The PIP will need to show a logical approach to being operationalised. You will need to show evidence of a literature review on your area for improvement; this will form part of your background chapter. This may include primary or secondary literature, policy documents, government reports, chapters from books, and peer reviewed published non-research articles written by an acknowledged authority. This is to set the context and background for the review. An in depth detailed knowledge of the client group and the potential impact of your research design would have if operationalised. Relevant epidemiological data from a range of reliable sources would be required. These sources will provide important material for your background chapter where you explore the context of your chosen area for improvement. The methods which you propose should be detailed and justified. You may wish to divide your chapter into several sections; approach, data collection, sampling etc. You should document how each of these have been chosen and why, citing appropriate research methods literature.

You need to inform the reader of how the results of any tests or exploration of phenomenon will be gathered and presented, in what format will they take and how will they be interpreted. You are expected to show knowledge of these tests, the methods you have chosen and their strengths and weaknesses. You will need to show evidence on how this PIP will be implemented and how results will be disseminated. You will need to show your knowledge on the different methods of dissemination. The time frame for the PIP will need to be plotted against a GANTT chart. You will need to show evidence of how this will be undertaken in a feasible time frame. Throughout the PIP you will need to justify every step of the process and underpin this with wide reading from contemporary and relevant sources.

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