Driving ChangeResourcesAssignment ContextBy successfully completing this assignment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assignment criteria:Competency 1: Explain strategies for effective interprofessional teamwork and collaboration in health care delivery.Identify other health care professionals to enlist as members of an interprofessional team to drive change in an organization.Competency 2: Analyze the implications of working with interprofessional teams in multi–faceted healthcare settings.Describe a problem and how it impacts an organization, patients, or the nursing profession.Analyze barriers and resistance to change from an organization, patients, or colleagues.Competency 3: Develop evidence–based nursing interventions to address specific problems and enable systemic change.Describe evidence–based solutions to a problem.Describe strategies to overcome barriers and resistance to change.Develop a plan to implement evidence–based solutions to a problem.Competency 4: Communicate in a manner that is consistent with the expectations for a nursing professional.

Driving Change Resources Assignment

Driving Change Resources Assignment

Write coherently to support a central idea in appropriate APA format with correct grammar, usage, and mechanics as expected of a nursing professional.Assignment InstructionsNursing is in the midst of many changes. How can you be a driving force to bring about needed change within the field of nursing?For this assignment, write 4–6 pages addressing an issue within the nursing field or your own organization.PreparationSelect a problem to address either within nursing as a professional field or within the organization where you work. Narrow down your options by considering which change would best be undertaken by an interprofessional team.Some examples within the nursing discipline include:Using mobile and portable technology to support patients.Using evidence–based practice (EBP) to improve patient care.Increasing patient safety and quality of care. The use of medical technology such as genes and stem cells, or robots in the OR.Addressing the nursing shortage now and into the future.Improving the work environment (providing calm, supportive spaces for nurses; improved dialogue between health care professionals).Improving safety for nurses at work (violence, spreading diseases, or physical injury).Dealing with abuse by health care professionals.Alternatively, you can narrow the scope to an issue within your own organization:Developing a mobility program for an inpatient unit.Implementing “smart” technology to assist in patient monitoring.Creating a mentoring program to attract and retain nurses.Implementing protocols for infection control or treatment of an epidemic (or both).Developing a plan to eliminate physical violence and verbal abuse in the workplace.Other issue.Once you have selected an issue to address, look for scholarly and professional articles that focus on the problem, the needed change, and how interprofessional teams can work together to drive change.RequirementsComplete the following:Describe the problem briefly, along with how it impacts the organization, patients, or the nursing profession (or all of these).Describe possible evidence–based interventions for the problem.Analyze potential barriers and resistance to change that might come from the organization, patients, or colleagues (or all of these).Describe strategies to overcome barriers and resistance to change.Develop a plan to implement evidence–based interventions. What steps would you take? What resources might you need?Identify other health care professionals to enlist as team members to help drive change in the organization.Your completed assignment should be 4–6 pages in length, not including the title page and reference page. Support your statements and intervention plan with references to and citations for at least 4 scholarly or professional resources. Be sure to follow APA guidelines for style and format. In addition:Include a title page and reference page.Use Times New Roman font, 12 point.Double–space.Refer to the Driving Change Scoring Guide to ensure that you meet the grading criteria for this assignment.Note:Your instructor may also use the APA Writing Feedback Rubric to provide additional feedback on your academic writing. The writing feedback rubric does not affect your assignment grade, but its feedback may factor into the grading criteria, if professional communication and writing is a course competency. Evaluate your own work using this rubric. Refer to the Learner Guide for instructions on viewing instructor feedback.

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation

Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality

Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes

I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy

For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.