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Benchmark – Evidence-Based Practice Proposal Final Paper
Abstract
Today, nursing professionals experience extraordinary stressors in their clinical practice. The bulk of these stressors have existed in the nursing practice for long such as death of patients, emotional suffering, coping with pain, supporting patients’ families, working for long hours, and caring for dying patients. However, in the present health care system, there are additional stressors in among nursing practitioners emanating from various factors such as acute shortage of nursing workforce, financial problems, intricacy in patients, and evolving technologies. Often nurses are needed to deal with challenging situations that need timely, accurate decisions that directly impact patient lives.
However, the stress negatively impacts top cognitive functions, particularly memory and attention, which worsens the already stressed nurses. In turn, the intricate, highly stressful, and technologically advanced health care system hinders the ability of nurses to be entirely present at the moment, especially when providing care to patents. The inability to present at the moment implies lack of attention or mindlessness, which is dangerous because it creates an environment where nurses can make decision without thoughtful, conscious involvement in the task at hand. Moreover, drift in attention is likely to lead to severe consequences such as failure to identify life-threatening signs and symptoms, medication errors, and other critical safety concerns in patients. Moreover, stress inherent in nurses can lead to lower job satisfaction, depression, disruption in personal relationships, and psychological stress, which can lead to a risk of patient harm. Therefore, this EBP project sought to advance stress among nurses by proposing the implementation of training on mindfulness mediation among nurse to improve overall attention, empathy, and presence of nurses with patients and their families
. Prior to the commencement of the project, the readiness to adopt the project was determined using the Norwegian version of the Evidence-Based Practice Attitude Scale (EBPAS). The outcome demonstrated that the organization was willing to accept the project. In addition, the Trans-Theoretical Model of behavior change was adopted to foster change adoption among nurses. The implementation plan was formulated and duration of six months set to conduct the follow up and establish the outcomes.
Section A: Organizational Culture and Readiness Assessment
Evidence-based practices (EBP) are increasingly adopted by the health care organizations to help in maximizing patient outcomes and ensure provision of patient-oriented, quality care. Essentially, a meaningful adoption of EBP can be realized when the health care organization is ready and able to recognize the limitations and facilitators that may influence the process of EBP implementation (Schaefer & Welton, 2018).Therefore, to foster the implementation of the current EBP project at the VA healthcare system, the Norwegian version of the Evidence-Based Practice Attitude Scale (EBPAS) will be used as a tool to assess the organizational readiness for EBP (Egeland et al., 2016). The assessment revealed that VA healthcare system was ready for new EBP implementation.
Barriers and Facilitators
The major project barriers included lack of commitment to EBP adoption by the health care staff. Moreover, time limitation impeded the implementation of the project. This is due to overwhelming workload, which cannot allow the staff to review the emerging evidence. As a result, there was inadequate experience in EBP application. Conversely, the facilitators of the project included availability of existing providers who were ready to promote the EBP. Moreover, the project enjoyed management support.
High Scores and Low Scores
Concerning the high scores, the EBPAS assessment tool comprises of 19 categories and the VA healthcare system showed exemplary performance in 12 categories. Among the best scored categories included management support and the willingness by the health care providers to adopt EBP (Egeland et al., 2016). Contrarily, low scores were demonstrated in six categories, with major one being inadequacy of leading professionals in EBP implementation such as librarians to direct nurses and other providers on EBP implementation.
Integration of Clinical Inquiry
To optimize application of EBP, healthcare providers in VA health care system will be provided with training on EBP to encourage them and increase their confidence. The training will be crucial in identifying and working on areas that need improvement. Moreover, a study will be performed on the areas that need improvement to identify potential solutions to improve in them. Accordingly, the organization will formulate a policy to act as a blueprint to the project implementation and help in executing the proposed solutions.
Section B: Proposal/Problem Statement and Literature Review
Refining PICOT into Problem Statement
This project delved into the training on mindfulness meditation in nursing. Currently, the health care environment is complex, technologically laden, and highly stressful, which interferes with the ability of nurses to fully discharge their duties. This intricate nature of nursing practice and the adverse working conditions leads to risk of stress and burnout among nurses. In particular, the stress in nurses is attributed to many factors such as poor shift rotation, heavy workload, failing to reward or acknowledge nurses, intricate interpersonal relationships, and continuous need of knowledge. Consequently, the complex, technologically laden, and highly stressful environment reduces the ability of nurses to fully operate as required, especially during patient interactions. As a result, nurses lose attention (mindlessness) in provision of patient care, which leads to an environment where a nurse can make clinical decision without a thoughtful, conscious determination of the situation at hand (Sankoet al., 2016). As such, this EBP project sought to advance cultivation of mindfulness mediation among nurse professionals. Mindfulness mediation is believed to have capability to enhance nurses’ empathy, overall attention, and presence with patients and families. Since this paper sought to synthesize the research on mindfulness mediation into problem statement and literature review and create a refined PICOT statement. The refined PICOT statement would be:
In nurses (P), does training on Mindfulness meditation (I), compared to no intervention (C), reduce stress levels (O) within six months (T)?
Several studies have been conducted to support the position of the identified PICOT statement. For instance, Janssen et al. (2018) conducted an exploratory study that sought to get detailed perceptive of the impact of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) on the employees’ mental health. The study incorporated systematic review of databases such as CINAHL, PubMed, and PsycINFO to identify articles about the influence of MBSR and MBCT on various facets of mental health. The findings demonstrated that MBSR results in minimized stress, anxiety, occupational stress, depression, and psychological distress. The findings also revealed positive changes in employees who implemented mindfulness, personal achievement, quality sleep, relaxation, and self-care. However, the limitation of the study is the use of different methodological quality study levels.
Kriakous et al. (2020) sought to inform the current evidence-based practice and enhance knowledge on the value of MBSR on enhancing the psychological functioning of health care professionals. The study used systematic review to investigate controlled clinical trials, randomized controlled trials, pre-post designs, and qualitative studies with follow-up that lasted for 12 months. The major finding in this study is that MBSR significantly reduces the experiences of depression, stress, and anxiety among the health care professionals and also increases their levels of self-compassion and mindfulness. However, the study also revealed that MBSR cannot effectively minimize burnout or enhance resilience. There were various limitations in this study such as the use of small sample size, poor systematic literature review, non-quality articles, and self-selected samples.
The other was study conducted by Lin et al. (2019) to establish the impact of a customized MBSR program on the level of stress, affect, and the resilience among nurses working in general hospitals in mainland China. The study utilized randomized controlled trial by randomly assigning 110 nurses into intervention and control groups. The results indicated that intervention group showed lower levels of stress, and improved positive affect, high levels of resilience. The limitations of the study include utilization of small sample size, which can result in challenges in validity of the study. The convenient sampling method used in identifying hospitals can also limit the representation of sample population.
Penque (2019) also conducted a study to evaluate the influence of MBSR on factors associated with nursing practice such as work satisfaction, burnout, empathy, self-care, serenity, incidental overtime, and mindfulness. The study involved the use of mixed methods including quasi-experimental, longitudinal, pre-test and post-test, and correlational methods. The study involved 61 RNs working at a 619-bed tertiary health care setting based in the upper mid-western US. The key outcome in this study is that MBSR lowers burnout and improves specific psychological factors such as serenity, self-compassion, and mindfulness among nurses. The limitation of the study included lack of comparison group and limitation of sample population in one geographical area, which limits generalizability.
Van der Riet et al. (2018) sought to critically evaluate the literature on the value of mindfulness mediation programs on nurses and nursing students. Various databases were used to review literature including SCOPUS, EMCORE, CINAHAL, ERIC, EMBASE, and PsycINFO. The findings revealed that mindfulness mediation have positive impact on nurses and nursing students by improving anxiety, welfare, empathy, depression, burnout, and stress. However, the limitation included review of studies that used small sample size, thus, compromised generalizability and representativeness of the results.
Section C: Solution Description
The Proposed Solution
The proposed solution for this project was training on mindfulness meditation in nursing. The technologically advanced, intricate, and stressful nature of health care has greatly compromised the ability of nurses to diligently discharge their duties due to risks of burnout and stress. Stress and burnout in nurses are contributed by various factors such as overwhelming work burden, complex interpersonal relationships, poor shift rotation, evolving nature of nursing practice that need continuous education to stay abreast with current practices, and failure to reward or acknowledge the efforts by nurses. In turn, the ability of nurses to diligently provide care during patient interactions is significantly compromised as a result of these stress-related factors (Kriakous et al., 2020). As a result, nurses tend to portray mindlessness by losing attention to patient care provision leading to various risks such as medical errors and failure to make informed and conscious nursing decision. Therefore, this project advanced the adoption of mindfulness mediation among nursing workforce to assist in enhancing the general attention, presence, and empathy of nurses with patients and the patients’ families.
This proposed solution is consistent with earlier studies done on the topic. New Jersey State Nurses Association (2021) found that mindful mediation is a big way of engaging in peaceful balance and self-care among nurses and it is associated with improved problem-solving and planned action since it strengthens brain region responsible for attention. Mindful mediation also enhances coping skills, reduces burnout, reduces stress, improves self-understanding, enhances compassionate care, improves relationships with colleagues, and increases relaxation. Zeller et al. (2021) affirms that comparison of mindfulness and control groups after mindful training indicates difference in clinical performance with mindfulness indicating high performance and improved listening skills. Kriakous et al. (2020) also found that Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) greatly minimized the incidences of stress, depression, and anxiety among clinicians and improved their self-compassion and mindfulness levels. Lin et al. (2019) also affirmed that MBSR lowered stress, enhances positive affect, and increased levels of resilience.
Essentially, the proposed solution of mindfulness meditation in nursing is practical in the VA Healthcare System since it strives to introduce solutions that strive to improve attention, empathy, resilience, and stress among nurses while providing care. Although the project may require substantial financial resources to be implemented, it can still be considered cost effective to health care system because of benefits associated with such as reduction in medical errors and the associated effects and as cost of damages for medical malpractices and improving care delivery and patient outcomes. Moreover, the organization tends to set supplementary budgets to cater for emerging issues such as the implementation of quality improvement initiatives such as the current project. Therefore, the organization has the capacity to implement the project.
Organizational Culture
It is critical for the proposed solution to be in line with the organizational culture (Ariza Aguilera, 2018). One of the outstanding organizational cultures of VA Healthcare System is supporting of change initiatives and innovations. As such, the organization is likely to support this change initiative. Moreover, the proposed imitative seeks to facilitate EBP in implementation of mindfulness mediation, thus, consistent with organizational culture of using EBP interventions.
Expected Outcomes
The anticipated outcomes of the proposed intervention include assisting nurses to enhance their capability to manage clinical stress and improve their health, overall attention, empathy, work satisfaction, and enhance presence with patients and patients’ families. Other anticipated outcomes include improved serenity, mental health, and reduction in incidental overtime and burnout.
Method to Achieve Outcomes
Training on mindfulness mediation will be conducted among all nurses in the organization. Nurse educators will be asked to act as the agents to promote the proposed intervention among nurses. Nurse educators will also be required to conduct follow-ups to establish whether or not the nurses adhere to intervention. Potential barriers include different literacy levels among nurses, resistance to change, and abandoning of the project by the nurses. However, these barriers can be mitigated through active involvement of nurses in the project, fostering free communication, and creating awareness. The fundamental assumption in this project is to achieve positive outcomes.
Outcome Impact
The proposed solution will impact the relationship between nurses in the organization by ensuring collaboration with relevant stakeholders such as the management to effect the proposed solution. The intervention will also impact the patient health outcomes since the intervention to enhance mindfulness levels will improve emotional states of nurses and put them in a position to provide best nursing care.
Section D: Change Model
Change Model
The Trans-Theoretical Model of behavioral change is the selected change model that will be used in this project. This model gives an in-depth analysis on how people can make decisions to inform their behavior change. The model presupposes that behavior change does not happen instantly but happens consistently by incremental enhancement of behaviors (Haghi et al., 2018). The Trans-Theoretical Model of behavioral change is deemed appropriate to this project because it appreciates the fact that behavioral change is never an instant event but requires sequential process (Sharma, 2017: Hayden, 2019). In the current project involving training on mindfulness meditation in nursing, there is need of sequential interventions to enable the target population who are nurses to attain the desired goal. Nurses should be made aware of the essence of change, the behaviors that they need to adopt, the manner of sustaining the desired changes. As such, the focus on Trans-Theoretical Model of behavioral change, which is critical in stimulating behavior change in individuals, is poised to be a valuable framework for this project since it is linked to gradual yet effective modeling of behavior changes in people by guiding every step in the process of behavior change.
Stages of Change in the Model
According to Hashemzadeh et al., (2019), Trans-Theoretical Model of behavior change comprises six different stages of behavior changes including precontemplation, contemplation, Preparation, action, maintenance, and termination.
Precontemplation Stage
Here, the target population has no intention or motivation to assume the new behavior any time soon. In the present project, nurses do not have the understanding of the essence on engaging in training on mindfulness meditation. Therefore, they do acknowledge the benefits of involving in behavior change (Tseng et al., 2017).
The Contemplation Stage
Here, the target population begins to contemplate instigating changing their behavior in the near future. The individuals already have understanding of the dangers in their present behaviors. However, they are still unprepared for behavioral change. In the present case, nurses are already aware of the benefits of mindfulness meditation but are still unwilling to adopt mindfulness mediation (Tseng et al., 2017).
Preparation Stage
Here, the nurses have resolved to change their behavior and initiates initiatives to adopt the new behavior change. That is, the nurses are set to go on training on mindfulness mediation to attain the desired change (Tseng et al., 2017).
Action Stage
At the action stage, the target nurses who recently accepted to adopt the new behavior put more effort to nurture the behavior. In this case, the target nurses make suitable adjustments in behavior to ensure they apply the change and perfect the acquired behavior, which is mindfulness mediation (Tseng et al., 2017).
Maintenance Stage
The maintenance stage is characterized by effort by the nurses who recently assumed new behavior change to maintain the acquired behaviors and taking caution not to fall back to the old behaviors (Tseng et al., 2017).
Termination Stage
This is the final stage in the Trans-Theoretical Model of behavior change where the nurses who have completely adopted mindfulness mediation do not wish to go back to the old behaviors. At this stage, relapse is not expected and the target nurses are willing to get more information about the essence of the newly assumed behavior(Tseng et al., 2017).
Application of Each Stage on Proposed Implementation
Precontemplation Stage
Here, the target nurses have no plan to go on training on mindfulness mediation. They have no idea about the benefits of mindfulness mediation.
Contemplation Stage
Here, the target nurses start to acknowledge the essence of training on mindfulness mediation. They begin to consider attending training on mindfulness mediation in the near future. But, they are still unwilling to change their behaviors.
Preparation Stage
At this stage, the target nurses are set to get training on mindfulness mediation and learn about the benefits associated with it. They initiate different actions to attain the desired goals.
Action
Here, the nurses continue with training program to get more information about mindfulness mediation to help in improving nurses’ empathy, overall attention, and presence with patients and families.
Maintenance
At this stage, are putting more effort to continue with training on mindfulness mediation as needed and take caution not to fall back to the old behaviors.
Termination
This is the final stage where the target nurses have mastered the new behavior of mindfulness mediation. Here, relapse is not expected and so, the project is terminated.
Section E: Implementation Plan
Setting and Access to Potential Subjects
The setting is characterized by a technologically advanced, intricate, and stressful nature of health care that greatly compromises nurses’ ability to discharge their duties diligently. In such a state, nurses are usually overwhelmed, burdened, and stressed. Such conditions among other issues such as poor shift rotation, complex interpersonal relationships, and lack of motivation increase the nurses’ vulnerability to burnout and stress (Dall’Ora et al., 2020). Accordingly, the nurses are the primary subjects for the EBP project whose primary role is increasing their focus and readiness to provide patient by mindfulness meditation training.
Accessing the VA healthcare system’s nurses is not complicated as long the reasons for accessing them are clear and the necessary administrative protocols are followed. With the management being pro-change, a change agent should present the EBP project proposal and explain how it will enhance outcomes. Next, the change agent should work closely with the management to search for the resources necessary to implement the change fully. In this case, nurses’ training and progressive evaluation should be done collaboratively with the management. The management provides several appointees depending on the type and scope of the project to serve as members of the project team. They also monitor how the change process occurs to ensure that all procedures are correct and subjects are not harmed.
Time Needed to Complete the Project
The entire process should take a maximum of six months. The first month should be about preparation for change. Nuño-Solinís (2018) postulated that change readiness depicts a scenario where health care organizations can initiate and respond to change with minimal risk and in a way that creates advantage and sustains excellent performance. Here, the change agent alongside the management should share the vision for change with the nurses. Preparation for change is necessary to ensure that the health care staff understands the type of change coming and its reasons (Miake-Lye et al., 2020). Doing so is vital to minimize resistance to change and achieve the desired goals within the projected timelines.
The second month involves searching for resources necessary to implement the EBP project. Human, material, and required financial resources should all be available by the end of the second month. The training should occur in the third month. As the training takes place, all questions about the training and its implications should be answered at this stage. The main activity in the fourth month should be a detailed assessment of how nurses react to change and whether some improvements are necessary. If differently stated, it is the piloting stage before adopting the new practice in the fifth month. The last month should be for compiling a report and disseminating information for use in other practice settings. Dissemination spreads knowledge about EBP interventions on a wide scale (Derman & Jaeger, 2018). Its primary aim is to ensure that other health care organizations and providers have a reference when faced with a similar problem.
Resources Needed in the Implementation
The project requires nurse educators as change promoters, trainers on mindfulness mediation, and management as a partner. Professional assessment of the progress also requires human facilitation (external) to avoid bias. Financial resources are also required to purchase training materials, payment for the training venue, and payment for facilitators. Communication, refreshments, and training miscellaneous expenses also require some budgetary allocation. Some materials such as projectors can also be hired instead of purchasing. Generally, human and financial resources are the most needed to make the project a success.
Methods and Instruments
EBP projects require close monitoring to track and assess the outcomes of the proposed interventions. A monitoring plan represents a living document that should be updated regularly as the project’s implementation progresses. Questionnaires will be used to measure how nurses perceive the process and whether they are ready to apply the new knowledge to enable them to work more productively. Activity logs are also necessary, and data will be collected through attendance sheets. The other vital instrument is track indicators which will compare the project’s progress against the set timeline weekly. Track indicators will rate the project against expectations to determine whether any adjustments are required at some point.
The Process of Delivering the Solution
The required solution will be delivered via mindfulness meditation training of nurses. In this training, nurses will be shown how to focus on being intensely aware of what they are experiencing (sensing and feeling) at the moment without interpreting or judging the situation. Kriakous et al. (2020) supported the approach as among the most effective to enable nurses to provide diligent care amid stressful situations such as overwhelming work burden and poor shift rotation. Some of the strategies to be taught include guided imagery and breathing methods that relax the nurse’s body and mind and improve concentration (Gilmartin et al., 2017). The primary aim is to ensure that nurses are more informed about stress reduction in highly demanding situations.
Many benefits are associated with mindfulness meditation training of nurses. Firstly, mindfulness meditation helps nurses engage in peaceful balance and self-care by strengthening the brain region responsible for attention (New Jersey State Nurses Association, 2021). It also improves coping skills, relationships, self-understanding, and relaxation. According to Zeller et al. (2021), mindfulness meditation is associated with high clinical performance and excellent listening skills among nurses. Accordingly, the training is critical for creating an empowered workforce that can cope with stress, understands issues, avoids reacting, and has high resilience levels (Lin et al., 2019). The impacts are profound and justified.
The Data Collection Plan
EBP projects’ implementation should be data-centered. There should be data to evaluate whether the project’s outcomes achieve the desired outcomes. Data should be collected at every phase as described in the timeline. It should be both manual and automated as situations obligate and to enhance safety. The project manager will work alongside data analyst to manage and maintain the data. Electronic data will be stored in password protected devices and only availed when authorized by the project manager. Data analysis will be primary comparing what has been achieved against the set timelines. It will also involve an in-depth analysis of nurses’ overall behavior change against the set objectives. The difference in what is achieved compared to the expectation will inform whether the process is a success or not.
Dealing with Barriers, Facilitators, and Challenges
EBP projects are not immune to barriers and implementation challenges. Lack of resources, resistance to change, and the organizational culture are common barriers to change (Tappen et al., 2017). In the current project, potential barriers and challenges include different literacy levels among nurses, resistance to change, and abandoning of the project by the nurses. Facilitation will be managed by looking for expert trainers at a cost. These barriers can be mitigated through active involvement of nurses in the project, fostering free communication, and creating awareness. The fundamental assumption in this project is to achieve positive outcomes.
Feasibility of the Implementation Plan
Generally, the implementation requires substantial financial services, but its overall impact makes it cost-effective. Personnel, consumable supplies, equipment to facilitate training would cost up to $7,700. Computer-related costs to support data access, data management, and communication would cost up to $1,500. Other costs such as travel, presentation, remuneration, and miscellaneous expenses would go up to $4,500. Each resource is needed to make the training effective and achieve the desired effects.
Maintaining, Extending, Revising, and Discontinuing the Training
The training will improve patient health outcomes by ensuring that nurses are physically and mentally ready to provide health care services. After implementation, progressive evaluation is necessary every three months. If nurses’ capacity to work improves, the training program should be maintained and extended to other workforces, such as new nurses joining the organization. Progressive evaluation should also guide revisions if some areas need improvement or other methods to facilitate mindfulness meditation emerge and should be included. Discontinuation is justified if there is no significant difference between the trained and untrained nurses or there are no resources to facilitate continuous training.
Section F: Evaluation of Process
The rationale for Methods used in Collecting Outcome Data
As noted in the implementation plan, the project should depend on data and its evaluation to ascertain if its outcomes will meet the desired goals. Data collected at each stage through questionnaires will be both manual and automated based on the situation and the need to enhance safety. The questionnaires will enable nurse participants to answer set questions about mindfulness mediation, especially the effects of the training and implementation of the intervention to reduce stress, burnout, and enhance overall performance. This approach will allow for a set value where the researchers will use inferential statistical analysis to determine the outcome. Data analysis will compare what will be achieved against the set timelines. Through questionnaires, the researchers will assess the overall behavior change among nurses against the set objectives. The in-depth analysis will help in determining the effectiveness of the EBP intervention in enhancing overall performance among the nurses.
Outcome Measures Evaluation
The main outcome in implementing this project will be a reduction in stress levels among nurses in healthcare facilities within its stated period, six months. This implies that outcome measures’ evaluation will be critical to determining if the project will meet the desired goals. The project will follow the participating nurses through its timelines to determine the level to which the outcome measures meet the intended results of the proposal. The questionnaires will be used in determining is there is a positive or negative influence of mindfulness mediation on the nurses’ perception and their ability to perform and deliver quality care to patients (Kriakous et al., 2020).Outcome measures will look at how project barriers, facilitators, and challenges were tackled effectively to deliver the intended goals or objectives. Evaluation tools will assist in determining if the use of mindfulness mediation training is appropriate to create a safety culture and improve overall service delivery and better performance with reduced levels of stress and burnout.
How Outcomes Will Be Measured
All measured outcomes and used tools will be assessed to ascertain validity, reliability and applicability. The initial process for evaluation includes the applicability of the tools and measurement. Each questionnaire will highlight the needs and appropriateness of the intervention, mindfulness mediation training for nurses and its use in healthcare organizations and settings to enhance performance and reduce burnout and stress (Janssen et al., 2018). The questionnaires will be specific for the program, the participating nurse, and the significance of the activities being implemented. Evaluation of the applicability will continue during the program and changes enacted to the interventions based on feedback from the nurse practitioners and other professionals.
The validity or “appropriateness” of data collection will be assessed throughout the EBP project. This will entail monitoring the different variables used in the program to ensure that approaches being use are appropriate. The reliability of the methods will be verified using actual results of the program. For instance, if the training will lead to consistent outcomes, then the reliability of the if EBP intervention will be verified. However, if there will be inconsistency in the findings, then the EBP project will reevaluate the tools and methods being deployed in the change initiative.
Strategies for Tackling Poor Results
Poor results or outcomes from implementing the mindfulness mediation training may arise due to the changes that nurses will be required to undertake during the process. For instance, the activities of actual mindfulness mediation may not align with the ordinary perception and way of reflective thinking by nurses (Lin et al., 2019). Therefore, resistance to the program may occur leading to poor results. The process will evaluate this through the initial interviews and implement mitigation measures to prevent ineffective deployment of the intervention.
Implications for Practice
The project’s overall implementation will have positive and long-term beneficial implications for nurses and organizations. The need to have efficient and highly performing nurses cannot be overemphasized (Zeller et al., 2018). However, stress and other strains emanating from workload and other workplace factors impact the ability of these practitioners to offer better care leading to quality patient outcomes (Schaefer & Welton, 2018). Therefore, the study will ensure that practitioners have better information on the use of the intervention to improve performance and reduce stress among nurses. The EBP project will demonstrate the need to integrate mindfulness mediation into best practices to help nurses navigate increased demand that lead to burnout and poor performance.
Conclusion
The technologically advanced, intricate, and stressful nature of health care has greatly compromised the ability of nurses to diligently discharge their duties due to risks of burnout and stress. Stress continues to create dire problems among nurses including portraying mindlessness by losing attention to patient care provision leading to an environment where nurses can make decision without thoughtful, conscious involvement in the task at hand. In turn, this can result in serious adverse consequences such as medication errors, failure to recognize critical signs and symptoms, and other grave safety issues in patients. Moreover, stress inherent in nurses can lead to lower job satisfaction, depression, disruption in personal relationships, and psychological stress, which can lead to a risk of patient harm. Consequently, this project advanced the adoption of mindfulness mediation intervention among nurses to help in improving overall empathy, attention, and presence when attending to patients and their families. The readiness assessment that was conducted at the VA healthcare system showed that the organization is ready adopt the change. The readiness could be deduced from cultural practices such as availability of existing providers who were ready to promote the EBP, management support, shared decision making, and teamwork. The literature review indicated that training on mindfulness mediation among nurse have positive influence on stress among nurses. The Project used the Trans-Theoretical Model of behavior change to help in achieving the desired outcomes in planning change. The model is appropriate for this project because it guides every step in the process of behavior change. Finally, the evaluation was performed on the project to establish if the desired goals were achieved. The evaluation of process will be critical to making necessary changes for the project to attain its overall goals.
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Important information on Writing a Discussion Question
- Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
- There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
- Include in-text citations in your response
- Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
- Follow APA-7th edition
- Points will be deducted if the above is not followed
Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor
- A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
- Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
- Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
- Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
- Follow APA 7th edition
- Points will be deducted if the above is not followed
- Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
- Here are some helpful links
- Student paper example
- Citing Sources
- The Writing Center is a great resource