Project Scope and Plan (PSP)
General Information: This project will educate the RN’s on a Cardio-thoracic Progressive Care
Unit on the importance of educating their patients on medications and incision care.
Project name: __Educating RN’s to Educate Their Patients___
Project Manager name: ___Maria Kurlenda RN___
Site:__Spectrum Health 7 Meijer Heart Center___Location:__Grand Rapids, Michigan____
A. Project Overview: Describe the product or service of the project, the reason project will be
undertaken, and the purpose of the project. Discuss the problem or opportunity this project
addresses. Include the quality and safety issue this project will address. Support with current
evidence-based practice literature or data specific to the project.
I am currently employed at Spectrum Health on a Cardio-thoracic progressive care unit.
We generally care for patients who have had open heart surgery, vascular surgery or a heart or
lung transplant. In all cases, majority of our patients go home with some type of an incision that
they need to care for after they are discharged. I have decided to educate the RN’s on my unit on
the importance of educating our patients. Education is something that some nurses on my unit
are very diligent about and others are not. I believe if the nurses are taught the importance of
educating our patients, the patients will be more compliant with their care when they are
discharged. We see too many patients readmitted due to an infection in one of their incisions or
due to not taking a medication because they were not aware of the importance of it. Our nurses
are very intelligent and know that education is important to our patients, but when their day
becomes so filled with RN tasks that need to be done; education seems to be put on the back
burner.
A reminder to our nurses will get them back into the habit of educating our patients. In
turn, our patients will have better outcomes and less re-admittance rates. As nurses, it is our duty
to care for our patients to the best of our ability and part of that is to be sure they have the
knowledge at discharge for care to continue at home. According to the Code of Ethics of Nurses,
“The nurse promotes, advocates for, and strives to protect the health, safety, and rights of the
patient” (Code of Ethics, 2001). Education provided to patients can help to protect their health
just as the Code of Ethics states.
All of the nurses working on my unit have the knowledge and resources to properly
educate every patient that they come across. Since it would be too large of a project for me to
educate every patient on our unit over a span of a couple of months, I decided to educate the
nurses on the importance of patient education. This way, the whole staff nurse population kind
of becomes a part of my team in educating our patients.
References:
Code of Ethics for Nurses with interpretive Statements (2001) retrieved from
http://www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/EthicsStandards/CodeofEthicsforNurses/Co
de-of-Ethics.pdf
B. Project Goal(s): Describe the project goal(s) using SMART (specific, measurable, accurate
and agreed to, realistic, and time bound) formula. These goals will be used to measure and
determine the project’s success at its conclusion.
To educate all floor nurses on a Cardio-thoracic Progressive Care Unit on the importance
of educating their patients on incision care and about medications to improve the outcomes of
our patients.
C. Project Objectives/Deliverables: List the specific items or services that must be produced in
order to fulfill the goal of the project. Objectives/deliverables should be measurable results,
measurable outcomes or specific products or services. List and number in a logical order to
complete the project.
1. Obtain a group of possibly 3 other floor nurses to help distribute fliers and give presentation at
meetings by February 9, 2014
2. Create brief flier to hand out to nurses by February 16, 2014
3. Create narrated Powerpoint presentation by February 17, 2014
4. Distribute flier to Nurses at Shared Leadership Meeting on February 18, 2014
5. Give Presentation at Shared leadership Meeting and at February staff meetings
6. Distribute flier to Nurses who did not attend meetings February 18, 2014 through March 18,
2014 (Try to get flier to 100% of staff nurses on the unit)
7. Distribute Feedback survey to Nurses March 25, 2014 through April 10, 2014 to see if project
made a difference
D. Comprehensive List of Project Requirements/Activities/Tasks: List by corresponding
objective the necessary specifications of the objective/deliverable. Example 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, etc
This is a breakdown of the objectives/deliverables into their most basic components. Consider
this the action plan of the project.
1. Form group of three additional staff nurses to help distribute fliers and give Powerpoint
presentations at Staff meetings by February 9, 2014
1.1. Create brief flier to distribute to nurses by February 16, 2014
1.2. Create Powerpoint presentation by February 17, 2014
1.3. Distribute flier to nurses at Shared Leadership meeting on February 18, 2014
1.4. Give Powerpoint presentation at Shared Leadership meeting on February 18, 2014
1.5. Meet with group to decide who will give Powerpoint presentations at each of three Staff
meetings at the end of February by February 20, 2014
1.6. Distribute fliers to remaining floor nurses that did not attend a meeting from February 18,
2014 through March 18, 2014
1.7. Give Powerpoint presentation at February Staff meetings by February 28, 2014
1.8. Distribute brief feedback survey to nurses and obtain their feedback from March 25, 2014
through April 10, 2014
1.9. Evaluate responses from floor nurses on if they have educated their patients more since
receiving the flier and viewing the Powerpoint presentation. Hopefully all nurses will be able to
say that they have given more education to their patients since this project has begun.
E. Timeline: Identify time estimates by hours for each objective/deliverable in hours. These are
estimates only and will be updated as project progresses.
Please see above in “Comprehensive List of Project Requirements/Activities/Tasks” section for
timeline
Activity
Number of Hours
Creating of Flier
Creating of Powerpoint Presentation
Distributing of flier
Giving of Powerpoint Presentation
Distributing Short Survey to Nurses and
obtaining responses
3
10
3
3
5
Evaluate Nurses responses on if project was
successful
5
F. Assumptions & Constraints: Identify all project assumptions and constraints.
Assumptions
1. An RN team member will be available for all Staff meetings in February to give Powerpoint
presentation
2. Open communication will remain between all team members through end of project
Constraints
1. Getting Presentation to all floor nurses. Not all nurses attend a Staff meeting or the Shared
Leadership meeting.
G. Success Criteria: Provide the “value” of the project. Why is this project important and of
what benefit it is? What impact will it have on client care and client outcomes including aspects
related to quality and safety? How will you know if the project was a success? Support with
evidence-based literature or nursing data.
The success of this project will be evaluated based on the nurses’ responses to the brief
survey at the end of the project. The responses will allow the project manager to know if more
education was provided to patients due to the flier and Powerpoint presentation provided. This
project is important because I believe that the more educated our patients are, the better choices
they will make when it comes to their health. Since I work on a post-surgical unit, I decided to
focus on patients that I would generally care for. My project is planned to decrease incision
infection rates and medication compliance. I believe that the more a patient knows about his/her
medication, the higher chance is that they will take it regularly. “Nurses in all practice settings g
o through a number of "time-outs", rechecks and procedure changes in the name of keeping
patients from harm. Ironically, this focus on safety does not always translate into the arena of
patient teaching. In the busy day-day realities of patient care, it can become an afterthought or
turns into a task performed so that a check can be placed in the "discharge instructions given" or
"patient teaching materials provided" box” (McNeill, 2012). This is exactly how I feel as a nurse
on the unit I work on. I believe that if a nurse can say that he/she can say that she actually makes
time for patient education and does not just fit it in because she has to, my project is a success.
References
McNeill, B. E. (2012). You "Teach" BUT Does Your Patient REALLY Learn? Basic Principles
to Promote Safer Outcomes. Tar Heel Nurse, 74(1), 9-16.
.
H. Signatures: (no electronic signatures)
Project Manager:_Maria Kurlenda_RN__
Nurse Manager/Supervisor: To be signed at a later date
Phone: (616) 391-6730
email: nardos.osterhart@spectrumhealth.org