response 7 2/1

In order to evaluate an evidence-based practice project, it is important to be able to determine the effectiveness of your change. Discuss one way you will be able to evaluate whether your project made a difference in practice.

(May Bal 5/23)

The main goal of a change project is to bring the necessary change to a target population in the clinical facility. The main aim of evidence-based interventions in the change project is to refine the quality of care provided to the patients and promote treatment outcomes (Nilsen et al., 2020). In addition, reducing the cost of healthcare is also a paramount consideration in implementing evidence-based practice in a clinical facility. The change project must be evaluated to establish whether the applied interventions have brought the anticipated results. Evaluation techniques and tools used should be capable of measuring the expected change.

My evidence-based project aims at reducing in-patient elderly falls in the medical-surgical unit. Elderly falls in the medical-surgical units are rampant in my organization, with sequelae ranging from minor to severe injuries and even death. These consequences often lead to prolonged stay at the facility, which affects the general outcome of the patient. As the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services do not reimburse extra costs associated with falls, the cost implication has been high for the facility and the patient (Cuttler et al., 2017).

To evaluate whether my change project has made a difference in practice, I will use the summative evaluation access the rate of falls using the electronic health records. After successfully implementing the project, I expect the rate of falls among the elderly in the medical-surgical unit to decrease significantly. In addition, I will use summative evaluation to assess the financial implication caused by falls. The costs attributed to falls should reduce considerably after implementing the project.

References

Cuttler, S. J., Barr-Walker, J., & Cuttler, L. (2017). Reducing medical-surgical inpatient falls and injuries with videos, icons, and alarms. BMJ Open Quality, 6(2), e000119. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjoq-2017-000119

Nilsen, P., Seing, I., Ericsson, C., Birken, S. A., & Schildmeijer, K. (2020). Characteristics of successful changes in health care organizations: an interview study with physicians, registered nurses, and assistant nurses. BMC Health Services Research, 20(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-020-4999-8

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