Therapeutic Nursing Interventions Paper
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to define a clinical problem, review the literature for appropriate research supported nursing interventions, critique current practice and provide a plan for changing or adapting clinical practice.
Role: You are an RN working in a clinical environment. Each unit has its own way of doing things. As an emerging leader, you are charged with questioning WHY things are done the way they are. Is there literature to support the way things are being done or should changes be made based on evidence?
Audience: When writing this paper, your audience is your peers. Write in a way that utilizes professional terms, but also explains terms and concepts. Just as you are learning as you compose the paper, you will want to write in such a way that a peer could understand what you are presenting.
Guidelines:
Introduction. Introduce the reader to the concepts being presented and the issue to be discussed. Describe the specific settings and the practices within the setting. (For example, a 40 bed med-surg unit in an urban area).
Present the Clinical Problem. Identify a clinical problem in your practice [i.e., pain, nausea, depression, anxiety, medication errors, delirium, sleep deprivation etc.] Note: This is not a professional health care issue such as staffing, entry level of education, etc.
Define the problem as it is found in your practice environment (do NOT use textbooks)
Describe why this is a clinical problem in your environment
Explain why you chose this problem to investigate
Be very specific with examples.
Current Clinical Practice. Describe the current clinical practice relating to this problem.
Summarize the formal mechanisms for dealing with this problem or the formal mechanisms that create the problem [i.e., policy manual, standard of practice, clinical path, etc.]
Summarize the informal mechanisms for dealing with the problem or that create the problem [What the actual current practice is].
Analyze the rationale for any discrepancies between the formal and informal methods
Nursing Interventions. Identify three [3] nursing interventions from the literature, which address this clinical problem. The interventions should be based on current literature (literature should be no more than 5years). At least one intervention must be based on research. These are therapeutic interventions, which means that they are focused on improving patient care. Textbooks may be used as a citation source, but are not the best sources.
At minimum 6 sources of current literature are needed to support the interventions- At least two [2] sources of literature must be primary research or evidenced based practice studies.
In your paper analyze the relationship between the research, other literature and the clinical problem.
Develop a hypothesis for a nursing intervention you would like to test to handle the problem you chose.
Summary. Should conclude your assignment with a summation of the problem and your interventions.
APA format. It is expected that the principles of good writing will be used. Including grammar, punctuation, spelling and sentence structure. This paper must follow the guidelines of APA format (6th edition).
