Evaluation Plan Design

In the previous assessments, the intervention that I recommended to enhance the satisfaction level of the nurses was to optimize the number of patients assigned to one nurse for a decrease in nurse burnout (Hidayat et al., 2023). The Intervention has a direct correlation with the positive nurses’ performance in the hospitals of Minnesota as well as improved patient outcomes in terms of health. Ideally, a good evaluation plan is necessary to see whether the intervention is achieving the intended improvement in nurse performance and public health or not (Zhang et al., 2023). Thus, without a clear plan for how to evaluate the intervention, the success of the intervention also remains unspecified. In this assessment, I’ll set up an evaluation strategy for the intervention hiring more nurses to staff a unit that I proposed in the last assignment.

Evaluation of Plan

Defining Outcomes

The goal that I am trying to pursue through the chosen intervention is decreasing the level of burnout among nurses, thus protecting the well-being of nurses and enhancing patients’ health status. The result associated with raising the nurse-patient ratio demonstrates the primary objective of the intervention, which is to provide patients with the highest caliber of care by boosting nurses’ productivity. Durkin (2019). It also shows that during the job, the nurses should have focus and efficacy for the improvement of their health as well as that of the patients. The outcome (reducing nurse burnout) sets up an environment for developing a framework to enhance the nurse-to-patient ratio. After the ratio mentioned above shift, nurses who do not experience burnout will be more focused and productive, which will improve the quality of care (Kranz et al., 2021). Furthermore, patient safety will be enhanced because the clinical work of nurses will be focused on addressing the issue of medication errors and improving on patient experience of care. The potential other consequences associated with increasing the ratio of nurses to patients are that nerves are not stressed in their working hours to cause their ill health. They also contribute to the improvement of the hospital and patient outcomes (Connelly et al., 2023). A third and final effect of the intervention is the increase in salary expenses that the hospitals need to pay. This could put extra costs on the hospitals if the hospitals themselves do not generate extra income from their operations.

Creation of an Evaluation Plan

The implications of the nurse-to-patient ratio (decrease in the rate of nurses’ burnout) will be assessed using the results of nurse questionnaires. The results about the well-being of patients will be measured through interviews with the patients or their families. They will use structured questionnaires and interviews to capture data from nurses. The hospital administration will use this assessment technique to help determine the intervention’s efficacy (Kesten et al., 2022). The information that can help to assess the results is a new nurse-to-patient ratio, the nurses’ point of view, and patients’ statuses before and after the intervention. The hospital dashboard will be updated with frequent data, surveys will be sent to nurses, and patients will receive spreadsheets, forms, or questionnaires (Krumm et al., 2022). A dashboard, forms, and questionnaires will be the tools used to gather data. In the next fifteen days, all the data collected on the dashboard will be further categorized based on the benchmarks developed. For example, the general surgery ward will have an estimated nurse-to-patient ratio of 1:5, the emergency department of 1:4, and the critical care unit of 1:2.

Underlying Assumption

The plan of evaluation is based on the assumption that questionnaires as one of the tools are administrated as a reliable part of the procedure of the survey (Meum et al., 2020). Their reliability and repeatability made me include them as a tool in the evaluation plan. The second assumption relates to dashboards: the author perceives dashboards as a mandatory instrument to obtain information about the state of KPIs in the chosen health setting.

Discussion

Advocacy

Analysis of Nurse Role

One of the key components is to understand that nurses can and should lead that change, and the care experience must be enhanced. Health organization changes can also be driven by leadership strategy or having a leadership role within the organization. For instance, they can take on the following roles and responsibilities of a transformational leader (Abbasinia et al., 2020). As a change management tool, it is efficient which a nurse leader can encourage the followers to attain the objectives of change. By satisfying their individual needs, a transformational leader can facilitate the integration of the followers and enhance their performance levels. The understanding is that working in an interprofessional team can enhance care quality and client experience for nurses. They have a crucial role in the collaboration since they are the providers who interact most with the patients. 

Effects of the Plan on Nursing and Interprofessional Collaboration

It will also increase the nurse-patient ratio so that the nurses will become more efficient instead of burning out. That will enhance nurses’ performance and role as they will be able to work effectively without the work burden (Cateau et al., 2021). The boost in the above ratio shall also assist in partnership matters concerning the enhancement of results. Since it has an adequate number, the workload will be split in such a manner that leaders and nurses will perform their portion with efficiency. Higher staffing number of nurses is associated with patient well-being and saving, which decreases the predominance of readmissions, devoted nurse pressure, and burnout, raising competency and level of patient satisfaction. 

Areas of Uncertainty and Knowledge Gaps

The impact of the enhanced nurse staffing ratio also depends on the manager’s distribution and allocation of work among the nurses (Abd et al., 2024). The area of uncertainty here is how a nurse manager will be able to allocate tasks to nurses after say an enhancement of this staff ratio. Second, there is a lack of literature on the risks of skills and available staff that is insufficient for the nurse managers to make a staffing decision.

Future Steps

Improvement in the Current Project

Incorporation of cultural competency into the existing intervention can enhance the current project further. For instance, if a patient is of a certain cultural background, then the nursing staff attending to that patient should also be of similar cultural background. Thus, for the target population (Nurses of Minnesota Hospitals), education on cultural competencies can be effective (Connor et al., 2023). This will assist the hospital management in enhancing measures of health in facets such as culture and language. The intervention plan could leverage more form and dashboard metrics of the extent of the online hospital to optimize outcomes. These technologies shall aid in the collection of information for the assessment of the project in a way of precision that would assist the management in having a feeling of noting the areas that need more enhancement to achieve desirable results (Connor et al., 2023). Another revolutionary technology that can be employed to enhance the project is the Electronic Health Record (HER) system and coding technology. Some of these technologies assist the management and providers to monitor the progress of the patients, readmission, discharge, etc. By identifying pre and post-intervention factors, management can also improve the assessment of the initiative. Of all the models already in practice, the providers can benefit from the team nursing (TN) model. 

Underlying Assumption

The rationale for conceptualizing project improvement is based on new technology and the continued evolution of the healthcare system corresponding to patient demands (Kolawole et al., 2022). Every technology has its difficulties but they can be overcome with the help of various practices like training and cooperation with the information technology department.

Reflection on Leading Change and Management

Impact on My Ability

This capstone project has improved my skills in managing projects and implementing change in the context of healthcare. It has also improved my leadership skills because it has acquainted me with the importance of transformational leadership in change projects. It enhanced my understanding of leadership in teamwork especially when it comes to the accomplishment of several goals (Soriano, 2024). From the knowledge acquired from the discussion, I ascertain that transformational leadership enables one to manage change and lead change projects in their practice in the future. I can improve team collaboration by focusing on the means of communication and the level of engagement of members in the decision-making process.

Reflection on Personal Practice

The work done in the project can be taken to practice since I can demonstrate the importance of enhancing the nurse-to-patient ratio in a health setting and how management can support the change (Lucas, 2023). It will improve my performance in handling the multiple functions of a nurse leader in the organization. Regarding other contexts, implementing the change in a health organization will decrease nurse burnout and its concomitants on the quality of services provided to hospitalized patients.

Integration of Resources

The intervention to increase the ratio of nurses to patients is grounded on the assumption that nurse burnout has implications for the welfare of the nurses and the quality of care delivered to patients. The research focuses on the relationship between nurse burnout and the patients. The authors also gave recommendations for what needed to be done to reduce the effects of nurse burnout (Ghezzi et al., 2021). The evaluation plan entails all aspects that are backed by sources of information and evidence. For instance, the formulation of an evaluation plan as well as integrating a survey as an assessment tool is evidenced by the studies undertaken. The work also highlights the importance and advantage of surveys as an assessment instrument in the health sector. 

Conclusion

The expected gain for increasing the number of nurses per patient is diminishing the nurse’s burnout which in return will help to enhance the patients’ quality of results. Thus, the intervention can be cleared with the help of the questionnaire and other instruments (Karlsson et al., 2020). The intervention plan can enhance the performance of the nurses and working relationship whereas they can switch to leadership for enhanced results. The current project should also benefit from cultural competency improvement added to it. The work that I will be doing in this capstone project will assist me in undertaking leadership roles and management of projects in my practice.

References

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