Module Components

• Overview
• Assignments

Topics

• DNP PROJECTS
• DNP PROJECT COURSES
• MAP-IT
• DNP PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOL

NDNP 810 - DNP Project Identification

Module 1: Mobilize the DNP Project

MAP-IT

MAP-IT (Mobilize, Assess, Plan, Implement, Track) is a model that will aid your planning, implementation, and evaluation of your Quality Improvement initiative. Students will use the steps in MAP-IT to ‘map out’ the path toward the desired change. Using the following step-by-step, structured approach with the project site team will produce a comprehensive and specific plan, with reasonable timelines, assigned responsibility, clear objectives, and well-defined action steps related to an overall strategy.

• Mobilize individuals who have a stake in the issue. Consider all disciplines that may be impacted by your work, such as Pharmacy, Social Work, Clinical Information Systems, etc
  • Assess the context for the change. This will involve an in-depth assessment of the site to understand the environment. Determine the culture of the organization, the current structures, resources, processes, and outcomes as they relate to your initiative.
  • Plan your approach: start with a vision, stating your purpose and goals. Consider what changes will need to happen for an improvement to occur and the strategies and action steps to help you achieve that vision.
  • Implement your plan using concrete action steps that can be monitored and will make a difference.
  • Track progress over time.

MOBILIZE –STEP 1

The first step in the MAP-IT process is to mobilize your team in the organization. You have secured a Clinical Site Representative and a Sponsor and will add to the team based on individuals who have a stake in the initiative. Recruit keeping your broad goals in mind:

1. Identify those who need to be involved in order to accomplish your anticipated goals:
   1. Who is already involved and what roles are they playing?
   2. What roles need to be filled or created and who might best fill them?
   3. What resources would they bring to the table?
   4. Is this the right time for them to be recruited?
   5. What potential barriers exist to recruiting your team members, and what strategies can help overcome those barriers?

Once members have been identified and commit to the team, roles and responsibilities should be identified. This can be communicated through meetings or officially in writing. This step will help your team members remain invested in your shared work. One of the biggest team challenges is to sustain members’ involvement in the process. This challenge can be overcome in part by agreeing as early as possible on a vision for your work. Your vision can be reflected in purpose statement that everyone agrees to:

The purpose of this quality improvement project is to implement and evaluate the TIPPS Program to reduce falls among all patients in intensive care unit.

IMPLEMENTATION TEAM

PROJECT LEAD

Your project is expected to have at least three team members at this point, you are the Project Lead and a Clinical Site Representative (CSR) and a Sponsor. As the Project Lead, you have been in communication with individuals at the site to discuss the problem of concern, the root cause, and a feasible evidence-based solution for implementation and develop consensus on your initiative.

You will be expected to motivate and demonstrate your ability to persuade others and impact outcomes by applying your leadership skills around team-building, communication, delegation, and problem solving.

CLINICAL SITE REPRESENTATIVE (CSR)

All DNP students are required to identify and work with a Clinical Site Representative (CSR) in implementing their DNP project. It is expected that the student will work in more of a collaborative rather than a supervisory relationship with their CSR, which is why the term Clinical Site Representative is used rather than Preceptor. The CSR should be the student’s primary support person for “opening doors” to make the project happen. It needs to be someone with the power and authority to approve the project and help the student achieve buy-in form the administrative sponsor. This is someone with whom the student will have frequent contact throughout the project courses.

It is preferable, but not essential, that the student’s CSR is doctorly prepared (e.g., DNP, Ph.D., MD). Their responsibilities are:

• to meet with the student at least monthly to develop a proposal for a Quality Improvement project in NDNP 810 (January-May)
• to listen to a formal presentation of the student’s proposal, provide written approval and/or recommendations for change, and facilitate the IRB process at the practice site in NDNP 811 (June-July)
• to meet with the student at least every two weeks and support the student and implementation team, whom the student will lead in implementing and evaluating the process and outcomes of your project in NDNP 812 (August-December)
• to listen to a presentation of the project results by the student, and support the dissemination of the project findings within the organization in NDNP 813 (January-May)

SPONSOR

The Sponsor is someone in an administrative role with the power and leadership skill within the organization to secure resources or remove barriers that will affect the DNP project’s implementation effectiveness. The sponsor is also the individual within the organization with the authority to approve or shut down the project.

REMAINDER OF THE TEAM

Consider the previous questions around who has a stake in the initiative and who is interested in serving. In addition to who, what skills sets do you need to add to your team to make it high functioning. For instance, change champions are individuals in roles similar those individuals you are asking to change. For example, if your goal is to change a specific nursing practice then you will need nursing change champions – include representatives from the night and day shift. If the change affects other disciplines such as physicians, information technology, administrative assistants, or pharmacy, it is essential to recruit members from these disciplines.