Chamberlain College of Nursing NR 451 RN Capstone Course

Capstone Project Milestone #1:

PICO and Evidence Appraisal Worksheets

PICO Worksheet

Your Name:

Date:

Your Instructor’s Name:

Purpose: To identify a problem or concern that nursing can change and develop a PICO question to guide the change project.

Directions: Use the form below to complete the PICO assignment in Milestone #1. This includes filling in the table with information about your research question and your PICO elements.

Step 1: Select the key PICO terms for searching the evidence. Clearly define your PICO question. List each element P (problem, population, or problem), I (intervention), C (Comparison with other treatment/current practice), and O (Desired outcome). Is the potential solution something for which you (as nurse or student) can find a solution through evidence research? Look in your book for guidelines to developing your PICO question.

Step 2: Identify the problem. What have you noticed in your work or school environment that isn’t achieving the desired patient or learning outcomes? What needs to change in nursing, what can you change with the support of evidence in the literature? Describe the problem or practice issue that you want to research. What is your practice area; clinical, education, or administration? (This is NOT where you will list your PICO question)

Step 3: How was the practice issues identified? How did you come to know this was a problem in your clinical practice? Review the listed concerns and check all that apply.

Step 4: What evidence must be gathered? Everyone should have a literature search. However, what other sources of reliable information will be helpful for your particular question?

Step 5: What terms will you use in order to make sure that your search is wide enough to obtain required information but narrow enough to keep it focused? What databases will you search? How will you narrow your search if needed?

Evidence Appraisal Worksheet

Your Name:

Date:

Your Instructor’s Name:

Purpose: To find evidence to support an intervention that will change the outcomes.

Directions: Type your search question below. Find AT LEAST FOUR sources to support the need for change and the potential intervention you have selected to solve the problem. At least three of your sources must be peer-reviewed articles. The fourth source could be another peer-reviewed article or a reliable, credible source. Look in your text for ideas of other sources that can be used. Using the table below, insert and describe your four chosen resources.

Step 1: APA Reference for the article. You will need to list the reference for the source in APA format. Be careful when using built-in APA formats and library citations. They may not be in APA format. Refer to Chapter 7 of your APA manual.

Step 2: Type of Source. If your source is a research article, you will need to ensure that it is a peer review article. You need at least three peer-reviewed articles for your project. If your article is a non–research source, then you will need to list what type of source it is; systematic review, clinical practice guidelines, organizational experience, or individual expert opinion/case study/literature review. You may only use ONE non-research source.

Step 3: Strength of Research. Refer to page 238-240 for research evidence and page 242-244 for non-research evidence. While you do not need to assign a level for each study, you will assign a quality of evidence (high, good, or low/major flaw) and should discuss the study using some of the elements that are discussed in the appraisal forms. For example, Research evidence: was the sample size adequate? Was there a controlled group? Was it a randomized study? Were results clearly stated? Was the conclusion based on the results? Were study limitations discussed? Not all of these elements need to be discussed, but you should discuss this information to determine if the strength of the evidence is HIGH, GOOD, or LOW/MAJOR FLAW.

Step 4: Brief Description of the Research. In this section, you will summarize the source in your own words. How does this information apply to your project? What are the results of the source? What are their recommendations?

Strategic Management

Part 1

Organizational Structure and Strategic Leadership

The business firm is no longer just a place where people come to work. For most of the employees, the firm confers on them that sense of belonging and identity—the firm has become their "village", their community. The business firm of the twenty-first century is not just a hierarchy, which ensures maximum efficiency and profit; it is also the community where people belong to and grow together—where their affective and innovative needs are met (Lim, Griffiths, & Sambrook, 2010).

Reference:

Lim, M., Griffiths G., & Sambrook, S. (2010). Organizational structure. Mind

Map Route. Retrieved from http://www.mindmap.0rg.pl/?mindmap=

Organizational_structure

Discuss the following questions in relation to organizational structure and strategic leadership:

•How important it is to be able to identify and distinguish between the organizational structures used to implement business-level, corporate-level, and international strategies? Give examples of various organizational structures and how they are used to develop strategies.

•What is the relationship between organizational structure and organizational controls? Are they always interrelated? What will happen to a company's competitive advantage if one or the other isn't in place?

•What are the attributes of an effective strategic leader? Discuss the value that person brings to the strategic management process.

Part 2

Founded in 1847, Siemens developed into one of the leading global electrical engineering and electronics firms over the past 160 years. At the end of fiscal 2007 (September 30, 2007), Siemens employed nearly 400,000 people at 1,698 locations all over the world. From 1998 to 2007, firm revenues and profits increased almost every year, resulting in revenues of 72.448 billion EUR and net income of 4.038 billion EUR. Headquartered in Munich, Germany, Siemens is publicly listed in Germany at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and in the US at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). By the end of fiscal 2007, Siemens’ market capitalization had reached 88.147 billion EUR. 1

During the period from 1998 to 2007, the business portfolio was frequently adjusted (see Exhibits 1 and 2 ). Examples include the spin-off of the semiconductor business under the name Infineon Technologies by an initial public offering (IPO) in 1999. At the end of 2007, the firm’s portfolio consisted of the following operating groups: Automation & Drives (A&D), Industrial Solutions and Services (I&S), Siemens Building Technologies (SBT), Osram, Transportation Systems (TS), Power Generation (PG), Power Transmission and Distribution (PTD), Medical Solutions (Med), and Siemens IT Solutions and Services (SIS). In addition, Siemens Financial Services (SFS) and Siemens Real Estate Services (SRE) were part of the portfolio.

Exhibit 1: Siemens Corporate Structure 1998

Source: Siemens Annual Report 1998.

Exhibit 2: Siemens Corporate Structure 2007

Source: Siemens Annual Report 2007.

Together with about 180 regional companies in five regions (Germany, Europe other than Germany, Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Africa, Near and Middle and Commonwealth of Independent States), the operating groups were part of a matrix organizational structure (see Exhibit 2 ). Although the operating groups had profit-and-loss responsibility and were largely autonomous regarding their operative business activities, some influence from the central top management and central organizational functions existed. First, the group presidents were frequently also members of the overall firm’s managing board. Second, although the central entity primarily exercised financial control over the operating groups, some strategic measures that affected the way the businesses operate also existed. For example, the centrally controlled operational excellence initiatives were mandatory for all operating groups.