CUNY NUR 499 Cancer Screening and Prevention Capstone Clinical Project
This is an information and guideline sheet to use for your Capstone Clinical Project. Please note: Projects selected must be able to be designed, implemented and completed during the course of the semester.
NUR 499 Capstone ProjectInformation&Guidelines6-2019.pdf
View the following document that describes Capstone Project terminology Capstone project rubric terminology page.docx
This is a video on the first steps to consider when identifying a quality improvement idea or project that you can use as a resource to help get your creative ideas flowing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1IQ81J70rk
nur499capstone_projectinformation_guidelines6_2019.pdf rubric capstone_proj
NURS 499 Capstone Project Information And Guidelines
Capstone Clinical Project Description:
Purpose: The capstone clinical project is designed to provide the student with an experiential leadership opportunity that begins by identifying a quality-safety problem in their clinical area. In collaboration with the preceptor, students will develop, implement, and evaluate a project that will improve patient/community outcomes in a setting where healthcare is delivered or community health is influenced. Students should identify interprofessional team members and collaborate with them throughout the semester to achieve their project goals. Students will integrate and apply knowledge of nursing research, leadership and management, community health, teaching and learning, and nursing theories to their project.
Capstone clinical projects are to be carried out and completed during the semester the student is in the capstone course NURS 499. Projects are approved and supervised by clinical and course faculty and preceptors. Students are encouraged to consider expanding and applying work done in earlier courses, particularly the leadership change project to use as a foundation for the project.
Step One: Identify A Clinical Problem/Issue For The Capstone Clinical Project:
● Students must align the problem/issue with a health challenge for the target population in their clinical
● The issue can address areas such as staffing, patient safety, nurse safety/practice, communication,
● The issue can be related to an adverse event, medical error or quality improvement need identified in a clinical
● Link the problem/issue to at least one national quality and safety initiative and Examples include:
● The Joint Commission (National Patient Safety Goals)
● National Quality Forum (NQF)
● Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
● Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI)
● Institute for safe Medication Practices (ISMP)
● Healthy People 2020
Select an area of focus for the Capstone Project from any of the following tracts:
■ Quality and safety in healthcare settings
■ Community based health care with vulnerable population
■ Health Education, particularly with diverse cultural groups
■ Health policy and finance
■ Environmental health
■ Informatics (Simulation, Telehealth, EHR)
■ Global health
■ Clinical practice
Please discuss other ideas with the instructor if you are unsure. Some important things to consider:
● This is a one semester course and you have limited time, financial resources to achieve your goals. You need to consider limitations of the clinical site and the population.
● Align the outcomes of the project with the national quality and safety initiatives, nursing standards, guidelines, best
● Use SMART goals (Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Relevant and Timebound) to evaluate project
Step Two: Approval Process – Students need to identify and submit their Capstone Clinical Project for approval by the due date in accordance with the submission policy. Part of the project is determination of a clinical site and preceptor. The preceptor may have project ideas for the clinical site and they need to also approve of the project.
Note: The Capstone Project is inclusive of the 90 hours of the clinical experience The Instructor supervising the Clinical Component/Capstone Project will: Read the Capstone Project Blogs (which are graded by the course didactic instructor) and give the student feedback on their development and progress. They will maintain communication and collaboration with the student, the preceptor, and the course didactic instructor.
The Preceptor for the Clinical Component/Capstone Project will:
● Agree to precept the student in the clinical site and agree to the Capstone Project
● Follow the guidelines for preceptors
● Communicate and collaborate with the faculty supervising the Clinical Component of the course
Capstone Project Plan Format (Use as an outline when writing your project proposal) Title: Example: Business Plan to Reduce Patient Falls on Four West
● Executive Summary – This is one of the most important parts of your business plan. Leaders will review it before they read any other section and this is where you need to sell your idea for change. You need to explain your idea for
improvement in a clear, concise way as leaders often breeze through this section.
Think of whom the leader or leaders are that you will be presenting this plan to and what will motivate them to want to implement your
● Project Need: Describe what the project needs to achieve (purpose of project), include objectives, scope of work, method of approach, main project deliverables, exclusions, constraints and any
● Example: Discuss how your project can reduce risk and improve patient satisfaction, safety, and reduce cost that result from implementing your plan. Include numerical statistics related to
current organizational goals as this adds evidence to support the need for your project and it will get leaders attention quickly.
● Organization Description – Describe the current organizations structure (your clinical site) including historical information on the
Example: When it was created, what it has achieved since being in business, how many patients it sees annually, and other information that describes the state of the organization in the community.
Make sure to include the mission and vision statements for the organization. Describe how your project will impact and correlate with the mission and vision statement and the overall organization’s goals.
■ Target Population –Patient Population Impacted or Population Impacted –
Describe the target audiences of people who will be impacted by this project and explain their needs. Provide numerical statistics as this adds power to your presentation.
Example: Patients throughout the hospital and specifically patients ages 50-80 years old who represent 70% of the patients seen in the hospital annually
● Assumptions – Include planning assumptions that you have made related to the availability of key resources that will be needed for successful implementation of the project. Make sure to include at what times (stages) of implementation the key resources will be
● Business Case – Include the cost estimates to implement the project and details on the alignment of cost with project implementation activities. Make sure to
include the timeline (life cycle of the project from beginning to end) in this
● Project Team Structure – Describe the structure of the team (interdisciplinary members and roles) that will implement the project, who, how many, where, and when. Describe who will be the project
■ Communication and Change Management Plan – Describe who in the organization needs to be communicated with to implement the project
successfully and the change framework and plan you have created to implement the project. Describe process for change management related to
■ Quality Plan – Explain how quality will be managed and measured during the project implementation and during the project implementation follow up period. Describe any quality assurance tools that will be used to measure outcomes.
Consider measuring responsibilities, standards, quality criteria that will be used to measure key deliverables. Define any audit procedures that will be used and how this will impact change management of the
● Project Controls – Describe what controls will be used for reporting and
monitoring of project implementation, the exception process that will be used
during the project implementation, and contingency plans for identified risks that might occur during the project implementation.
● Summary – Summarize the importance of the project related to performance and or quality improvement and why the organization can’t afford not to move forward with the project. Describe how the project will help the organization achieve its goals related to the vision and mission statements.
Capstone Project Plan Grading: Grading will be based on inclusion of all content criteria listed in the guidelines. There are no word limit minimums or maximums as the grading is on the content and process of the project.
Other Requirements Related to Capstone Clinical Project:
Capstone Project Blog – Create a blog which chronicles the progress of your capstone project (at least every other week)
Capstone Project Presentation – Present the capstone project at the clinical site and to the class online – The final capstone project presentation is a compilation which includes your proposal, theory incorporated into the proposal, a PowerPoint presentation of your proposal. Discussions of other student’s projects are also part of the project presentation assignment
*Separate grades will be given for the Capstone Project Blog(s), Capstone Project Proposal, and Capstone Project Presentation
Examples of Past Capstone Projects:
Create a patient falls reduction program or process
Introducing a change on a unit such as one to be in compliance with JC Development of plan to address patient satisfaction, HCAHPS Development and implementation of new procedures/policies Development and piloting a specific protocol
Implementation of an evidence-based practice strategy
Collaborating with nursing staff to implement new evidence based procedure or nursing practice Educating staff regarding quality and/or safety issues
Working with staff on administrative policies Inter-professional performance projects Health teaching with vulnerable populations about issues such as environmental risks, medication safety
Collaborating with community agencies in the development of policies related to health risks such as transmission of communicable diseases
Collaborating with community environmental health agencies in the development of policies related to health risks…
