Capstones: Master of Science in Nursing: 2019

DORTCH, Terim L., NILES, Amy E., & SIXTA, Brooke E. (2019). The purpose of this evidence-based project and PICO question was to investigate agitation in dementia patients and if exposure to aromatherapy, compared to no exposure, decreases agitation and the need for pharmacological interventions.

CLARK, Shaila, ELLIS, Hannah, LOCKER, Jessica & KNOP, Shonda. (2019). The purpose of this project was to investigate the use of home electronic monitoring in preventing post-surgical complication readmissions to the hospital. The PICO question was stated: In the adult post-surgical patient population, what is the effect of home electronic monitoring on the reduction of readmission rates in the 30 days following discharge?

WEDE, Nicole, LEWIS, Alexa, & FRANK, Jennifer. (2019). The United States is experiencing a nursing shortage, and failure to recognize the toll that shift requirements take on nurses could lead to compassion fatigue or burnout – both of which play into nurse engagement and retention rates. This review seeks to answer the question: In registered nurses working in acute care, inpatient settings, how effective is a resilience team in improving nurse engagement and retention?

DARRINGTON, Morgan, HOFFMAN, Samantha, & VINCENT, Elizabeth. (2019). Falls continue to be a prevalent patient safety concern nationwide and can result in patient injury, extended hospital stays, and increased costs to the patient and healthcare facility. The PICOT question for this project asked, in acute care patients (P), how does hourly rounding (I) as compared to rounding only in answer to call lights (C), decrease the incidence of falls (O) postoperatively (T)?

FECHNER, Jessie, NDODA, Kristin, & WORDEKEMPER, Jenna. (2019). This evidence-based project aimed to identify how VM affects the incidence of falls in hospitalized patients. The PICO question addressed was: In hospitalized patients with a high risk for falls (P), how does using VM (I) affect the incidence of falls (O)

BERNARD, Kim., FRITZ, Samantha. & KINNEY, Linney. (2019). The purpose of this evidence-based project was to identify the use of daily huddles with a visual management board (VMB) on improving communication among inpatient nurses. Information can get lost in-between shifts during patient report. In inpatient nurses (P), how does the use of a daily huddle with a daily Visual Management Board (I) improve communication (O)?

KIMES, Mackenzie & MCANDREW, Cory. (2019). The aim of this evidence-based project is to analyze the differences in patient safety measures, including medication errors and patient falls, when nurses perform handoff at the bedside versus performing handoff outside of the patient room. PICO: In hospitalized inpatients, does performing nursing handoff at the bedside, compared to performing nursing handoff outside of the patient’s room improve overall patient safety?

LAWSON, Sarah, LUDWIG, Barbara, & TRIPP, Breanna. (2019). This evidence-based project was completed to compare the effectiveness of patientcontrolled analgesia and preemptive analgesia in controlling postoperative pain, to direct change in clinical practice

WYANT, Amanda, SKOW, Caitlin, & HOLLMAN, Rebecca. (2019). The purpose of this evidence-based project was to gather information from literature to explore the most effective educational intervention to positively impact nurses’ knowledge, attitudes and awareness of HPV infection and prevention.

ANDERSON, Elizabeth, COLPITTS, Sarah, & DURHAM, Jennifer. (2019). The purpose of this evidence-based project was to understand how nurse burnout is treated and prevented and how the quality of patient care is affected. The PICOT question researched was “How do nurses suffering from burnout affect the quality of patient care given?”.

HODGES, Jamie, HOLTZ, Amy, NEUMEISTER, Ashley. (2019). The purpose of this project is to find the best evidence related to the effects of medication-assisted treatment (MAT) compared to abstinence treatment in the opioid dependent pregnant women to determine the effects on neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) during the neonatal period.

HAWKINS, Mary, MESSIER, Amber, MYERS, Kimberly, & NIHSEN, Ashley. (2019). The purpose of this project was to discover the effects of utilizing an acuity tool that interfaces with the electronic health record (EHR) to accurately assess patient acuity and balance the nurse-patient workload. The PICO question used for this project was: In acute care settings (P), does the utilization of an acuity tool that interfaces with the EHR (I) improve the balance of nursing workloads (O)?