Assignment: Application: Systems Theory

As noted in the Learning Resources, systems theory provides a meaningful and beneficial means of examining challenges in health care organizations. To do this effectively, however, it is essential to assess all system components, as some may be relatively healthy while others are problematic.

For this Assignment, you apply systems theory to the examination of a problem in a department or a unit within a health care organization. (Note: You may use the same problem you identified for the Discussion as long as it meets the criteria for this assignment.)

To prepare:

- Review the Meyer article, "Nursing Services Delivery Theory: An Open System Approach," in this week's Learning Resources. Focus especially on the information presented in Table 1 (p. 2831) and Figure 2 (p. 2833).

- Reflect on your organization or one with which you are familiar. Within a particular department or unit in this organization, identify a problem the staff is encountering.

- Using Table 1 in the Meyer article as a guide, analyze the department or unit, identifying inputs, throughput, output, cycles of events, and negative feedback. Consider whether the problem you have selected relates to input, throughput, output, cycles of events, and/or negative feedback.

- Think about how you could address the problem: Consider what a desired outcome would be, then formulate related goals and objectives, and translate those goals into policies and procedures.

- Research professional standards that are pertinent to your identified problem.

- Reflect on the organization's mission statement and values. In addition, consider how addressing this problem would uphold the mission and values, while improving the organizational culture and climate. (Depending on the organization you have selected, you may have explored these in the Week 1 Discussion.)

To complete:
Write a 3- to 5-page paper (page count does not include title and reference page) that addresses the following:

- Describe a department or unit within a health care organization using systems theory terminology. Include a description of inputs, throughput, output, cycles of events, and negative feedback.

- Describe the problem you identified within the department or unit using an open- systems approach, and state where the problem exists using the systems theory model (input, throughput, output, cycles of events, or negative feedback).

- Based on this information, explain how you would address the problem as follows:
o Formulate a desired outcome.
o Identify goals and objectives that would facilitate that outcome.
o Translate those goals and objectives into policies and procedures for the department or unit.
o Describe relevant professional standards.

- Explain how your proposed resolution to the problem would uphold the organization's mission and values and improve the culture and climate.Formulating a question that targets the goal of your research is a challenging but essential task. The question plays a crucial role in all other aspects of the research, including the determination of the research design and theoretical perspective to be applied, which data will be collected, and which tools will be used for analysis. It is therefore essential to take the time to ensure that the research question addresses what you actually want to study. Doing so will increase your likelihood of obtaining meaningful results.

In this first component of the Course Project, you formulate questions to address a particular nursing issue or problem. You use the PICOT model-patient/population, intervention/issue, comparison, and outcome-outlined in the Learning Resources to design your questions.

To prepare:
- Review the article, "Formulating the Evidence Based Practice Question: A Review of the Frameworks," found in the Learning Resources for this week. Focus on the PICOT model for guiding the development of research questions.
- Review the section beginning on page 71 of the course text, titled, "Developing and Refining Research Problems" in the course text, which focuses on analyzing the feasibility of a research problem.
- Reflect on an issue or problem that you have noticed in your nursing practice. Consider the significance of this issue or problem.
- Generate at least five questions that relate to the issue which you have identified. Use the criteria in your course text to select one question that would be most appropriate in terms of significance, feasibility, and interest. Be prepared to explain your rationale.
- Formulate a preliminary PICO question-one that is answerable-based on your analysis. What are the PICO variables (patient/population, intervention/issue, comparison, and outcome) for this question?
Note: Not all of these variables may be appropriate to every question. Be sure to analyze which are and are not relevant to your specific question.
- Using the PICOT variables that you determined for your question, develop a list of at least 10 keywords that could be used when conducting a literature search to investigate current research pertaining to the question.

To complete:
Write a 3- to 4-page paper that includes the following:
- A summary of your area of interest, an identification of the problem that you have selected, and an explanation of the significance of this problem for nursing practice
- The 5 questions you have generated and a description of how you analyzed them for feasibility
- Your preliminary PICOT question and a description of each PICOT variable relevant to your question
- At least 10 possible keywords that could be used when conducting a literature search for your PICOT question and a rationale for your selections