TOPIC: Gestational Diabetes and screening Description: As the course progresses over the 11 weeks, learners will develop a scholarly project that demonstrates an application of evidence to practice for substantive change. This project emphasizes critical appraisal and application of evidencebased research, scholarly writing, and critical thinking. The scholarly project will be submitted as a written paper in APA format/style. In addition, learners will present a summary of the final project orally or by creating a PowerPoint presentation. Learners will select one of the following types of projects related to their specific advanced role specialization and target population: • Educational program • Evidencebased healthcare policy change • Evidencebased clinical issue or protocol Overview of the Evidence Based Project (EBP): In Week 1 of the course, students will identify an area of inquiry as a basis for practice change, and in Week 2, write their clinical question in PICOT format that will drive the literature search. Following approval of the practice change idea and the PICOT question by course faculty, in Week 3 students will begin their literature search and rapid critical appraisal (RCA) using the RCA checklists available in Appendix D of the course text (Melynk & FineoutOverholt, 2011) and in Word format. The Search Tracker may be useful in organizing and tracking your search. Your evidence review will be completed in Week 4, resulting in a finished Evaluation Table containing only the “keeper” studies. In Week 5 you will synthesize the evidence to determine best evidence for your project. Faculty will continue to serve in the role of mentor as the student progresses through the remaining steps of the project. Weekly submissions will be used to monitor progress in the development of your proposal. It is recommended that upon receiving feedback from faculty on each section, you revise your work and add that section to build your final paper. Doing so as you proceed through the course will avoid lastminute work. When you began your study of evidencebased practice it was contrasted with the research process. The underlying goal of EBP is to appraise research and study its application to specific patient populations in order to identify best practices. In order to accomplish this, what must be included within your project is a research study. You will most likely compare preintervention data with postintervention results. In some cases, statistical analysis will be necessary. Your proposal will include plans for this study. EBP Project Criteria Students will prepare a formal project proposal using APA format. Below is an outline for the final paper with the weeks where this content will be covered. Each week you will turn in parts of this outline as Dropbox assignments. The week each part will be due is indicated in the outline. After receiving feedback from faculty on each part submitted, it is recommended that you begin building your paper, adding the pieces where they belong. Since you will not be implementing this project, the results section has been omitted. This outline is consistent with the format used for journal articles when reporting results of evidencebased practice projects. Criteria and organization of final paper Abstract Part 1 • Introduction – Week 2 o Practice issue o Summarize the practice issue in need of change providing background information about the organization (setting) and the perceived significance and severity of the problem o Describe the specific aims of the project – what improved outcomes do you hope to achieve • PICOT question State your question in PICOT format, labeling each part with PICOT in parentheses • Significance – what is the significance of the issue in terms of poor outcomes, cost, etc. Part 2 – Week 3. 4, & 5 • Evidence review and synthesis o List the names of the databases you searched and if limited to a span of time, i.e., less than 5 years old o Summarize “keeper” studies o Summarize the synthesis of the body of evidence Part 3 – Week 6 • Purpose of the project – include intervention • Theoretical framework • Clinical questions Part 4 – Week 7 • Study design • Setting/sample • Confidentiality • Procedure/intervention • Instruments/scales and measurement of outcomes • Data collection Part 5 – Weeks 8 & 9 • Data analysis • Outcomes expected • Aligning stakeholders Appendices • Evaluation Table – turned in Weeks 3 & 4 • Synthesis Table – turned in Week 5 The paper provides evidence of synthesis of coursework, professional writing, and graduate level scholarship.