Developing an Evaluation Plan (NRS-441V)

Developing an evaluation plan and disseminating evidence
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Part A: Evaluation Plan
Methods
Health care providers understand that spiritual assessment is vital to provide holistic healthcare, but do not readily use spiritual assessment tools. Thus, there ought to be more emphasis on implementing changes to improve spiritual assessment in health care settings through focusing on education and training.
Understanding the role that spirituality plays in health care
It is assumed that there will be differences between what nurses address following training on the need for spiritual assessment. Spirituality plays a vital role in primary care as integrative health focuses on evidence based practice to facilitate acceptance and integration of spirituality in healthcare.
Comparing changes on perceptions about how spirituality influences behavior of nurse
Culture and experience influence how healthcare provider perceives the role of spirituality in influencing their thought patterns. Even with prior knowledge on the importance of spiritual assessment, undergoing training on these assessments helps to emphasize the need to change perceptions and behavior in line with more integrative healthcare provision.
Patient behavior on spirituality assessment before and after the changes
Health extends beyond physical conditions to spirituality, and conducting spiritual assessment helps nurses to appreciate the relevance of spirituality in improving general wellbeing of patients. Depending on the importance placed on religion and spirituality, patient behavior is likely to be different before and after the assessment. The more a person is religious, the more they are likely to be enthusiastic about the spiritual assessment if this is perceived to improve their healthcare needs. Even people who are less religious are likely to change their behaviors and perceptions if spiritual assessment is conducted.
To evaluate whether healthcare providers addresses spirituality in health care
After training and spiritual assessment, it is important to evaluate whether the assessment does address patient needs. At times, spiritual assessment does not meet patient needs at all, and hence evaluation helps to show whether the training and education have been effective in helping to integrate spirituality in health care. Ideally, this should be done at the end of the spiritual assessment.
Variables
Staff perceptions and attitudes on spirituality before and after training or education
Behavioral changes in staff as indicated by their willingness and frequency in using spiritual assessment tools before and after training.
Patient perceptions, thoughts and influence on behavior towards spiritual assessments indicated by changes in number of those willing to undergo spiritual assessment.
Reported cases on nurses ability to address both spiritual and health care needs comparing the period before training and after assessment is conducted.
Tools to educate project participants
The major project participants are nurses and nurse leaders, with education materials being power points, training manuals and pamphlets. PowerPoint will be relied upon to highlight on the most important aspects of spiritual assessment in the training sessions, and they can easily be shared electronically. Pamphlets and training manuals highlight on aspects that need reviewing in spiritual assessment especially the need to choose the most comprehensive spiritual assessment tools. The training manuals needs to emphasize on evidence based literature that shows that spiritual assessment plays a critical role holistic health care provision (Shulman et al., 2009). Essentially, the training should take into account the role played by nurses in improving spiritual history assessment, by highlighting on the role of communication and building trust as being vital to understanding a patient’s spiritual history.
The tools to educate participants on the need for spiritual assessment are based on learning about the significance of qualitative and quantitative assessment. The questionnaire is an applicable tool, as this allows health car providers to understand the spiritual history of patients and application through open ended questions that highlight on the need to provide holistic care. A questionnaire can also help evaluators to collaborate on strengths identified as one highlights on the most important aspects of the assessment (Shulman et al., 2009). As the patients have a chance to think about answers without limitations, the tools helps evaluations to identify spiritual issues without confining the patie...