Capstone Part I
Overview:
The Capstone Paper provides students an opportunity to actively integrate and apply concepts they have learned to the development and analysis of a project that addresses a problem or issue encountered within the student’s profession, institution, or organization. The student will incorporate clinical reasoning and evidence-based practice using a systematic process for the ultimate goal of comprehensive, safe patient care. Each individual assignment in the synthesis course will build to a larger capstone project due near the end of the course. In the introduction assignment, the student will discuss the introduction, background, and significance of a chosen clinical topic and develop a PICOT-formatted clinical question.
Submit the assignment by the due date on the calendar as a .docx in APA format.
Part I of the paper is organized in a template according to the following sections. Please – use this APA-formatted template!
Introduction
Background and Significance
PICO(T) evidence review question
Literature Review
The entire capstone paper must include a minimum of 5 articles, excluding websites and blogs. Students are encouraged to include as many as references as needed to support the project.
NOTE THE TEMPLATES ATTACHED-You should have the initials files you worked on for this project
The Subject to write about:
In terminally ill patients in Texas receiving care in palliative and hospice settings, how does the absence of legal Death with Dignity regulations, compared to standard palliative care, affect patients’ experiences of suffering, maintenance of patient autonomy, and quality of life in the final months of life?
Considering your Capstone II paper where you will be choosing a study design, and implement the capstone consider a comparative cohort study design.
Here’s why:
Population: You will have two groups of terminally ill patients in Texas: those receiving care in settings with legal Death with Dignity regulations (if any) and those receiving standard palliative care.
Comparison: The study will compare these two groups on the basis of their experiences of suffering, maintenance of autonomy, and quality of life.
Outcome Measurement: These outcomes can be measured using validated questionnaires and scales over the last months of the patients’ lives.
Here are some validated questionnaires to consider:
Validated tools to measure patient experiences of suffering (e.g., pain scales, symptom burden questionnaires)
Autonomy (e.g., autonomy scales, patient interviews)
Quality of life (e.g., Quality of Life at End of Life questionnaire).
Here is a link to an article Quality of Life questionnaire info:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6405258/
