NSG 511 WEEK 5 Empirical Indicators

Sample Answer for NSG 511 WEEK 5 Empirical Indicators Included After Question

NSG 511 WEEK 5 Empirical Indicators

As discussed in Week 1, empirical indicators are measurements in practice. Now that you have identified and built your practice model, you can start looking for ways to test it. This assignment is designed to help you better align your practice model to the practice setting.

Review the Week 3 and 4 assignments.

Analyze your theory and practice model to develop testable empirical indicators.

Explain your chosen empirical indicators by presenting them in the form of testable hypotheses or by explaining what data would result from testing them.

Present a plan for how you will test the hypotheses or gather data in your practice setting.

Format your assignment as one of the following:

• 18- to 20-slide presentation
• 1000-word paper
• another format approved by your instructor

Click the Assignment Files tab to submit your NSG 511 WEEK 5 Empirical Indicators assignment.

A Sample Answer for the Assignment: NSG 511 WEEK 5 Empirical Indicators

Title: NSG 511 WEEK 5 Empirical Indicators

Empirical Indicators

Nursing knowledge helps in patient care and it is obtained from nursing science, nursing experience, and personal experiences. A component key to nursing knowledge is empirical indicators. Empirical indicators refer to actual instruments, experimental conditions or procedures followed when assessing or observing concepts linked to middle-range theory (Ryan et al., 2019). Empirical indicators offer data that helps in testing the middle-range theories. The indicators offer data that one can calculate as quantitative scores or sort into qualitative categories. The purpose of this paper is to use empirical indicators in line with the Dorothea Orem Self-Care theory.

Orem Self Care Theory

Self-care theory was coined by Dorothea Orem as she tried to improve the quality of nursing in general hospitals in her state. Nurses use the theory to guide and improve practice since it aligns with other validated theories, laws, and principles (Blok, 2017). The theory covers self-care, which is a practice of activities initiated or performed by an individual to maintain life, health, and wellbeing. It also revolves around self-care agency, which denotes the human ability to engage in self-care that is dictated by factors like age, health, developmental state, resources, social-cultural experience, and life experience. The main focus of the theory is self-care, preventing illness and promoting independence (Blok, 2017). The theory points out the need for nursing care because it projects that not everyone can provide their care. Disabled patients have to receive specialized assistance to meet their needs and optimize their functionality.

Theory Analysis

Orem’s theory provides nursing practice with a comprehensive base. It specifies when nursing care is needed and can be applied in different nursing practice settings. Nursing care is essential when one has a limitation or deficit that makes it hard to maintain self-care. The theory premise is that individuals can take care of themselves and their dependents (Younas, 2017).  The theory is linked to research, clinical practice and nursing goals. The theory can be used in a research program to establish self-care behaviors and self-care requisites that match a specified clinical population.

Applicability of Orem’s Theory

The concepts of self-care theory are clearly defined which makes it easier to identify empirical indicators for each concept. The theory is readily applied because it has well defined theoretical entities that can be easily measured (Younas, 2017).  Several instruments have been developed and validate and are used to measure aspects of self-care theory. Researchers have managed to operationalize concepts in an empirically testable manner. An example is the Community Care Deficit Nursing Model that is used in community care settings. The model signifies that Orem’s theory has a theoretical framework that is applicable in various practice settings and hypotheses that can be derived from various nursing concepts stipulated in the theory.

Practice Setting Example

An ideal project is the identification of self-care deficits and self-care abilities among hospitalized patients with heart failure.  The project would offer valuable information that can be followed to come up with an educational plan on the topic as well as results that generate hypotheses to enhance nursing knowledge (Hagran & Fakharany, 2015). The proposed study will assess whether a relationship exists between the heart failure self-care deficits and quality of life indicators for patients suffering from heart failure. The hypothesis that will guide the study is; increased self-care abilities improve the quality of life of patients suffering from heart failure.

The project is selected because, annually, there are 1, 084,000 hospitalizations linked to heart failure. The hospitalizations require 34.8 billion dollars, which is a significant healthcare cost (Hagran & Fakharany, 2015). Additionally, proper treatment and management of heart failure can reduce healthcare expenditures as well as mortality rates. Reduced self-care abilities result in frequent hospitalizations and poor quality of life. An educational plan would help the patients learn about self-care which would enable them to control their lives. The patients can learn ways to take care of themselves and follow the prescribed treatment which would enhance their functional capacity as well as their quality of life.

The study will be guided by the self-care theory. The framework is selected because the variables and hypotheses of the study relate to the concepts of the theory. The study variables are a nursing agency, therapeutic self-care demands, self-care requisites, self-care deficit, self-care agency and self-care (Hagran & Fakharany, 2015). The theory will help in identifying the heart failure self-care deficits that affect the quality of life.  Once the self-care deficits are identified, it will be easier to define self-requisites that should be addressed to foster self-care agency in patients with heart failure.

The study will have 30 participants with heart failure and it will adopt a quantitative, cross-sectional research design.  The empirical indicator that will help in the study is the Self-Care of Heart Failure Index (SCHFI) scale. The scale assesses self-care, self-care management and self-care maintenance (Hagran & Fakharany, 2015). Additionally, the study will assess the quality of life using the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure (MHLIF) questionnaire. The questionnaire offers scores for physical and emotional dimensions as well as a total score. Once the data is obtained from the participants, correlations will be computed to determine if there is a relationship between self-care maintenance, self-care management, self-care confidence, total self-care scores the physical quality of life, emotional quality of life, and total of quality of life scores.

Conclusion

Empirical indicators refer to instruments, experiments condition or procedures followed when testing the middle-range theories. An example is Orem’s self-care theory whose aim is to prevent illness and promote independence. The theory pints out when nursing care is needed and can be used in research to establish self-care behaviors and self-care requisites that align with a clinical population. Self-care theory has well defined theoretical entities that make it easier to identify empirical indicators. The concepts have been transformed into empirically testable aspects like the Community Care Deficit Nursing Model. For the current practice, a proposed study would be the identification of self-care abilities among heart failure patients. The patients would answer the Self-Care of Heart Failure Index (SCHFI) scale to establish their self-care abilities as well as the Living with Heart Failure (MHLIF) questionnaire to establish their quality of life. The data obtained would be correlated to establish a relationship and eventually generate an education plan that addresses patient needs and enhances nursing knowledge.

References

Blok, A. C. (2017). A middle‐range explanatory theory of self‐management behavior for collaborative research and practice. In Nursing forum, 52(2), 138-146.

Hagran, A., & Fakharany, A. (2015). Critique of Orem’s theory. The Journal of Middle East and North Africa Sciences, 1(5), 12-17.

Ryan, P., Weiss, M., & Papanek, P. (2019). A substruction approach to assessing the theoretical validity of measures. Journal of Nursing Measurement, 27(1), 126-145.

Younas, A. (2017). A foundational analysis of Dorothea Orem’s self-care theory and evaluation of its significance for nursing practice and research. Creative Nursing, 23(1), 13-23.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.

Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.

One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.

I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.

Weekly Participation

Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.

In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.

Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).

Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.

APA Format and Writing Quality

Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).

Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.

I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.

Use of Direct Quotes

I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.

As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an underastanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.

It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.

Click here to ORDER an A++ paper from our Verified MASTERS and DOCTORATE WRITERS:

Lopes Write Policy

For assignments that need to be submitted to Lopes Write, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.

Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.

Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?

Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.

Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.

If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.

I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.

As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:

Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.

Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

Welcome to class

Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to

I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.

Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted.

If you think you would be needing accommodations due to any reasons, please contact the appropriate department to request accommodations.

Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.

Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course.

Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

• Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
• There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
• Include in-text citations in your response
• Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
• Follow APA-7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

• A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
• Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
• Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
• Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
• Follow APA 7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

• Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
• Here are some helpful links
• Student paper example
• Citing Sources
• The Writing Center is a great resource