Final Capstone Paper
NURS 413
Instructions and Grading Rubric
Final Capstone Paper
During Week 12, you will submit a Final Capstone Paper (see required paper components below). In the paper, you will identify and describe a nursing leadership and management problem and then design a process improvement plan. As part of your paper, you will also identify any real or potential ethical and/or legal issues that may arise related to your process improvement plan. In addition, you will incorporate an evaluation of leadership styles and discuss communication planning.
This paper must have 7-8 pages of content (using double-spaced lines and 1-inch margins), and will have a separate title page and reference page. The paper must be formatted and referenced using 7th edition APA style guidelines.
As part of Discussion # 5 you will post a draft of your capstone paper to the weekly discussion for peer review. In your response post for this discussion, you will provide an in-depth peer review of one other student’s paper (this peer will be assigned by course faculty). You may find more details about the peer review in the instructions for Discussion 5 in the Week 9 &10 module of the Content area of the course on D2L. The final capstone paper is due Sunday of Week 12 by 11:59 PM CT. The paper is worth 100 points and is part of the Tier 1 grading component.
Final Capstone Paper Components
Your final capstone paper will be divided into seven sections as follows:
- Introduction – in this part of the paper you will identify and describe a nursing leadership and management problem. It can be a real or a created scenario.
- PICOT Statement – in this part of the paper you will formulate and write a PICOT statement related to your identified problem using the PICOT Question Template posted on D2L under Table of Contents.Page limit: one PICOT statement, less than ½ page.
- Process Improvement – in this part of the paper you will design a process improvement plan for your identified problem and PICOT statement based on a literature review of at least three (3) articles that support your improvement plan. These articles must be research articles that are evidence based.
- Ethical and/or Legal Issues – in this part of the paper you will identify any real or potential ethical and/or legal issues that may arise related to your process improvement plan.
- Leadership Style – in this part of the paper you will identify a leadership style that would best assist in solving the identified problem. Use the information from chapter one in your textbook to assist you in defining the leadership style. Rationale must be included in this section as to why the leadership style was chosen.
- Communication Plan – in this section you will develop a detailed communication plan for the process improvement you have designed using Kotter’s Eight-Stage Process of Creating Major Change. Refer to Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model document post on D2L under Table of Contents.
- Conclusion– in this section of the paper you will summarize all major sections of the paper and provide a summation statement regarding how the process improvement you have designed will assist you as a leader and manager.
Criteria |
Full Credit Received |
Point Deduction |
Introduction |
5 points
Clearly identifies and |
0-4 points
Does not identify and/or |
PICOT Statement |
5 points
Formulates and write a |
0-4 points
Does not formulate and |
Process Improvement |
30 points
Designs a process |
0-29 points
Does not design a process |
Ethical/Legal Issues |
5 points
Identifies real or |
0-4 points
Does not identify real or |
Leadership Style |
10 points
Identifies a leadership |
0-9 points
Does not identify a |
Communication |
30 points
Develops a detailed |
0-29 points
Does not develop a |
Conclusion |
5 points
Summarizes all major |
0-4 points
Does not summarize all |
Spelling, punctuation and |
10 points
No spelling, punctuation, |
0-9 points
Spelling, punctuation, and |