| Course | NURS 8002 Foundations and Essentials for the Doctor of Nursing Practice |
|---|---|
| Week | Week 5 |
| Paper type | DNP problem statement |
| Length | About 600 words, 5 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Walden University |
| Program | Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) |
| Updated | September 2026 |
Free sample paper for NURS 8002 Week 5
DNP Problem Statement: Advance Care Planning Conversations for Adults Over 65 at Annual Visits in a Suburban Primary Care Practice
Student Name
College of Nursing, Walden University
NURS 8002: Foundations and Essentials for the Doctor of Nursing Practice
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
DNP Problem Statement: Advance Care Planning Conversations for Adults Over 65 at Annual Visits in a Suburban Primary Care Practice
Problem Statement
In a composite suburban primary care practice of six clinicians, adults aged 65 and older are seen each year for a Medicare annual wellness visit or a comparable preventive visit. At present, a documented advance care planning conversation, meaning a recorded discussion of the patient's values, preferred health care agent or care preferences, occurs at a minority of these visits, and when it occurs it is rarely revisited in later years. Desired practice, consistent with federal rules that list advance care planning as an element of the annual wellness visit and with a consensus definition of advance care planning as an ongoing process, is that every patient in this group is offered such a conversation at least once a year and that the result is documented where any clinician can find it. The gap between these two states means that many older adults reach a serious illness or crisis without having said, or had recorded, what matters to them or who should speak for them.
Rationale for Each Boundary
Adults aged 65 and older. This group is most likely to face decisions about serious illness in the coming years, and it is the group for whom the annual wellness visit exists. Younger adults with serious illness also need advance care planning, but including them would require a different visit type and workflow.
Annual wellness and preventive visits. These visits have protected time for prevention, and federal rules list advance care planning among the services that may be furnished during the annual wellness visit at the beneficiary's discretion (42 C.F.R. § 410.15). Acute visits are excluded because patients arriving with a new problem are rarely ready for this conversation.
A documented conversation, not a signed form. Advance care planning has been defined as a process that supports adults in understanding and sharing their values, life goals and preferences regarding future care, and a completed form without a conversation does not meet that definition (Sudore et al., 2017). The statement therefore measures the conversation and its documentation.
Revisited over time. Preferences change, especially as health changes, and advance care planning for older adults is best understood as a series of conversations rather than a single event (Lum et al., 2015). A conversation five years ago is not current practice.
What the Statement Does Not Claim
The statement uses relative terms, a minority of visits, because no local data are reported here; the first task of the project will be to measure the baseline. It does not claim that advance care planning improves any specific outcome in this practice, only that the practice falls short of a standard it has adopted. And it does not propose an intervention. Keeping the solution out of the problem statement allows the evidence review to consider several approaches, such as nurse-led conversations, patient-facing preparation tools or clinician prompts, before one is chosen.
How This Differs From a Research Problem
A research problem would ask whether a way of conducting advance care planning produces better outcomes than another, and it would aim to generate knowledge that applies beyond this practice. This is a practice problem: the evidence that advance care planning conversations are valuable and should be offered already exists, and the question is why a practice that has adopted the standard is not meeting it and how to close the gap. The statement may be refined as baseline data arrive, but its core, the distance between current and desired practice for a defined group, should hold.
References
Lum, H. D., Sudore, R. L., & Bekelman, D. B. (2015). Advance care planning in the elderly. Medical Clinics of North America, 99(2), 391-403. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mcna.2014.11.010
Medicare Program: Annual wellness visit providing personalized prevention plan services, 42 C.F.R. § 410.15 (2024).
Sudore, R. L., Lum, H. D., You, J. J., Hanson, L. C., Meier, D. E., Pantilat, S. Z., Matlock, D. D., Rietjens, J. A. C., Korfage, I. J., Ritchie, C. S., Kutner, J. S., Teno, J. M., Thomas, J., McMahan, R. D., & Heyland, D. K. (2017). Defining advance care planning for adults: A consensus definition from a multidisciplinary Delphi panel. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 53(5), 821-832. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2016.12.331
NURS 8002 Week 5 instructions, in plain terms
Problem statement assignments at this point typically ask you to state your practice problem in a form precise enough to guide a project, with a brief rationale. One or two pages is common. Write the statement in a few sentences: the setting and population, current practice, desired practice from a named standard and the consequence of the gap. Use relative terms if you have no local data yet, and say so. Then justify each boundary, explaining why this group, this moment of care and this measure. Say what the statement does not claim, including any solution, so the evidence review stays open. Explain briefly how your problem differs from a research question.
Inside the NURS 8002 Week 5 example
The statement appears as one highlighted paragraph of four sentences. A rationale section justifies four boundaries: the age group, the annual wellness and preventive visit, the conversation rather than the form, citing Sudore and colleagues' consensus definition, and revisiting over time, citing Lum and colleagues. The visit boundary cites the federal rule listing advance care planning in the annual wellness visit. A section states what the statement does not claim, including any outcome and any intervention. A final section explains how the practice problem differs from a research problem and how the statement may be refined. No local numbers appear, and the paper says why.
NURS 8002 Week 5 rubric: what earns full marks
Problem statements are generally assessed on precision, grounding in a standard, a defensible scope and the absence of a built-in solution. Precision is judged by whether a reader outside the practice could determine what counts and what does not. Grounding requires that desired practice come from a cited standard or policy. Scope earns credit when each boundary is justified. Many rubrics reward statements that leave the solution open for the evidence review. Faculty also look for honest handling of missing local data. Concise writing matters, since a problem statement should fit on one page. APA citations for the standards complete the criteria. Graders often test a statement by asking whether two readers would count the same visits, so precise terms pay off.
NURS 8002 Week 5 help from the desk
Problem statements lose marks when they describe a topic, such as end-of-life care, rather than a gap in a defined group. Another common loss is embedding a solution, for example a lack of nurse-led conversations, which assumes the answer. Some statements claim local rates the writer cannot support. Others leave the population or setting vague. Name the group, the setting, current practice, desired practice and the consequence, justify each boundary, label relative terms honestly and keep the solution out. The desk can draft a statement for the problem you have identified. Revise the statement when baseline data arrive, and note the change. Read the statement aloud to someone outside nursing and ask what they think it means.
Get a NURS 8002 Week 5 example written to your instructions
Attach your problem statement prompt, rubric and any length or template limits, and a statement written to them is returned. First one free; 24 to 48 hours from request. Your practice's own records are never requested or seen, and the example contains none; its relative wording marks exactly where real local evidence would go in your version.
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NURS 8002 Week 5 questions, answered
Does the problem statement need local numbers?
Not always at this stage. The example uses relative terms because its practice is invented, and some sections accept that in a first draft. Many faculty, though, expect some local indicator by the time the statement is final, drawn from records you are permitted to access. Your rubric's wording on evidence of the problem tells you which standard applies this week.
How is a DNP problem different from a research problem?
A research problem asks what is unknown; a DNP problem asks why something already established is not happening in a particular setting. The example makes that distinction explicit in its closing section. Statements that ask whether an intervention works, or that propose to compare groups, usually belong to research, and faculty in this course tend to return them with exactly that note in the margin.
Can the problem change after this week?
It can narrow, and it often should. What damages later work is a problem that changes population or setting without saying so. The example's boundaries are written so that later refinement has something definite to refine. If your problem shifts, stating the change and its reason in the next submission tends to be read as scholarly judgment rather than as inconsistency.
Where can I find a free NURS 8002 Week 5 sample paper?
The whole problem statement, four-sentence core, boundary rationale and limits, is free to read on this page. A statement for your own practice problem can be requested.
Why does the NURS 8002 Week 5 statement measure a conversation rather than a signed form?
Because advance care planning is defined as a process of understanding and sharing values and preferences, and a completed form without a conversation does not meet that definition.