| Course | NURS 8720 Doctoral Seminar II |
|---|---|
| Week | Week 10 |
| Paper type | Methods section draft with reviewer notes |
| Length | About 1,010 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Walden University |
| Program | Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for NURS 8720 Week 10
Methods for Getting Ventilated Patients Moving Under a Nurse-Led Protocol in a Community ICU: A Draft Written for a Reader Who Was Not in the Room, With the Reviewer's Notes
Student Name
College of Nursing, Walden University
NURS 8720: Doctoral Seminar II
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Methods for Getting Ventilated Patients Moving Under a Nurse-Led Protocol in a Community ICU: A Draft Written for a Reader Who Was Not in the Room, With the Reviewer's Notes
Design
The project is quality improvement in one unit, organized by the Model for Improvement: changes are tested in Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles, and run charts track the result over time (Langley et al., 2009). It is reported following SQUIRE 2.0 (Ogrinc et al., 2016).
Setting and Participants
The setting is a mixed medical, surgical and cardiac ICU of 14 beds within a 160-bed community hospital, with an average of 11 occupied beds and about 53 qualifying ventilator days each month. Day and night shifts are staffed by six or seven registered nurses, most caring for two patients, with one charge nurse per shift. One physical therapist serves the hospital on weekdays only; respiratory therapists are present on every shift.
Unit of measurement. The unit of measurement is the eligible ventilator day. A calendar day counts when an adult in the unit was on invasive ventilation at some point that day and the ventilation had already lasted a full 24 hours when the day began. It is removed from the count when comfort care alone was being given, when an open abdomen or an unstable spine was present, or when a bed rest order was active at 0700. Days on which the patient failed the safety screen are not excluded.
Staff. All registered nurses and respiratory therapists who work in the unit during the project period take part as the people delivering the protocol.
Intervention
The intervention is described as delivered at the end of the second cycle; later changes will be reported in the results.
0400 to 0500. As part of the early-morning assessment, the night nurse checks each ventilated patient against the consensus mobilization safety criteria (Hodgson et al., 2014), using a one-page checklist covering respiratory, cardiovascular, neurological and other criteria. The result, pass or not pass with the reason, is written on the bedside whiteboard and entered in the flowsheet.
0900 round. The charge nurse reads each ventilated patient's screen result aloud during the interdisciplinary round. Any physician concern is recorded and, if it changes the result, the whiteboard is updated.
0900 to 1200. For each patient who passed, the day nurse pages the respiratory therapist, and together they attempt the highest activity the patient can safely reach, starting with sitting over the edge of the bed. The physical therapist joins on weekdays when available but is not required.
1800. The day nurse enters the highest ICU Mobility Scale level reached that day in a required flowsheet field.
Stopping rules. Mobilization is stopped and the event recorded if the patient's oxygen saturation falls below 88% for more than one minute, heart rate rises above 140 or falls below 50, systolic pressure falls below 90, or the patient shows distress or an airway, line or drain is dislodged.
Measures
Main measure. Qualifying ventilator days with a recorded ICU Mobility Scale level of 3 or more, divided by all qualifying days. Level 3 means sitting over the edge of the bed, actively; the scale ranges from 0, nothing in bed, to 10, walking independently. Numerator: eligible days with a recorded level of 3 or more. Denominator: all eligible days. Days with no level recorded count in the denominator and not in the numerator.
Process measure. The proportion of eligible days with a documented safety screen result by 0600.
Balancing measure. Adverse events during mobilization, defined by the stopping rules above, counted per 100 mobilization attempts.
Contextual measures. The share of day shifts with any three-patient assignment, and the share of ventilator days with a documented sedation assessment, both from existing reports. These are not outcomes; they are recorded to help interpret changes in the main measure.
Measurement check. Once a week, the unit champion directly observes one randomly chosen ventilated patient's mobilization attempt and records the level independently; agreement with the flowsheet is reported.
Data Collection and Analysis
Data come from a standard flowsheet report run weekly for the first eight weeks and monthly after that. The project lead applies the eligibility rules to each patient-day using the report and the medication administration record. A four-week prospective baseline, with the scale recorded but no other change, precedes the first cycle.
The main and process measures are plotted on run charts, weekly for the first eight weeks and monthly thereafter, each centered on the median of the four baseline weeks. Change is judged with the four probability-based rules described by Perla et al. (2011), covering shifts, trends, the number of runs and astronomical points, applied exactly as published. Each Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle is marked on the chart with its start date. No statistical testing is planned; the design does not support causal inference, and results will be reported as observed change in the unit's practice.
Ethical Considerations
The project was reviewed through the hospital's quality improvement review process, which determined that it is quality improvement not requiring full ethics board review, consistent with guidance that improvement work applying established practice should still receive proportionate oversight (Lynn et al., 2007). No identifiable patient data leave the hospital, and the weekly extracts are stored on the unit's secured drive. Adverse events are reviewed by the nurse manager within 24 hours.
Reviewer Notes on the First Draft
A faculty reviewer marked eight sentences in the first draft as assuming knowledge a reader would lack. Four examples show the kind of change made. "Patients are screened daily" became the 0400 to 0500 description, because the reviewer asked who screens, when and with what tool. "Eligible patients" became the unit-of-measurement paragraph, because a patient and a patient-day are different units and the draft had used both. "Standard run chart rules" was expanded to list the rules, because a reader cannot check an analysis whose rules are not named. And a paragraph explaining why early mobilization matters was deleted, because it belongs in the introduction; the reviewer noted that justification is the most common intruder in a methods section.
References
Hodgson, C. L., Stiller, K., Needham, D. M., Tipping, C. J., Harrold, M., Baldwin, C. E., Bradley, S., Berney, S., Caruana, L. R., Elliott, D., Green, M., Haines, K., Higgins, A. M., Kaukonen, K.-M., Leditschke, I. A., Nickels, M. R., Paratz, J., Patman, S., Skinner, E. H., . . . Webb, S. A. (2014). Expert consensus and recommendations on safety criteria for active mobilization of mechanically ventilated critically ill adults. Critical Care, 18(6), Article 658. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13054-014-0658-y
Langley, G. J., Moen, R. D., Nolan, K. M., Nolan, T. W., Norman, C. L., & Provost, L. P. (2009). The improvement guide: A practical approach to enhancing organizational performance (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass.
Lynn, J., Baily, M. A., Bottrell, M., Jennings, B., Levine, R. J., Davidoff, F., Casarett, D., Corrigan, J., Fox, E., Wynia, M. K., Agich, G. J., O'Kane, M., Speroff, T., Schyve, P., Batalden, P., Tunis, S., Berlinger, N., Cronenwett, L., Fitzmaurice, J. M., . . . James, B. (2007). The ethics of using quality improvement methods in health care. Annals of Internal Medicine, 146(9), 666-673. https://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-146-9-200705010-00155
Ogrinc, G., Davies, L., Goodman, D., Batalden, P., Davidoff, F., & Stevens, D. (2016). SQUIRE 2.0 (Standards for QUality Improvement Reporting Excellence): Revised publication guidelines from a detailed consensus process. BMJ Quality & Safety, 25(12), 986-992. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2015-004411
Perla, R. J., Provost, L. P., & Murray, S. K. (2011). The run chart: A simple analytical tool for learning from variation in healthcare processes. BMJ Quality & Safety, 20(1), 46-51. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs.2009.037895
NURS 8720 Week 10 instructions, in plain terms
The methods draft generally asks you to describe exactly how your project will be carried out, for a reader who has no other information. Name the design in a sentence and cite the model or reporting guideline you follow. Describe the setting with figures and define your unit of measurement and eligibility as rules someone could apply to a record. Describe the intervention as it will be delivered, including who does what and when, and any stopping rules. Define each measure with its numerator and denominator. Explain data collection and analysis, including the rules for judging change. Address ethics and oversight. Keep justification for the project out of this section, since it belongs elsewhere.
Inside the NURS 8720 Week 10 example
The design section names a single-unit improvement project using the Model for Improvement and SQUIRE 2.0. The setting section gives the unit's beds, census, staffing and therapist cover, then defines a qualifying ventilator day and its exclusions. The intervention section runs from the 0400 safety screen to the 0900 round, the late-morning mobilization with a respiratory therapist and the 1800 entry, followed by stopping rules. The measures section defines the main, process, balancing and contextual measures and a weekly observation check. Data collection and analysis cite Perla and colleagues, ethics cites Lynn and colleagues, and a final section reports the reviewer's notes on the first draft.
Where the marks sit in the NURS 8720 Week 10 rubric
Methods drafts are usually assessed on completeness, precision, reproducibility and focus. Faculty reward sections that a stranger could follow without asking questions, with eligibility rules, an intervention schedule and measure definitions spelled out. Credit rises when measures have explicit numerators and denominators and when the rules for judging change are named. Including balancing and contextual measures shows awareness of what could mislead. Keeping rationale out of the methods is often noted as a sign of discipline. Responsiveness to reviewer comments, where included, demonstrates the writing process faculty want to see, and accurate citation of the model and guideline matters too. Graders also check that the analysis promised matches what the design can support.
NURS 8720 Week 10 help from the desk
Methods drafts often describe the intervention as intended rather than as delivered, or leave out who does each step and when. Others use terms like eligible patients without defining them, or mix patients and patient-days. Some spend paragraphs on why the project matters. Read your draft as someone from another hospital would and mark every phrase that assumes knowledge they lack. Write eligibility as rules tied to times and records. Name the exact rules you will use to judge change. Our writers can prepare a methods section for your project, written for an outside reader and organized under standard headings. Use one tense consistently and keep each measure's definition next to its name.
Get a NURS 8720 Week 10 example written to your instructions
Send the prompt, the section headings your assignment requires and the design your project settled on, and a methods draft example written to that structure comes back to you. First custom one is free, inside 24 to 48 hours. Methods can be drafted around a described project; approval to run one, and any submission that approval requires, is a document the candidate produces alone.
More NURS 8720 papers and DNP samples
- NURS 8720 Week 1: Project Classification Post
- NURS 8720 Week 2: SMART Aim Statement
- NURS 8720 Week 3: Design Comparison Paper
- NURS 8720 Week 4: PDSA Model Brief
- NURS 8720 Week 5: Project Alignment Matrix
- NURS 8720 Week 6: Method Defense Reply
- NURS 8720 Week 7: Practice Setting Analysis
- NURS 8720 Week 8: Project Feasibility Analysis
- NURS 8720 Week 9: Design Limitations Post
- NURS 8720 Week 11: Project Revision Memo
- NURS 8710 Week 10: Literature Review Draft
- NURS 8705 Week 10: Revised Problem Statement
- NURS 8600 Week 10: DNP SQUIRE manuscript outline
- DNRS 6211 Week 10: Executive summary
NURS 8720 Week 10 questions, answered
Does the methods section include the rationale for the design?
Briefly at most, and usually not at all. The argument for the design belongs in the paper where it was defended, and repeating it here consumes space reviewers expect to see spent on procedure. The example names the design in one sentence and cites the earlier section, which satisfies a reader who wants to know where the reasoning lives.
Where can I find a free NURS 8720 Week 10 sample paper?
The draft methods section and the reviewer's notes are posted above in full, free of charge.
What is the unit of measurement in the NURS 8720 Week 10 draft?
The qualifying ventilator day, a calendar day on which an adult was invasively ventilated after already being ventilated for 24 hours, with stated exclusions.
Why was the paragraph on why mobilization matters deleted?
Because justification belongs in the introduction, and the reviewer noted it is the most common intruder in a methods section.
How will the project judge whether practice changed?
With the four run chart rules described by Perla and colleagues, applied to weekly and then monthly points centered on the baseline median, without statistical testing.