Assessment 2: Major Written Paper – The Nurse Leader as a Change Agent

NUR 450: Leadership and Management in Professional Nursing Practice
Spring 2025

Assessment 2: Major Written Paper – The Nurse Leader as a Change Agent

1. Task Description
This written assignment requires you to critically analyze the role of the professional nurse as a change agent within a contemporary healthcare setting. You will identify a specific practice-related problem or an area for quality improvement (e.g., reducing hospital-acquired infections, improving patient discharge education, enhancing interprofessional collaboration, addressing nurse burnout, implementing a new evidence-based protocol). Your paper will develop a proposed change initiative, utilizing a recognized change theory or model, and justify its application with current evidence.

2. Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this assessment, you will be able to:

• (CLO 3) Analyze leadership and management principles in the provision of high-quality nursing care.

• (CLO 4) Evaluate the role of the nurse leader in influencing healthcare policy, promoting safety, and improving patient outcomes.

• (CLO 5) Synthesize evidence-based practice and change theory to propose solutions for complex healthcare challenges.

3. Task Instructions
Your paper must address the following components:

1. Introduction: Introduce the specific practice problem, its significance to patient safety and nursing care quality, and the purpose of your proposed change.

2. Problem Analysis: Provide a detailed analysis of the chosen problem, including its root causes, impact on patients, staff, and the organization. Support your analysis with recent data and evidence (e.g., institutional statistics, national benchmarks, peer-reviewed literature).

3. Proposed Change Initiative: Clearly describe your proposed evidence-based change. What is the intended intervention or new process?

4. Change Theory Application: Select one recognized change theory or model (e.g., Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model, Lewin’s Change Management Model, the ADKAR Model). Justify your choice and then systematically apply each stage of the model to your proposed change initiative, explaining the nurse leader’s role at each step.

5. Stakeholder Analysis & Communication Plan: Identify key stakeholders (e.g., frontline nurses, physicians, administrators, patients). Analyze potential barriers and facilitators to change. Outline a concise plan for engaging and communicating with these stakeholders throughout the change process.

6. Evaluation Plan: Define how the success of the change initiative would be measured. Specify the outcomes, metrics, and tools for evaluation (e.g., reduced CLABSI rates, improved HCAHPS scores, staff satisfaction surveys).

7. Conclusion: Summarize your proposal, reiterate the critical role of the nurse leader, and discuss the potential long-term implications for the organization and profession.

4. Formatting & Submission

• The paper should be 2,000-2,500 words (excluding title page and reference list).

• Formatting must adhere to APA 7th Edition guidelines.

• A minimum of 10 high-quality, peer-reviewed references is required, with the majority published within the last 5 years (2020-2025).

• Submit as a Microsoft Word document (.doc or .docx) via the assignment portal on Blackboard by 11:59 PM EST on March 28, 2025.

References (APA Format)

1. Jeffs, L., Merkley, J., Richardson, S., & Tran, M. (2021). Navigating change: The role of frontline nurse leaders in translating quality improvement initiatives into practice. Journal of Nursing Management, 29(5), 1234-1241. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.13265

2. White, K. M., Dudley-Brown, S., & Terhaar, M. F. (2023). Translation of evidence into nursing and healthcare (3rd ed.). Springer Publishing Company. [Note: This is a book chapter source providing foundational knowledge on implementation science.]

3. Garcia, A. L., & Lee, C. S. (2022). Mitigating nurse burnout through unit-level leadership interventions: A systematic review. JONA: The Journal of Nursing Administration, 52(7/8), 395-401. https://doi.org/10.1097/NNA.0000000000001172

4. Hessels, A. J., Flynn, L., Cimiotti, J. P., & Gershon, R. R. (2020). The impact of the nurse leader on workplace violence and burnout. Journal of Nursing Care Quality, 35(3), 252-259. https://doi.org/10.1097/NCQ.0000000000000444

5. Boamah, S. A. (2024). The influence of transformational leadership on patient safety outcomes: The mediating role of the safety climate. Health Care Management Review, 49(1), 12-21. https://doi.org/10.1097/HMR.0000000000000385