Important: Complete this assessment first and complete all other assessments in the order they are presented.

In this assessment, you will lay the foundation for the work that will carry through your capstone experience and guide the practice hours to complete the work in this course. The purpose of this assessment is to allow you to define a patient, family, or population health problem that is relevant to your personal practice and to begin building a body of evidence that will inform your approach to your practice hours, the intervention you design, and the professional product you will deliver.

Demonstration of Proficiency

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the course competencies through the following assessment scoring guide criteria:

• Competency 1: Lead people and processes to improve patient, systems, and population outcomes.     
  • Define a patient, family, or population health problem that is relevant to personal practice.
• Competency 2: Make clinical and operational decisions based upon the best available evidence.     
  • Analyze evidence from the literature and professional sources to define and guide nursing actions related to a health problem.
• Competency 7: Implement patient-centered care to improve quality of care and the patient experience.     
  • Propose strategies to improve patient or population outcomes related to a health problem.
• Competency 8: Integrate professional standards and values into practice.     
  • Reflect on state board nursing practice standards relevant to a selected health problem.
  • Communicate professionally in writing that is clear and logically organized, with correct grammar, spelling, and use of APA style.