Implementation of the Solution Plan

The Setting

The setting for the implementation of the solution of teaching nurses to identify and initiate treatment postpartum disorder will be at a postnatal clinic. The potential subjects will be nurses responsible for care and education to new mothers in the clinic. The clinic offers care both on-site and follow ups at home after discharge. The focus will be training perinatal nurses from a private, sub-urban clinic on ways to diagnose and treat postpartum depression. The clinic has approximately 3,200 births a year according to records obtained. The nurses are responsible for the care and education of new mothers at the clinic up to 6 months after delivery. The participants of the training will be sent emails by the nurse manager requiring them to attend and sign an informed consent form as some personal information may be collected. The consent form will inform them about their rights such as opting out of the course at any time they choose. It will also inform that any information collected will be kept confidential. The implementation plan will sample will new mothers at the clinic to find out their views about their satisfaction levels regarding postpartum depression treatment received.

Time Needed to complete the Project

The timescale for the implementation of the solution is 6 months. A table will be presented in the appendices of the final report outlining estimates duration of each phase.  The first item in the timeline is carrying out a feasibility study. The next phase will be obtaining necessary approvals from the hospital board to implement the solution. The next phase is preparing the materials and personnel to use in teaching the nurses. The next action will be inviting the nurses to attend the training. Data will be collected through the feedback offered by the nurses at the end of the training. The data collected will be entered into a data analysis software for coding purposes. The next phase will be using the analysis to improve on the training. The final phase will be evaluating the overall success of implementing the solution through measuring nurse’s self-confidence, quality of care, and patient outcomes.

Resources Needed in the Implementation in the Solution

The following are the resources that will be required to successfully implement the solution. The first resource needed is the personnel needed to train the nurses. Another resource required for successful implementation are learning materials such as information leaflets and booklets that contain relevant and updated information about postpartum depression. Questionnaires and test materials will be required to collect information from the participants. Finally, data storage and analysis software will be needed to analyze the information collected.

Methods and Instruments

The methods and instruments needed to monitor the implementation of the proposed solution include questionnaires, scales, and tests. The aim will be to establish patient satisfaction levels and outcomes. The questionnaires will be for the patients and prenatal nurses at the clinic. The questionnaires for nurses will be issued before and after the training to find out their self-confidence of offering education to new mothers at the clinic regarding postpartum depression. The questionnaire will also aim to establish the number of patient the nurses diagnose and treat before and after the training. The questionnaires to new mothers will generally aim to find out their satisfaction levels with the nursing care they receive (Pollastri et al., 2019). Scales will also be used to monitor patient satisfaction levels and outcomes. The scales will generally include ranking from very poor, poor, average, good, and excellent. The number of patients that successfully recover and the mortality rates will be put in percentage form for easy analysis and to find areas that require more adjustments. Tests will also be used to monitor the implementation plan. Nurses who take part in the training will be tested for knowledge and application during and at the end of the training exercise. The initial training will be through face to face course, but eventually the clinic will package it as an online course each nurse has to complete every six months.

Process for Delivering Solution

The first step is identifying the problem, which has already been done. The problem is the high number of new mothers that are being referred to mental institutions. The implementation plan aims to tackle this problem by training nurses on improving quality of care for postpartum depression patients. The training will cover typical and untypical signs and symptoms to look out for women at risk of developing postpartum depression. The training will also cover on treatment methods to improve patient outcomes. The training will take six months with the all the learning taken online (Machado et al., 2018). Within the six months, the hospital will procure computer software needed to facilitate the online learning.

The solution will involve equipping nurses with current and updated information. The classes will be split into two meetings to increase on convenience for the participants. The meeting will serve to remind the nurses about the postpartum depression risks among women (Fitzgerald & Segal, 2015). The educator will also share some statistics and discuss the common signs and symptoms. During the training, the nurses will be taught on ways to diagnose the disorder and the reliable assessment tools to use. The aim is to provide nurses with the knowledge to diagnose the disorder early and initiate treatment on time. Questionnaires will be issued at the end of the training to assess the effectiveness of the process and identify area that may need additional training. Furthermore, the nurses will be provided with guidelines to use when assessing, educating, and referring women for postpartum depression.

No training will be required and most of the screening tools are available online. Data will be collected using questionnaires during and after training of the nurses. The collected will be entered into data and analysis software by the information technology analyst at the hospital. The analyst will analyze the data provide feedback to the educator and the management of the hospital. The educator will use the data to improve on the course delivery method and establish areas which require further training. The management will use the data to find out the justification for the training. The data collection tool needed is the questionnaires. The questions will have both closed and open ended questions to establish the views of the nurses regarding quality of care for women diagnosed with postpartum disorder.

Strategies to Deal with Barriers

The challenges that are that are expected during the implementation of the proposed solution is time and workload constraints for the nurse participants (Mcnew, 2017). The hospital is understaffed meaning the nurses are mostly on call most of the time. This may make the nurse reluctant to participate as it distracts them from their main duties. To solve this problem, nurse managers will be used to communicate to the nurses how important the training to the hospital. The nurse manager will indicate that the quality of care has been decreasing and the management is worried. The nurse manager will also cite the deteriorating patient outcomes among women with postpartum depression.

Implementation of the solution plan is feasible because the costs are minimal and the benefits for the nurses and their patients are immense. The training program is feasible because it will take place after shift hours meaning it does not interfere with the main duties of the nurses. The personnel for facilitating the training will be one of the nurses who the hospital will have paid for to attend refresher course on diagnosing and treating postpartum depression. The consumable and equipment will be provided by the institution.

Plans for the Future

The plans are to extend the training to all the staff in the institution. Continuous training is vital in improving quality of care and patient outcomes. The current situation is such that most nurses lack the knowledge needed to easily diagnose postpartum disorder. Some of the knowledge gaps include its definition, symptoms, prevalence, risk factors, screening tools, and treatment methods. The lack training makes most of the nurses not to be confident in their abilities to even provide education to mothers about postpartum disorder (Sutter-Dallay et al., 2016). Research shows a correlation between the knowledge of the nursing practitioner about postpartum disorder and their self-confidence to offer education to women. Therefore, continuing education is recommended to nurses to improve their knowledge regarding the disorder. Teaching is an effective tool in improving knowledge, self-confidence, and practice.

        

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Fitzgerald, C. M., & Segal, N. A. (2015). Musculoskeletal health in pregnancy and postpartum: An evidence-based guide for clinicians. Springer. Print.

Machado, J. M., Abelha, A., Santos, M. F., & Portela, F. (2018). Next-generation mobile and pervasive healthcare solutions. IGI Global. Print.

Mcnew, R. (2017). Emergency department compliance manual 2017. Place of publication not identified: Wolters Kluwer Law & Bus. Print.

Pollastri, A. R., Ablon, J. S., & Hone, M. J. G. (2019). Collaborative problem solving: An evidence-based approach to implementation and practice.  Humana Press. Print.

Sutter-Dallay, A.-L., Glangeaud-Freudenthal, N. M.-C., In Guedeney, A., & In Riecher-Rössler, A. (2016). Joint care of parents and infants in perinatal psychiatry. Springer. Print.