NURS FPX 6426 Assessment 1: Needs Assessment and Procurement Plan for a Medication Reconciliation Module to Reduce Medication Discrepancies at Discharge

Assessment Overview:

NURS FPX 6426 Assessment 1:This assessment focuses on conducting a structured needs assessment and developing a procurement and implementation plan for a Medication Reconciliation Module (MRM) aimed at reducing medication discrepancies at discharge. Students are expected to demonstrate nursing informatics competencies in assessing clinical needs, engaging stakeholders, defining functional and nonfunctional requirements, evaluating vendors, and planning pilot implementation.

Purpose of the Assessment

Students are required to:

  • Assess current discharge medication processes and identify gaps leading to medication discrepancies
  • Conduct a stakeholder analysis including nurses, pharmacists, physicians, IT, and quality/safety personnel.
  • Define functional and nonfunctional requirements for an MRM
  • Conduct a market scan and vendor selection using objective criteria
  • Develop a procurement plan (RFI → RFP → Pilot → Contract Award)
  • Estimate budget, ROI, and business case justification
  • Identify risk factors and mitigation strategies
  • Outline implementation considerations, including pilot, training, and governance
  • Define evaluation metrics (outcome, process, balancing) for success

Provide references in APA 7th edition.

Key Objectives

Understanding the Requirements

Criteria

Distinguished

Proficient

Complete Assessment Outline

Introduction

• Introduce the clinical issue or topic
• Explain its relevance to nursing practice
• State the purpose of the assessment

Research Process

• Describe databases and search strategies used
• Explain criteria for selecting credible sources
• Discuss evaluation of source quality and relevance

Evidence Synthesis

• Summarize key findings from research sources
• Compare and contrast different perspectives
• Identify patterns and themes in the evidence

Application to Practice

• Explain how research informs clinical decisions
• Provide specific examples of practice applications
• Discuss implications for patient outcomes

Conclusion

• Summarize key points and findings
• Reinforce the importance of evidence-based practice
• Suggest areas for future research or practice improvement

How to Pass NURS FPX 6426 Assessment 1: Needs Assessment and Procurement Plan for a Medication Reconciliation Module to Reduce Medication Discrepancies at Discharge

  • Understand the Assignment – Focus on conducting a needs assessment and creating a procurement plan for a drug reconciliation module (DRM) to reduce drug disagreement at discharge. 
  • Assess Current Processes – Identify gaps in drug conciliation workflows, attestation issues, and communication problems that lead to crimes. 
  • Engage Stakeholders – Include nurses, nanny directors, druggists, croakers, IT/EHR staff, discharge itineraries, and quality/safety/compliance brigades. 
  • Define Functional Conditions – What the system must do (structured med list, conciliation workflow, automatic significances, standardized discharge summary, inspection logs). 
  • Define inoperative conditions – How the system performs (speed, usability, clicks to attune, mobile/tablet comity, access controls, and encryption). 
  • Conduct Market Overview & Vendor Selection – Compare EHR-native, third-party integrated, and homegrown options grounded on usability, interoperability, cost, support, security, and clinical effectiveness. 
  • Develop Procurement Plan – Use RFI → RFP → seller demonstrations rallies → reference checks → airman → contract concession → go-live. 
  • Estimate Budget & ROI – Include software license, integration/configuration, training, ongoing support, and projected benefits like reduced drug crimes, readmissions, and staff time saved. 
  • Plan threat mitigation – Address alert fatigue, workflow resistance, interoperability failures, and data security through testing, customization, training, and programs. 
  • Define Evaluation Metrics – Include outgrowth criteria (drug crimes), process criteria (conciliation time, summary delivery), and balancing criteria (nanny workload, false cautions). 

Sample Assessment Paper

Introduction

Changes in care can lead to medicine crimes that beget adverse drug events and gratuitous readmissions. This assessment does a structured conditions assessment and makes a plan for buying and setting up a medicine conciliation module (MRM) that works with the sanatorium’s EHR. The thing is to cut down on medicine crimes at discharge by making sure that nurses are more accurate, their work is more effective, and they communicate better with ambulatory providers. 

NURS FPX 6426 Assessment 1:Background & Problem Statement

A 30-bed medical-surgical unit reported a 6-month normal of 14 discharge encounters with at least one medicine distinction linked to the post-discharge medicine review, contributing to patient detriment and a phone-heavy workload for case directors. A root cause review set up that there were problems with fractured documentation across flowsheets, a lack of a structured medicine concession workflow, and limited interoperability with inpatient EHRs. A targeted MRM that supports structured medicine lists, concession workflows, and morals-predicated exchange was chosen as the Swiss way to help. 

Needs Assessment & Stakeholder Analysis

Key stakeholders include bedside nurses, nurse directors, apothecaries, discharge planners, the IT/EHR team, representatives from primary care conventions, and people in charge of quality and safety, legal, and insulation. We used the following styles: process mapping of the current discharge workflow, a chart examination (for three months), staff focus groups, and a review of guard events related to medicine crimes. Findings: Nurses take an average of 22 beats to attune specifics for each discharge using different notes. Apothecaries observe that 1 in 8 discharges has a deficient medicine history. 

Functional & Nonfunctional Requirements

Functional (must-have):

  • A single, organized workspace for medicine concession that is part of the discharge process. 
  • The list of specifics is automatically filled out from the inpatient medicine administration record (SCAR) and the admission medicine history. 
  • Reconciliation workflow with tasks predicated on places (nurse checks, apothecary reviews, and croaker signs off). 
  • Export a standardized discharge medicine summary (HL7/FHIR) to outside PCPs or HIE with delivery and substantiation. 
  • The system should maintain an interpretation history for logging examinations and concessions. 

Nonfunctional (should-have):

  • inoperative (should have): It should take less than 2 seconds to gain the med list. 
  • Morals for usability are lower than three clicks to reconcile each medicine, and it should work on mobile and tablet bias. 
  • Access controls should be based on locations and include encryption while data is being stored or transferred.

Market scans & vendor selection criteria

A broad request scan set up three types of merchandisers: a native EHR dealer module, a third-party integrated MRM with FHIR support, and a homegrown EHR configuration. The criteria for selection were interoperability (25), usability (20), cost of power (15), dealer support and upgrade path (15), security and compliance (10), and substantiation of clinical effectiveness (15). We decided to use a Request for Offer (RFP) system to compare the total cost, rally workflows, integration trouble, and references. 

Procurement Process (RFI→RFP→Pilot)

  1. Find out what capabilities and integration styles are available. 
  2. RFP (4 weeks): a completely functional spec, SLAs that need to be met, a timeline for performance, and a pricing model (license integration and periodic conservation). 
  3. Rally and Usability Scoring (2 weeks): Script-predicated demonstrations of merchandisers with nurses and apothecaries on the front lines using a standard usability rubric. 
  4. Reference checks and point visits (2 weeks). 
  5. Three weeks for negotiating the contract and reviewing the law. 
  6. The Airman Contract and Procurement Award involves conducting a birdman program with a single dealer on one unit, lasting between 8 and 12 weeks, transitioning from a silent run to an active birdman.

Business Case & Budget Estimate

The cost of a software license or module, the hours demanded for integration and configuration, training and go-live support, and ongoing conservation (annually). Benefits include an anticipated drop in medicine crimes from 14 to 5 in 6 months, fewer readmissions, less work for apothecaries, and fewer calls to cases. A conservative 12-month ROI model indicates a revenge period of 18–24 months predicated on fundamental hypotheticals (perceptivity analysis recorded). 

Risk Analysis & Mitigation

  • Too many cautions and workflows can be a problem. To correct this, use offered fliers, customizable cautions, and threshold tuning. 
  • Interoperability failures bear the dealer to show that they can use FHIR/HL7 and the test harness during the birdman. 
  • Resistance from clinicians includes frontline nurses in the selection of merchandisers, offering micro-learning modules, and making them part of being huddled. 
  • Data insulation when necessary, use encryption, part-predicated access, and BAAs. 

Implementation Considerations (high level)

  • Gradual birdman: 2 weeks of silent mode (for collecting data) and 8 weeks of active birdman with quick PDSA cycles. 
  • Training a mix of micro-learning and the super-user model. 
  • Data governance includes a medical data slave, a data dictionary, and regular checks to confirm that the data is correct. 
  • Evaluation process, outgrowth, and balancing criteria. 

Evaluation Metrics

  • Outcome of discharges with at least one medicine error set up during the post-discharge review (thing ≤ 5 at 6 months). 
  • Exercise the median amount of time it takes for a nurse to finish a concession (in beats); the chance of discharge summaries transferred and entered within 48 hours. 
  • Balancing the amount of time nurses say they spend on the job and the number of false admonitions and overwrites. 

Conclusion

The swish way to acquire an MRM that cuts down on medicine crimes at discharge is to use a structured procurement process that puts frontline stoners first, prioritizes interoperability and usability, and stages deployment through fliers. Governance, ongoing monitoring, and normalizing concessions in the discharge process each play an important role in sustainability.

References

  • Buntin, M. B., Burke, M. F., Hoaglin, M. C., & Blumenthal, D. (2011). A review of the most recent literature shows that health information technology mostly has beneficial effects. Health Affairs, 30(3), 464–471.
  • HealthIT.gov. (n.d.). The National Coordinator for Health IT’s Office is responsible for reviewing the medications. The National Coordinator for Health IT’s Office is responsible for overseeing health information technology initiatives.
  • McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. (2021). The Fifth Edition of Nursing Informatics and the Foundation of Knowledge. Jones & Bartlett Learning. https://www.healthaffairs.org
  • Sittig, D. F., & Singh, H. (2010). They developed a novel sociotechnical framework to examine health information technology within intricate adaptive healthcare systems. Quality & Safety in Health Care, 19(S3), i68–i74. https://www.who.int

Rubric Breakdown

Criteria Distinguished (4) Proficient (3) Basic (2) Non-Performance (1)
Needs Assessment & Problem Analysis Comprehensive analysis with workflow mapping, data review, and root cause identification Solid analysis with workflow overview and key findings Partial analysis; some gaps in workflow or root cause Minimal or unclear analysis
Stakeholder Engagement All relevant stakeholders identified and actively involved in assessment Most key stakeholders included with some engagement Limited stakeholder involvement No stakeholder analysis
Functional & Nonfunctional Requirements Clear, detailed, and well-justified functional and nonfunctional requirements Requirements defined with minor gaps Requirements vague or incomplete Requirements missing or unclear
Market Scan & Vendor Selection Thorough market analysis with selection criteria, scoring, and justification Market scan with criteria and basic justification Partial analysis; few criteria or limited justification Not addressed
Procurement & Pilot Plan Detailed RFI/RFP/pilot plan with timelines, training, and evaluation steps Plan outlined with basic details Plan mentioned superficially Not addressed
Business Case & Budget Clear ROI, cost estimates, and benefits with perceptivity analysis Budget and ROI described with some detail Limited budget or ROI discussion Not addressed
Risk Analysis & Mitigation Comprehensive identification of risks with mitigation strategies Some risks identified with basic mitigation Risks mentioned superficially Not addressed
Evaluation Metrics Clear outcome, process, and balancing metrics with definitions and data sources Metrics defined but with limited detail Some metrics included but unclear Metrics missing
Scholarly Writing & References Organized, clear writing; APA 7th references accurate and current Writing generally clear; minor APA errors Writing unclear or references incomplete Disorganized; missing references

Step-by-Step Guide

  1. Assess Current Processes – Chart discharge drug workflows, identify gaps, and dissect error patterns. 
  2. Engage Stakeholders – Include nurses, druggists, croakers, IT/EHR, discharge itineraries, and quality/safety brigades. 
  3. Define Functional Conditions—Structured med list, automatic significances, conciliation workflow, inspection logs, and standardized discharge summaries. 
  4. Define inoperative conditions – performance, usability, mobile/tablet access, speed, clicks per task, security, and encryption. 
  5. Conduct market overview—Compare EHR-native, third-party, and homegrown results using objective criteria. 
  6. Seller Selection & RFP Process – RFI → RFP → product demonstrations → usability scoring → reference checks → airman. 
  7. Develop Airman & Preparation Plan – Silent → active airman, PDSA cycles, staff training, and go-live medication. 
  8. Estimate Budget & ROI – Include licensing, integration, training, support, and projected benefits like error reduction and time saved. 
  9. Plan threat mitigation – Address alert fatigue, workflow resistance, interoperability failures, and data security. 
  10. Define Evaluation Metrics – Outcome (med crimes), process (conciliation time, summary delivery), and balancing criteria (nanny workload, false cautions).

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's)

Q1: Do I need real data for the birth? 

No, really, de-identified data makes the analysis stronger. Still, use fluently labeled, realistic academic numbers and explain your hypotheticals if you cannot gain real data. 

Q2: How many merchandisers should I ask to bid on the RFP/rally? 

Three finalists is a favorable number because it gives you a chance to compare them without putting too much important stress on your team. 

Q3 What are the differences between functional and non-functional conditions? 

Functional = what the system does (its features and how it works). Operative means how well the system works (speed, responsibility, security, and ease of use). 

Q4 Do you always need a birdman? 

Yes, conducting an offered birdman (silent → active → scale) is the swish way to ensure that integration, usability, and clinical impact are all performing properly before a full rollout. 

Q5 How many references do you need? 

Generally, you need 3 to 6 up-to-date, secure sources analogous to peer-reviewed papers, HealthIT/HIMSS guidance, and nursing informatics books. 

Q6: What should I do if I don’t know the exact costs when I present the business case? 

Use conservative ranges for your estimates, make clear your hypotheticals, and do a perceptivity analysis (swish/base/worst scripts). 

Q7. What are the most important criteria for evaluation? 

Add one clear outgrowth metric (like the medicine distinction rate), two or three process criteria (like the time it takes to reconcile or the chance of transferred conceded), and at least one balancing metric (like the nurse time burden).

NURS FPX 6426 Assessment 1

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