This document provides instructions for nursing students to create a detailed project charter for their practicum site as part of their DNP program. It emphasizes that the charter should address a real healthcare need at the practicum site based on input from the site. The charter will be evaluated based on how well it demonstrates competencies around creating a comprehensive project plan, supporting it with evidence, and communicating at a scholarly level. Students are advised to ensure their project aligns with both their site and DNP requirements and to conduct a thorough literature review to support their charter.

1. Nursing Question NHS-FPX8040
Nursing Question NHS-FPX8040Nursing Question NHS-FPX8040In NHS-FPX8040, you
prepared a preliminary project charter. At that time, you may not have secured your
practicum site or preceptor yet. Now that these are in place, in this course you will delve
more deeply into creating a project charter appropriate for your practicum site’s needs. You
may be able to use some of the project charter work you did in the previous course. At the
same time, you may find you need to completely retool your work as it may no longer be
appropriate for your practicum site. This is the changing nature of doctoral projects. As we
learn more information, doctoral projects change. Your ability to manage this ambiguity and
change will be critical to your successfully completing your doctoral program.In this
assessment, you will create a detailed, integrated project charter to address a healthcare
gap, need, or improvement at your practicum site. You will need to obtain input from your
practicum site about how you can help to meet their needs. After submitting your project
charter, you will receive your faculty member’s feedback on your charter’s alignment with
department objectives, academic rigor, coherency, and readiness for Institutional Review
Board (IRB) submission.DEMONSTRATION OF PROFICIENCYBy successfully completing
this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the course competencies through
the following assessment scoring guide criteria:Competency 1: Create a project charter to
address a clinical or organizational problem or take advantage of an opportunity for
improvement within a health care setting.Clearly describe the people who will be involved
in and affected by a project.Clearly describe an overview of all aspects of a project plan.
Nursing Question NHS-FPX8040Clearly describe the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,
and threats related to a project plan.Clearly describe the ethical considerations, constraints,
external dependencies, and communication strategy of a project plan.Clearly describe the
outcome measures related to a project plan.Clearly describe the data collection procedures
related to a project plan.Describe a project that could, within 8 to 12 weeks, produce a
meaningful, sustainable change in practice or process that can be empirically evaluated,
with minimal or no risk to participants or the organization.Synthesize scholarly,
authoritative evidence supporting each part of the project charter.Competency 4: Address
assessment purpose in a well-organized text, incorporating appropriate evidence and tone
in grammatically sound sentences.Write clearly and coherently, using communication style
and vocabulary appropriate for scholarly work.Correctly reference and cite scholarly
and/or authoritative sources.PREPARATIONTo successfully prepare for this assessment,
you will need to:Ensure that your project aligns with your practicum site expectations and

2. the DNP expectations for doctoral projects.Consult this resource for guidance: Acceptable
vs. Unacceptable SoNHS DNP Projects [PDF].Definition of Research.Conduct a
comprehensive review of the literature to gather data that will support your identified need,
intervention, and assessment “instrument(s)”:Focus your research on current resources
available through peer-reviewed articles and professional and government websites.
Current means less than five years old.Use these research guides for help in identifying
scholarly and authoritative sources:Nursing Doctoral (DNP) Research Guide.Evidence-
Based Practice in Nursing & Health Sciences.INSTRUCTIONSNote: The assessments in this
course must be completed in the order presented; subsequent assessments should be built
on both your earlier work and your instructor’s feedback on earlier assessments. If you
choose to submit assessments prematurely, without considering and integrating your
instructor’s feedback, your assessment may be returned ungraded, resulting in your loss of
an assessment attempt.This assessment has been identified as a Signature Assessment.
Signature assessments serve a dual purpose: to meet the competencies in the course where
the signature assessment appears and acquire skills needed to demonstrate competencies
specific to the completion of the Doctoral Project Report. Learners must successfully meet
the established criteria for demonstrating competence on this assessment in order to
successfully complete the course (see University Policy 3.4.07 Grading). Completion of this
course is a program-specific requirement. Consequently, learners must pass this course in
order to remain in good academic standing (see University Policy 3.01.04 Academic
Standing).This assessment also includes review by a Secondary Reviewer to ensure the
work meets doctoral expectations for writing, content, connection to the discipline,
scholarship, quality, integrity, and ethical compliance. Secondary review is both an essential
program expectation and important opportunity for learners. A hallmark of doctoral
learners, in particular, is openness to critique and responsiveness to feedback. Like any
scholarly endeavor (e.g., journal article, book chapter, or dissertation), the doctoral project
will benefit from the integration of feedback from a reviewer and a process of ongoing
revision at each stage of development. Learners may also reasonably expect to incorporate
revisions and refinements of components of earlier completed signature assessments as
they advance through the program to ensure the coherence and alignment of their
completed project. A doctoral-level project should, therefore, be viewed as a work-in-
progress that is not completed until the final Dean review and approval is issued.As you
begin work, you may find the following activities helpful to completing a scholarly,
successful project charter. Note: These activities are not mandatory; they are optional:
Nursing Question NHS-FPX8040Seek out free writing workshops and other resources
available through the Capella Writing Center. The Writing Center’s workshops address such
topics as: correct APA usage, paper organization, synthesis of material, and so on.Note:
Remember that this keystone course will help determine whether you are ready to proceed
with your doctoral project. You will want to do everything you can to ensure that your
critical thinking, research, and writing skills are at the doctoral level.ORDER NOW FOR
CUSTOMIZED, PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPERSFor this assessment, you will populate the three
parts of the Project Charter Template [DOCX] with detailed information. Use the Project
Charter Proposal Checklist [PDF] to ensure all content is included. Faculty will use the

3. checklist to provide additional feedback.Part 1 includes these sections:General Project
Information.Project Team.You may find the work you did in the Team Effectiveness in
Health Care Settings assessment helpful to you as you complete this portion of your Project
Charter.Stakeholders.Part 2 is the Project Overview and includes these components:Project
Description/Write the project description in a narrative style. Avoid bullet points and
incomplete sentences.Evidence to Support Need (background and significance).Be sure to
provide the most relevant, data-driven evidence to support key points.Project
Purpose/Business Case.SMART Objectives (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-
Bound).Deliverables.Project Scope.Project Milestones.Part 3 includes these sections:Note:
You may find the work you did in your Ethics Analysis assessment helpful as you complete
this section of your project charter.SWOT Analysis.Known Major Risks.Ethical
Considerations.Constraints.External Dependencies.Communication Strategy:Consider
questions like these in your communication strategy: Will you hold an in-person or video
conference-kickoff meeting? How will you communicate with all involved parties (email,
telephone, periodic meetings, project tools, et cetera)?Proposed Outcomes.Data Collection
Plan.Example Assessment: You may use the following to give you an idea of what a
Proficient or higher rating on the scoring guide would look like: Nursing Question NHS-
FPX8040