Site, problem, evidence and four checkable objectives fill the proposal written for NU590's Unit 2, scoped to a nurse-led fasting script rather than to any change in anesthesia policy. Searches like "nu 590 unit 2 assignment example", "nu590 unit 2 sample" and "nu590 unit 2 example" land here.
A Practicum Proposal Small on Purpose: Revising a Pre-Admission Call Script So Adults Hear the Two-Hour Clear-Liquid Rule
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
NU590: Applying Principles of Advanced Nursing Practice - Clinical
Unit 2 Practicum Proposal
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The department is a composite; figures, targets and dates are bracketed, and hours, site approval and the preceptor agreement are records kept outside this paper.
Site
A hospital outpatient surgery department with [six] operating rooms and about [40] adult elective cases a weekday. [Seven] pre-admission nurses call patients one to three days before surgery to review history, medications and instructions. On arrival, a pre-op nurse enters the time of last oral intake.
Problem
The anesthesia department's policy, revised in [2019], states: "Healthy adults may drink clear liquids up to two hours before their scheduled arrival." The instruction sheet read on pre-admission calls, revised in [2014], states: "Nothing to eat or drink after midnight." Across one quarter, check-in records put the median gap since an adult's last food or drink at [12.6] hours.
The policy is settled; the gap is between the policy and the words a patient hears on the phone. Framing the problem this way keeps anesthesiologists in the role of sponsors: the project carries out their policy rather than challenging it.
Evidence
The ASA practice guideline allows clear liquids until two hours before elective procedures under anesthesia in healthy patients, and solids or a light meal until six hours before (American Society of Anesthesiologists Committee on Standards and Practice Parameters, 2017). A Cochrane review of preoperative fasting in adults found no evidence that a shortened fluid fast, compared with the standard fast from midnight, increased the risk of aspiration, regurgitation or related morbidity (Brady et al., 2003). A 2023 modular update of the ASA guideline addressed carbohydrate-containing clear liquids and chewing gum, and supports carbohydrate drinks up to two hours before procedures in healthy adults (Joshi et al., 2023). The safety question an anesthesiologist would ask first is answered before the proposal asks for anything.
Why a Long Fast Is Not Harmless
Fasting from midnight for an afternoon case can mean sixteen hours without fluids. The costs are real even when no one aspirates: thirst, hunger, headache and anxiety before surgery; dehydration that makes intravenous access harder and lowers blood pressure at induction; and, in patients with diabetes, a higher risk of low blood sugar. These costs fall on patients who are following instructions exactly. A project that shortens the fluid fast for eligible adults removes a harm the site is causing without meaning to, and it does so by matching what the site's own anesthesiologists already say is safe.
Objectives
1. Process: the revised script is used on [80] percent of audited pre-admission calls by Unit [6]. Population: adult elective patients. Measure: audit of [20] calls a week. Baseline: [0] percent.
2. Outcome: median time from last oral intake to check-in falls below [six] hours by Unit [8]. Baseline: [12.6] hours.
3. Understanding: [85] percent of patients can state their own stop time for clear liquids at check-in by Unit [8]. Measure: one question at check-in. Baseline: not measured.
4. Balancing: no increase in delays or cancellations attributed to fasting, compared with the baseline rate of [0.8] percent of cases, through Unit [9]. This objective is written so the project could fail on it.
Risks the Project Must Guard Against
Two risks are foreseeable. The first is mixed messages. Surgeon offices also send fasting instructions, and some still say nothing after midnight; a patient who hears two instructions may follow the stricter one, which leaves the median unchanged, or the looser one at the wrong time. The script therefore tells patients plainly that the pre-admission instruction replaces any earlier one, and the check-in question captures which instruction they followed. The second is misunderstanding what counts as a clear liquid. The script names examples, water, apple juice without pulp, black coffee or tea without milk, and names what does not count, milk, orange juice with pulp and anything with food in it. The balancing objective will show whether either risk turns into delays.
Exclusions
Kept on anesthesia's individual instructions, not the revised script: children; patients with gastroparesis, bowel obstruction or other conditions that delay gastric emptying; patients taking a GLP-1 receptor agonist, for whom fasting guidance is individualized by anesthesia; pregnant patients; and emergency or add-on cases. Each exclusion keeps the project inside the population the evidence covers.
Methods in Brief
Revise the script and sheet with the pre-admission nurses and the anesthesia chair; add an individual stop-time calculation, arrival time minus two hours, spoken to the patient and written on the sheet; teach the change in two huddles; add one question at check-in; audit calls weekly; track the check-in intake field and delay log.
Evaluation Timeline
Baseline data, the three months of check-in intake times and the delay log, are already collected. Weekly call audits begin the week the script goes live. The check-in question starts the same week. Results are reviewed with the preceptor every two weeks, and the median and delay rate are plotted over time so that a shift is visible as it happens rather than only at the end of the term.
Why the Project Is Small
A practicum term is short, and the student holds no authority over the order set, the surgeon offices or the electronic record. A script and sheet are within reach of the pre-admission nurses and the anesthesia chair, who both support the change. Widening the scope to the order set or the surgeon offices, which also send fasting instructions, would make the project depend on people outside the student's reach; those are named as next steps, not objectives, and the final summary will report whether the site took them up after the term ended.
What Success Would Mean for the Site
If the objectives are met, adults at this department will arrive having had a drink two to three hours earlier instead of twelve, the pre-admission nurses will be reading an instruction that matches their anesthesiologists' policy, and the site will have a small, measured example of carrying a policy change into daily work. If the balancing objective fails, the site will have learned that before the change spread further, and the script can be adjusted. Either result is useful, which is part of why the project is worth doing at this scale.
Preceptor Arrangement
In my words: my preceptor, the pre-admission nurse manager, meets with me weekly, approves each step before it goes to staff, and is the person staff come to with concerns. Hours and the signed agreement are recorded separately.
References
American Society of Anesthesiologists Committee on Standards and Practice Parameters. (2017). Practice guidelines for preoperative fasting and the use of pharmacologic agents to reduce the risk of pulmonary aspiration: Application to healthy patients undergoing elective procedures. Anesthesiology, 126(3), 376-393. https://doi.org/10.1097/ALN.0000000000001452
Brady, M. C., Kinn, S., Stuart, P., & Ness, V. (2003). Preoperative fasting for adults to prevent perioperative complications. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2003(4), Article CD004423. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD004423
Joshi, G. P., Abdelmalak, B. B., Weigel, W. A., Harbell, M. W., Kuo, C. I., Soriano, S. G., Stricker, P. A., Tipton, T., Grant, M. D., Marbella, A. M., Agarkar, M., Blanck, J. F., & Domino, K. B. (2023). 2023 American Society of Anesthesiologists practice guidelines for preoperative fasting: Carbohydrate-containing clear liquids with or without protein, chewing gum, and pediatric fasting duration. A modular update of the 2017 American Society of Anesthesiologists practice guidelines for preoperative fasting. Anesthesiology, 138(2), 132-151. https://doi.org/10.1097/ALN.0000000000004381
How this NU590 Unit 2 example is structured
Scope is argued before anything else, because the proposal's credibility depends on staying inside what a student can change. The problem section treats the policy as settled and the script as the gap, which keeps anesthesiologists in the role of sponsors rather than opponents. Evidence is chosen to answer the safety question those sponsors will ask first, so the Cochrane finding that shorter fluid fasts did not raise aspiration or regurgitation arrives early. Each objective then follows one pattern: population, measure, baseline, target and the unit in which a shift should appear. The fourth is a balancing objective, written so the project could fail on it. Exclusions follow with reasons: children, patients with gastroparesis or bowel obstruction, anyone taking a GLP-1 receptor agonist and emergency cases keep anesthesia's individual instructions. Hours, site approval and the preceptor agreement stay outside the paper as records only the student holds.
Get an NU590 Unit 2 example written to your instructions
A proposal like this starts from the site and the problem as you see them, plus any baseline figure you can already reach. Share those with the Unit 2 instructions and rubric, adding any exclusions your preceptor has raised. The objectives come back measurable, scoped to what a student can change, in 24-48h; the first custom sample is free. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
NU590 Unit 2 questions, answered
Should a practicum proposal include a balancing objective?
Often it strengthens the paper, especially when the change carries a plausible risk. A balancing objective names what could get worse and how it will be watched, which shows reviewers the project can register harm as well as success. In the sample, fasting-related delays and cancellations fill that role, because a looser drinking rule could collide with case times that move.
What if my site has no baseline data?
Look first at what staff already record, since many useful figures sit in routine fields nobody reports. The sample found its baseline in a last-oral-intake field the pre-op nurses complete at every check-in. Where nothing exists, a proposal can commit to collecting a short baseline before the change, stated as a step with a date rather than a number.
Can the proposal cite a professional society guideline as its main evidence?
A guideline is strong support, but graduate rubrics usually want the evidence beneath it as well. Add a systematic review or key studies alongside it so the reader sees what the recommendation rests on. The sample cites the ASA fasting guideline alongside the Cochrane review of adult fasting, which addresses the aspiration question directly.