| Course | NU712 Quality Improvement and Interprofessional Collaboration for the Doctoral Nurse |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 5 |
| Paper type | Seminar reflection |
| Length | About 820 words, 5 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for NU712 Unit 5
Is My Project Evidence-Based Practice or Quality Improvement? A Unit 5 Seminar Reflection on a Question I Thought Was Settled
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
NU712: Quality Improvement and Interprofessional Collaboration for the Doctoral Nurse
Unit 5 Seminar Reflection
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The seminar, classmates and project details are composite; the sources cited are real.
The Question and My First Answer
The facilitator framed the question simply. Evidence-based practice asks whether the best available evidence is being used in care. Quality improvement asks whether a local process is getting better, using local data and tests of change. Research asks a question whose answer should apply beyond one setting. Each of us had to place our project.
I answered quality improvement without hesitation. My project changes a local process, discharge on new insulin, measures it with run charts and PDSA cycles and has no aim beyond our hospital. That was true, and the facilitator agreed that it would likely be classified that way.
The Question That Unsettled It
A classmate, Renata, who works in an infusion center, asked what evidence told me that teaching was the right thing to improve. Why not, she asked, a medication change, a different insulin regimen or a visiting nurse for every patient? I said that inpatient diabetes education had been linked to fewer readmissions in a large cohort, which is true: among patients with A1C above 9 percent, those who saw an educator returned within 30 days less often, with an adjusted odds ratio of 0.66 (Healy et al., 2013).
Renata pressed further. That study was retrospective, she pointed out, and education there meant a consult with a certified educator, not a bundle delivered by staff nurses. Did I know that my version of teaching was the effective ingredient?
I did not. I had treated the evidence as settled and moved straight to improving the process. Worse, when I thought about it on the drive home, I realized that our pilot units had changed four things at once in the same month. If returns fell, I would credit teaching because teaching was what I cared about, not because the data could tell me so. The project's run charts can show whether returns fall on our units. They cannot show that teaching, rather than the pen dispensed on day one or the three-day check-in, is what made the difference.
I had improved a process without asking whether the evidence supported the process I chose to improve.
How the Rest of the Seminar Answered
Renata's question was not only for me. Of the nine of us, six had placed our projects in quality improvement, two in evidence-based practice implementation and one, a classmate testing a new survey instrument, closer to research. The facilitator then asked the six of us in quality improvement to name the strongest single study behind our change. Four of us named one; two could not. What came next mattered most to me, because it showed that the classification question and the evidence question are different, and that a project can be correctly classified and still poorly grounded.
What the Literature Says About the Relationship
Abou Hashish and Alsayed (2020) studied 300 nurses in three Egyptian hospitals and found positive attitudes toward both evidence-based practice and quality improvement, but self-reported gaps in evidence-based practice knowledge and in improvement skills. They also found a strong positive relationship between the two, with evidence-based practice competence predicting quality improvement competence. Their point, as I read it, is that the two are not alternatives. Improvement work that does not rest on evidence improves the wrong things efficiently, and evidence that is not carried into improvement stays on the page.
Kesten and Echevarria (2021) describe strategies their DNP program adopted to strengthen students' quality improvement projects. Reading it after the seminar, I recognized that a strong DNP project needs both a sound evidence base for the change and sound improvement methods for implementing it.
Where I Now Stand
My project is still quality improvement in its design and its classification. But it is evidence-based practice implementation in its rationale, and that part needs work. Before NU802, I will do three things. First, write a short evidence appraisal for each of the bundle's five components, not only for teaching. Second, revise the project's theory of change so that each component is linked to the outcome it is expected to affect. Third, add process measures that let me see which components were delivered to which patients, so that the evaluation can say something, however limited, about which parts matter.
Closing Thought
I came to the seminar thinking the EBP-or-QI question was a box to tick for the proposal. I left thinking it is the question that keeps a project honest. Renata's question will be the first slide of my proposal defense: what tells us this is the right thing to improve?
References
Abou Hashish, E. A., & Alsayed, S. (2020). Evidence-based practice and its relationship to quality improvement: A cross-sectional study among Egyptian nurses. The Open Nursing Journal, 14(1), 254-262. https://doi.org/10.2174/1874434602014010254
Healy, S. J., Black, D., Harris, C., Lorenz, A., & Dungan, K. M. (2013). Inpatient diabetes education is associated with less frequent hospital readmission among patients with poor glycemic control. Diabetes Care, 36(10), 2960-2967. https://doi.org/10.2337/dc13-0108
Kesten, K. S., & Echevarria, M. (2021). Strategies for strengthening quality improvement projects in a Doctor of Nursing Practice program. Journal of Doctoral Nursing Practice, 14(1), 10-16. https://doi.org/10.1891/JDNP-D-20-00034
What the NU712 Unit 5 assignment asks for
For Unit 5, the seminar usually centers on how evidence-based practice and quality improvement relate, and the reflection asks what the discussion changed in your thinking about your own DNP project. Expect to state where you placed your project before the seminar, describe a specific moment or question that challenged that view and explain where you stand afterward. A source or two on the relationship between the two approaches gives the reflection weight, but the heart of it is your own reasoning. Instructors also look for some account of how classmates answered, which shows you listened. Most prompts close by asking what will now change in your own project. First-person voice is expected; spend few lines retelling the session and most of them on the learning and the plan that follows.
Inside the NU712 Unit 5 example
The reflection opens with the facilitator's three definitions and the writer's confident placement of the project as quality improvement. The turning point comes when Renata asks what evidence shows teaching was the right thing to improve, and presses on the design and setting of the study the writer cited. A highlighted line admits the process was improved without asking whether evidence supported the choice. The writer then realizes the pilot units changed four things in one month, so run charts cannot show which part helped. A section reports how all nine seminar members answered, including two who could not name a supporting study. Abou Hashish and Alsayed and Kesten and Echevarria frame the literature, and the closing sections commit to appraising each of the five components, revising the theory of change and adding process measures.
NU712 Unit 5 rubric: what earns full points
Seminar reflections in this course earn most of their points for depth: a specific challenge, an honest account of what it exposed and a changed position that follows from it. A reflection that only summarizes the session scores low even when the summary is accurate. Connection to literature is judged on whether the sources help the writer think, not on how many are cited. Instructors value evidence of listening, so reporting how others answered and what you took from them carries weight. Concrete next steps tied to the project are often a separate rubric line. First-person writing is expected, but it should stay professional and precise, and the evidence you mention, such as a study's design or effect size, should be stated correctly. APA 7 citations and a clear structure complete the reflection.
NU712 Unit 5 help from the desk
Many reflections on this seminar stay safe, restating definitions of evidence-based practice and quality improvement and concluding that both matter. That earns little, because it shows no movement. Another weak pattern is describing a challenge without saying what you now think differently. Some writers misstate the evidence they rely on, calling an observational finding proof or turning an odds ratio into a percentage reduction. Classmates are often left out entirely, which costs the listening points. Next steps that are vague, such as reading more, do not count as change. Before writing, note the one question from the seminar you could not fully answer, and build the reflection around it. Share your notes from the session and a summary of your project, and a custom reflection can be built from them.
Get an NU712 Unit 5 example written to your instructions
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NU712 Unit 5 questions, answered
What if I missed the NU712 seminar?
Most sections offer a written alternative. Check its instructions.
How do EBP and quality improvement differ?
Evidence-based practice brings the best evidence into care; quality improvement uses local data and tests of change to improve a process. DNP projects often combine both.
How long is a seminar reflection?
Often about two pages.
Where can I find a free NU712 Unit 5 sample paper?
The complete NU712 Unit 5 seminar reflection is available on this page, tracing how a classmate's question about evidence unsettled a student's confident classification of an insulin discharge project.
What three changes does the NU712 Unit 5 sample commit to?
A short evidence appraisal for each of the bundle's five components, a revised theory of change linking each component to its expected outcome and process measures showing which parts reached which patients.