Research Capstone

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Walden University Graduate Nursing Portfolio

Guide to Creating the Professional Portfolio

Graduate Nursing Core Portfolio Requirements

Course Course Name (italics) & Assignments

NURS 6002/6003 Transition to Graduate Study for Nursing

Program of Study* (Students transferring in will also have a POS.) Module 6 Assignment: Academic Success and Professional Development Plan Part 6: Finalizing the Plan

NURS 6050 Policy and Advocacy for Improving Population Health

Module 6 Assignment: Global Healthcare Comparison Matrix and

Narrative Statement

NURS 6051 Transforming Nursing and Healthcare Through Technology

Module 4 Assignment: Literature Review: The Use of Clinical Systems to

Improve Outcomes and Efficiencies

NURS 6052 Essentials of Evidence-Based Practice

Module 6 Assignment: Evidence-Based Capstone Project, Part 6:

Disseminating Results

NURS 6053 Interprofessional Organizational and Systems Leadership

Module 4 Assignment: Workplace Environment Assessment

* Contact your Advisor if you need a copy of your Program of Study.

Nurse Executive Specialization Portfolio Requirements

Course Course Name (italics) & Assignments

NURS 6201 Leadership in Nursing and Healthcare

Module 2 Assignment 2: System of Transition of Care

NURS 6211 Finance and Economics in Health Care Delivery

Module 5 Assignment: Final Healthcare Budget Request

NURS 6221 Managing Human Resources

Module 3 Assignment: Evaluating Performance Management Systems

NURS 6231 Healthcare Systems and Quality Outcomes

Module 4 Assignment: Innovation Presentation

NURS 6241 Strategic Planning in Healthcare Organizations

Module 4 Assignment: Course Project: Developing a Strategic Plan

NURS 6600 Capstone Synthesis Practicum

Module 2 Assignment: Practicum Project Presentation

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Professional Portfolio

Purposes and Definition

The purposes of a Portfolio are to do the following:

 Provide a repository for your educational and professional accomplishments

 Document your educational progression and growth throughout the program

 Evaluate your achievement of program learning outcomes

 Project a professional image through the organization and presentation of the material

 Communicate accomplishments to colleagues and the professional community

Documentation and Evidence

Your Professional Portfolio will contain the following documentation and evidence*:

 Program of Study

 Current Curriculum Vitae (CV)/Résumé

 Portfolio Assignments from each of the courses

 Continuing Education (CE), if applicable

 Other Non-Electronic Documents, if applicable

 End-of-Program Outcomes Evidence Chart

 Final Reflection

*See the Portfolio Sections and Formatting Guidelines (below) for details about each of these items to be included in your Portfolio.

Evidence Collection and Documentation Storage At the beginning of the MSN program, you should have initiated the process of collecting evidence and storing materials and information in an organized way. In preparation for assembling your Professional Portfolio, you may wish to complete the following:

 Set up computer and paper files related to each section of your Portfolio, as indicated in the Professional Portfolio Template. For example, you may have a computer file with documentation of your CE activities and a paper file containing the actual certificates.

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 Organize course files into the categories that help you to analyze your learning and development (papers, journal, reflections, professional development, course assignments, etc.). For example, you might save all your journal entries in one file and identify a selection of these entries to demonstrate your growth over time.

 Assemble required documents at the beginning of the term to ensure you have all items. If a Portfolio Assignment is missing, the following are recommended ways to retrieve it. (Start the process early in order to meet deadlines and submit a robust Portfolio.)

 Contact the Faculty who taught the course. Walden Faculty have access to

former classes that they taught and can retrieve assignments.  Contact the Customer Care Team at 1-800-925-3368 or visit the Contact Us

page for international numbers. The Customer Care Team is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Request the exact work needed. Give them a minimum of 72 hours to reply.

 Contact Student Success Advising if a Program of Study (POS) is needed from NURS 6002/6003 or for students transferring to Walden University.

Portfolio Sections and Formatting Guidelines

Your Professional Portfolio consists of one document, with specified sections.

Save a version of the Professional Portfolio Template to create your Professional Portfolio document. In your saved version of the template, address the following:

Title Page and Table of Contents

 The first page of your Professional Portfolio document (the title page) should include all the information listed in the template, including your NURS 6600 section number, date of Portfolio submission, your full name, address, telephone number, email address, your current position title (i.e., ICU nurse), agency, and the city and state where you work. Be sure to follow the format presented in the Portfolio Template.

 You may update the Table of Contents manually once you have inserted all the sections of the Portfolio. If you use the functionality in Word to create your Table of Contents automatically, be sure to follow the wording and sequencing indicated in the Portfolio Template.

 If you transferred to Walden University and a certain course was substituted, list the course on the Table of Contents and document that the course was not required in your Program of Study.  Example:

NURS 6050 – Transfer Student, course not required in Program of Study (POS)….pg. 29 On page 29, you would then write, NURS 6050 - Policy and Advocacy for

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Improving Population Health: Course not required in POS upon transfer to Walden University.

Program of Study

 Paste your Program of Study. This was initiated in NURS 6002/6003 and may need to be revised/updated.

Current CV/Résumé Paste a copy of your Curriculum Vitae (CV)/Résumé. The Portfolio Template includes formatting/sequencing suggestions. Career Services also has tips and examples to follow. Portfolio Assignments Prior to copying and pasting the assignments into your saved version of the Portfolio Template, review the Portfolio Assignment from each of your prior courses and make the following adjustments:

 If there are any Faculty comments in an assignment, address the comments and then delete the notations to create a clean version of the assignment. Be sure the Track Changes function is turned off in the document.

 Proofread each assignment to ensure that it is free of typographical, grammatical, structural, or punctuation errors. In some cases, this will mean correcting errors in your original document.

 Reformat each assignment as modeled in the Portfolio Template:

o Update the title page of each Portfolio Assignment to match the template

specifications.

o If the assignment is in a format other than Word (e.g., PowerPoint or Excel), save it as a Word document, if possible, so that you can integrate it into your Portfolio document. If that is not possible, you may need to save an assignment as an image file to be included in your Portfolio or list the item in Table 2 (Other Non-Electronic Documents). You may also convert PowerPoint presentations to “Outline (Narrative) View” if space is an issue.

o Use Times New Roman font (12 point) throughout.

o Ensure that each assignment is double-spaced throughout. (If necessary, select all or highlight the area to be updated, click on Format, Paragraph, and then select Line Spacing: Double.)

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 After you have properly formatted all of the assignments as indicated above, carefully paste each one in chronological order (including the course number on the assignment title page). Reminder: If necessary, documents may be included in your Portfolio as images or may be listed in Table 2.

Continuing Education (CE), if applicable:

 In Table 1 (Continuing Education), you may list and describe any Continuing Education (CE) course(s) you have completed during your academic journey (typically during the last 2 years). It is not necessary to scan CE certificates. Note: Inclusion of CE credits is optional and not a required element of your Professional Portfolio.

 This portion of the Portfolio constitutes a list of CEs taken. Place the following information on a four-column grid: (a) Name of CE/Course, (b) Sponsoring Organization, (c) Number of Hours/Units Earned, and (d) Date of Completion.

Other Non-Electronic Documents, if applicable

 In Table 2 (Other Non-Electronic Documents), list documents for which you do not have electronic versions.

 Pictures, significant notes, communications from colleagues, or any other artifacts may be included to demonstrate how you have grown throughout your academic journey. For example, if you conducted a workshop on hospice care, you might include a copy of the website information, an image of the brochure, and a scan of participant evaluation results. Use Word documents whenever possible; include scanned copies of original documents and/or write a brief description, as necessary.

End-of-Program Outcomes Evidence Chart

 Type in the required information to complete the End-of-Program Outcomes Evidence

Chart.  List the courses reflective of the graduate characteristic and individualized student

learning outcome (ISLO) and give examples of coursework that helped achieve the outcomes.

Sample Entry: MSN Graduate Characteristic

Individual Student Learning Outcome (ISLO)

Course #; Learner Assessments (Evidence according to alignment of learner outcomes from Syllabus chart)

Student Outcome: Service (Community/ Professional)

Student Outcome: Scholar Practitioner (Scholarship/ Practice)

Student Outcome: Social Change

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Example:

Leader/Change Agent

LO1—Synthesize organizational/systems leadership for cost- effective specialist nursing practice that contributes to high- quality healthcare delivery, advancement of the nursing profession, and social change.

NURS 6050 NURS 6051 NURS 6053 NURS 6201 NURS 6231

Encouraged children in my community to adhere to healthy diet and exercise plans.

Provided metrics for pediatric diabetic and overweight/ obese patients admitted on a monthly basis. Distributed content appropriate (for adolescent cohort) for childhood obesity and diabetes.

Reinforced to parents the need to provide a healthy diet and snacks and to encourage physical activity to reduce prevalence of childhood obesity and diabetes.

Final Reflection “Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” —Carl Jung

 Follow these guidelines to complete the Final Reflection. The Final Reflection is your chance to share your academic journey in the College of Health Sciences at Walden University, including your understanding of how classes and practicum experiences affect your thinking and shape your future nurse practice as a scholar-practitioner. The Final Reflection allows you to ask questions, build self-awareness, and better

understand your emotions, strengths, weaknesses, and what drives you to move forward. The Final Reflection is personal to you; hence, it does not need to include references to scholarly works. This is a self-reflective narrative in which you share your own thoughts. The following is a recommended format for writing the Final Reflection:

 Introduction – Include a well-developed purpose statement.

 Narration – Tell your story about your experience in the Nurse Executive track. Explain how your views of the nursing profession, your chosen specialty, and who you are as a nurse have changed as you have progressed through the MSN program. How has completing the Assessments associated with this Area of Expertise prepared you for 21st-century executive nurse practice? Good reflection papers provide a vivid image of the student’s experience.

 Personal Experiences – Succinctly share highlights of your educational experience that address the following questions:

 Who are you? What are you most proud of?  What specific encounter changed your attitude/opinion or action?

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 What special challenges were encountered? How did you handle them? How did these experiences change your life?

 Strengths and Weaknesses  Describe skills and competencies you possess that will be important for you

as a nurse executive.  How will you maximize your strengths related to these skills and

competencies?  How will you address any weaknesses? Why is addressing weaknesses

necessary for career advancement?  Conclusion – Share how the Walden journey shaped your personal development.

The reader should be able to visualize your life events, the experiences that impacted your learning and professional development, and how these experiences taught you and contributed to your personal development. In this section, you can share how you will use what has been learned to handle future directions.

Final Checks Before Submission Ensure that your Portfolio has a professional appearance by confirming the following:

o The date of submission/completion is indicated on each item included in your

Portfolio, as appropriate.

o The font and font size (Times New Roman, 12 point) is consistent

throughout the document (do not use all caps).

o The margins on the document are standard: APA style indicates 1” on all four sides. While your Portfolio may vary slightly from these specifications, it must be consistent and reflect a scholarly appearance.

o The Portfolio document includes page numbers at the top right corner. The

page numbers are automatically formatted in the Portfolio Template. If necessary, you can adjust or add automatically formatted page numbers to your Word document by selecting Insert, Page Number in the tool bar and then selecting Top of Page, alignment Right.

o Images are used sparingly and only as needed, since including images can

make the size of your Portfolio difficult to upload/download.

Q&A

Why am I being asked to develop a comprehensive Portfolio? The Walden MSN Program Faculty believe a Portfolio:

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 Promotes the synthesis of knowledge: To become a competent leader in the profession and as a nurse executive, you need to synthesize a great deal of information from a variety of sources. Creating a Portfolio provides the structure for thinking about and communicating these interconnections.

 Promotes reflective thought: One hallmark of graduate education is the ability

to think analytically and engage in self-assessment. Creating the Portfolio allows you to evaluate and demonstrate the achievements in acquiring advanced nursing and specialty knowledge.

 Provides evidence that assignment, course, and program learning outcomes have been met: The Portfolio reflects the different ways in which you have met the outcomes.

Is my Portfolio graded? The individual assignments and parts of the Portfolio are graded throughout the program. The Final Portfolio is graded at various points during the curriculum, and compilation of the Portfolio is due at the end of the program in NURS 6600. The grading rubric is included in NURS 6600.

When is my Portfolio due? Parts of the Portfolio are due as you complete assignments, projects, courses, and reflect on your growth and program experiences. The Portfolio will contain all the pieces of evidence that support your attainment of the learning and program outcomes. The Professional Portfolio should be submitted as a Word document by Day 7 of Week 10 of NURS 6600.

What are the contents of the Portfolio? Portfolios are individual creations and will not look exactly alike. The Portfolio is organized into sections so that specific types of information and evidence can be extracted when needed. Data collection and research activities related to organizational and program goals are part of the content.