Team IDEAL Capstone Project

* * * Click here to view a sample Capstone Proposal and Report * * *

* * * Click here to view 2003-2004 Capstone Project Summaries * * *

INTRODUCTION - The IDEAL Curriculum and the Capstone Experience

The IDEAL Curriculum aims to enrich the learning experiences of students in the SAHS by providing interactive interdisciplinary opportunities that target the development of competencies required for teamwork and collaboration in practice. For this reason, all IDEAL-sponsored activities are designed to add value to the learning opportunities provided within each of the professional curricula.

Each program within the SAHS supports the IDEAL philosophy whenever it incorporates interdisciplinary learning into its course of study. By facilitating more broad and varied interdisciplinary clusters than might be expected within any single curriculum, the IDEAL curriculum simulates health care environments to a higher degree and promises enhanced understanding of unique disciplinary roles.

The IDEAL capstone experience builds on and synthesizes prior learning about the nature of teamwork, collaboration, and the roles of other disciplines. Any capstone activity applies this learning and elicits teamwork and collaborative behaviors from all participants.

Your capstone project has several characteristics. It is community-based, involves multiple health care professions, is done during the second year of the Team IDEAL curriculum, and is worth 50 stars. The sections below describe the goals and process of the project and provides two web-based tools to help you plan and report it.

GOALS

Characteristic actions of the capstone experience:

1. It prompts students to integrate multiple competencies as they perform as an interdisciplinary team.
2. It elicits interactions at a level that assumes basic knowledge of the roles and functions of other health care team members.
3. It requires “fair share” contributions from all participants.
4. It elicits participants’ capacities to take initiative, facilitate effective group discussion, and collaborate on group actions independently of mentor assistance.
5. It addresses principles that all health care practitioners should know and at a level that approximates that of an entry-level practitioner.
6. It targets service delivery in the community* through a process of the assessment/identification of need and the planning of interventions to meet that need.
7. It requires documentation of the experience and its value for future practice.
   
   * What is community? A community in the health care arena is the world of the patient and the interaction between care providers and patients. Community encompasses the patient, the care providers, family, home, church, and more. A community can be large or small. Galveston County is a community and so is UTMB. The goal is to consider the patient/client and their world as a whole, as well as their disease, condition or need.
   
   

WHEN CAN I BEGIN?

You can begin thinking about a capstone project at any time during your education. When you have some ideas you can begin forming a team and your team can begin planning using the Proposal Form. Your capstone project proposal cannot be approved until each team member has attended three Featured Events and earned at least 50 stars. You can have team members who are not students and they are not subject to this last requirement.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Each capstone project team member must meet these participation requirements.

1. You must join the team at the beginning of the planning process (Any exception to this must have a very good reason, and be submitted in writing for possible approval by the Team IDEAL Coordinator).
2. You must have a leadership role in the execution of the project. You will describe everyone's role in the proposal and your instructors will assure that each person has met this requirement.

EXAMPLES

Below are listed some examples of possible capstone projects. These examples of capstone activities target varied communities and their diverse needs through a process of assessment of need and planning of intervention to address the need. In these hypothetical but plausible scenarios, students target a need that can be well met through interdisciplinary means and that they find nested within the context of other work that they are doing:

1. Training students in Galveston County to evaluate childhood immunization cards and work with the Health department to organize immunization stations in Galveston County. This is needed because Galveston county is in the midst of an pertussis epidemic (9 cases in county, and over 300 in the state), and only 56% of two year olds are adequately immunized.
2. Students from CLS, OT, and PT who volunteer at Magnolia Homes notice conversation among preteens that reflects erroneous ideas about sex, AIDS, menses, and personal hygiene. They connect with RN students and, with permission from the Magnolia Homes local coordinator, together design two simple and gender-specific games that are structured around questions and answers that provide accurate information.
3. During the Health Fair two local high school teachers mention to RC, CLS, and PA students at the table that some of their students could benefit from the activities being offered at the booth. The students take the names and numbers of the teachers, check with SAHS faculty, and together plan a multimedia program that SAHS faculty can use during public service visits to high schools in Galveston County. They pilot test the materials by training several faculty and arrange for them to make presentations at local schools. The effectiveness of the presentations are assessed.
4. Medical, PA, PT, and OT students on a Medical Mission trip encounter a man who has not left his bed in over 8 months because he cannot sit upright without support. The students assess the patient, design a back brace, and construct it from discarded scraps that they find locally.
5. OT students and psychology interns offering groups to clients at Our Daily Bread (as part of a service learning project) hear staff and clients discussing a major scheduling problem having to do with conflicting appointments and the timing of public transportation. They volunteer to do a needs assessment and come up with three options to offer ODB staff and clientele on how to better structure their management of time, timing, and transportation.
6. RC, PA, PT, CLS, and OT students involved in the Multicultural Awareness Council hear newly enrolled students describe a situation in which many of their peers had had interest in applying to the SAHS but never followed through on the desire past a first inquiry, because they were not sure that they would fit in. Students approach SAHS OSA and volunteer to form a supportive buddy system organized by MAC for applicants and promoted during OSA’s recruitment trips.
7. PAs, as part of a research project, volunteer to analyze the Family Medicine Gold Team’s responses to patient satisfaction survey results for their team. On the basis of this analysis, PA students propose five possible strategies for improving patient satisfaction. They poll the Gold Team faculty and staff and identify one specific areas for intervention. They contact Human Resources personnel who indicate that they can provide on-site in-service to members of the Gold Team on these areas.
8. As part of regular delivery in the Meals on Wheels Program, OT students note that many seniors in the community are troubled by respiratory problems such as asthma and COPD and seem to know little about interventions such as pursed breathing or energy conservation techniques. They connect with RC students and invite them to join them in the creation of a brochure with many visual illustrations of self-help actions these individuals can take. RC students join OTs for an upcoming meal delivery so as to help in the distribution and explanation of these brochures.
9. As part of a research project into the prevention of falls among seniors at Holland House, PTs discover that many seniors there report a high incidence of falls and little understanding of how to structure and manage their spaces in a way that promotes overall safety and prevents falls. They partner with OTs and Nurses to design an educational program for seniors, and train nursing staff to make presentations to residents at the Holland House community center.

See also:

1. Sample Capstone Proposals and Reports
2. Past Capstone Project Summaries

QUESTIONS

NEEDS

You must establish the need for your project. The need can be established in a number of ways. You need only use one of these.

1. Determine the need by talking with people in the community (health care providers, patients, citizens).
2. Do a formal needs assessment. A good needs assessment could be your whole project. If your project consists of doing a needs assessment, then other students can use your information to develop follow-on projects to meet the needs you identified.
3. Do a search of the health science literature to find evidence that a particular need exists in the health care system.
4. Use another method not listed here, but approved by your Team IDEAL instructor.

PROCESS

Below are the steps in planning, conducting, and reporting on your capstone project.

Planning:

1. First Steps
   1. Read the Capstone Proposal Form to understand the elements that make up your proposal.
   2. Use the Capstone Clearing House. The Capstone Clearing House is a discussion where you can explore capstone ideas and seek team members. You can get to the Capstone Clearing House by clicking on the Discussions menu item (Go to the top of this page and look on the left).
   3. Identify your capstone topic.
   4. Identify team members.
   5. Register your team and the students who are on it. Use the link to the Team Registration Form on the upper right to access the form.
   6. Identify the target community.
   7. Describe the goal of the project.
   8. Identify the stakeholders in the project (who will be affected and who will be affecting).
2. When your team is registered, then each person can begin to add information to the on-line Capstone Proposal form.
3. Identify a community need for the project. Get a community sponsor to agree to oversee your project.
4. Identify each team member's roles and duties (While team members are usually students, you can have community members who are assuming team member roles on your project. You need to list them here, but they are not listed in the Team Registration Form).
5. Identify needed resources and strategies to acquire them.
6. Meet with team and community members to agree on the plan
7. Discuss your project with the Team IDEAL coordinator. Teams will often be composed of people from different student groups.
8. As a team, develop and write your capstone proposal following the outline of the Capstone Proposal Form.
9. Use the common document the team developed and fill in the on-line proposal form. You will be graded on your individual contributions to the project and your individual project report, thus while this is an exercise in working as a team, you are individually responsible for your learning and your final product. The final report is an individual activity.
10. To get your project approved is a three step process:
    1. Submit your on-line proposal to your Team IDEAL coordinator for preliminary review. Check with your teammates to consolidate any suggested changes. When the coordinator has said your proposal is OK, and you have made any suggested changes, then . . .
    2. Submit your proposal to your community sponsor. A suggestion at this point is to have one member of the team submit it and wait to see if your community sponsor has any suggestions. Then, edit the proposal before final submission. When your community sponsor has approved, go to the last step.
    3. Finally, submit your proposal to the Team IDEAL Coordinator for final approval. This process seems long, but it will go quickly and insure that your project is well thought out and has a good probability of success.

Implementation:

1. Perform activities/tasks according to time frame
2. Collect evaluation information

Evaluation & Report:

1. Assess evaluation findings.
2. Present findings and debrief with community sponsor.
3. As a team, develop a draft report.
4. Individually complete the on-line Capstone Report Form. Each person uses the team's proposal as a basis for his/her personal final report. The report has several items that require an individualized reply. The acceptability of your report is evaluated by the Team IDEAL coordinator. When your report meets the coordinator's standards you are done.

Some things to Consider During Planning

1. Your team must have two or more different disciplines involved. The reason for this is to enable you to see possible synergies between you and others that you would not usually see in your regular clinical practice. Some disciplines are closely aligned in everyday practice and thus are not accepted as being different. Examples include a physicians assistant and a physician, or a clinical laboratory scientist and a pathologist. Check with the Team IDEAL Coordinator to confirm that you have at least two different disciplines involved.
2. Given the nature of your particular project, you may need to insure the safety and privacy of the participants. Given the level of this need, you may need to prepare a protocol for the UTMB Institutional Review Board (IRB). You also may need to have permission from community agencies prior to doing your project. Check with the Team IDEAL Coordinator about the need to secure UTMB IRB approval and consult your community sponsor about any local permissions needed.

Capstone Proposal Form

Link to Proposal Form - This link will open another window and present a form that you can work with during the process of planning your project. You can enter information and it can be saved. Later, you can recall your information and edit it. When your proposal is complete you can submit it to the Team IDEAL Coordinator and community sponsor for review and editing. Finally, you can submit it to the Team IDEAL Coordinator who will review it and either approve it or suggest further changes. Do not implement your project without it being reviewed by your sponsor and approved by the Team IDEAL Coordinator.

Several students will be working on this project and each one will have have responsible roles on it. You can share in the development and writing of the proposal, but each student needs to submit his/her own proposal. You will be graded on your individual contributions to the project and your individual project report, thus while this is an exercise in working as a team, you are individually responsible for your learning and your final product.

When your proposal is approved, the proposal file will be locked and you will no longer be able to edit the proposal. The form will not be locked until the Team IDEAL Coordinator gives final approval, thus you will be able to edit it after receiving preliminary feedback from the Team IDEAL Coordinator and community sponsor. Once approved, it will be time then to go on to the Capstone Report Form.

Capstone Report Form

Link to Report Form - This link will open a window and present a form that you can work with during the process of implementing and reporting on your project. The relevant information from your proposal will be moved into this form and displayed. You can edit this information and add new information. Later, you can recall your information and edit it. As with the proposal, several students can share in the development and writing of many parts of the report, but each person must write their own reflections and submit his/her own report. When your report is complete you can submit it to the Team IDEAL Coordinator who will review it and either approve it or suggest changes. Upon acceptance by the Team IDEAL Coordinator you will have completed your capstone project and your stars will be automatically reflected in your Activities Log.

Projects

The East Texas Area Health Education Center (ET-AHEC) can help you identify and implement capstone projects. The ET-AHEC serves 111 counties of the eastern half of Texas. They are able to serve this region, larger than 48 states, through eight community-based centers. Six centers are dominantly rural and two centers are urban. Below is a link to a resource page that can link you to the AHEC Area Coordinator in each of the community-based centers. You are encouraged to contact these individuals regarding projects you can do in their areas and resources they know about that can help you.

1. ET-AHEC Regional Center Web Pages .
2. Links to Existing Potential Projects.

Collaborators

The link below (when active) will take you to a data base of clinical rotations for each SAHS program. You can use this list to identify other students who will be in the same community you will be in, or who you could form into a group to go to a location to develop and conduct a project.

1. Link to Clinical Rotations.

1. Castro, R.M., Julia, M.C., Platt, L.J., Harbaugh, G.L., Waugamman, W.R., Thompson, A., Jost, T.S., Bope, E.T., Willimas, T. & Lee, D.B. (1994). Interprofessional care and collaborative practice. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Co., Group Process and interpersonal teamwork (Ch.4) and Essential elements of interprofessional team work: Task and maintenance functions (Ch 5).
2. Eyler, J. & Giles, D. (1999). “Engagement, curiosity, and reflective practice” In Where’s the learning in service learning? San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
3. Campus Community Partners for Health web site.