| Course | NR 705A DNP Project & Practicum II |
|---|---|
| Week | 5 |
| Paper type | Measure definition table |
| Length | About 1,100 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for NR 705A Week 5
Measure Definition Table: Outcome, Process and Balancing Measures for the Same-Day Behavioral Health Introduction, With Counting Rules and a Dry Run
Student Name
College of Nursing, Chamberlain University
NR 705A: DNP Project & Practicum II
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Measure Definition Table: Outcome, Process and Balancing Measures for the Same-Day Behavioral Health Introduction, With Counting Rules and a Dry Run
The Table
| Measure | Job | Numerator | Denominator | Source | Run by | Frequency | Window |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Completed behavioral health contact within 30 days | Outcome | Patients in the denominator with a completed behavioral health encounter on day 0 to day 30 | Adults at their first qualifying visit of the week, PHQ-9 total 10 or higher, adult primary care department | Visits, encounters, status field | Quality analyst | Weekly | Visit week; result known 30 days later |
| Same-day contact | Process: did it happen | Patients in the denominator with a behavioral health encounter on day 0 | As above | Encounters | Quality analyst | Weekly | Visit week |
| Warm handoff requested | Process: fidelity | Visits with a message in the "BH warm handoff" group | Eligible visits between 08:30 and 16:00, Monday to Friday | Message group log, visits | DNP student | Weekly | Visit week |
| Next-business-day call made | Process: fidelity | Eligible patients without a same-day contact who had a call attempt by 12:00 the next business day | Eligible patients without a same-day contact | Referral log | Behavioral health assistant | Weekly | Visit week plus one business day |
| Primary care visit length | Balancing | Minutes from rooming to checkout for eligible visits | Eligible visits | Visit time stamps | Quality analyst | Weekly | Visit week |
| Booked behavioral health follow-ups not attended | Balancing | Booked follow-up visits not attended | Booked follow-up visits | Behavioral health schedule | Quality analyst | Monthly | Calendar month |
Counting Rules
The rules below settle in advance the cases that would otherwise be decided differently each week. What counts as one: one patient, at their first qualifying visit in the week. A patient who screens positive again within 90 days is not counted again.
When two entries are the same event: a same-day contact recorded both as a warm handoff note and as a behavioral health encounter counts once, as the encounter.
What counts as a completed contact: a behavioral health encounter with status "completed," in person, video or telephone, with the consultant or psychologist. A message, a booking or an encounter marked "no show" does not count.
Partial records: an encounter with no status is checked by the analyst against the consultant's notes; if a note exists, it counts as completed; if not, it does not. A visit with no checkout time is excluded from visit length but not from the other measures.
Excluded by rule: patients recorded as deceased or transferred out during the 30 days; visits at other sites or departments; patients under 18.
Did It Happen, and Did It Work
Two kinds of question sit behind the table, and they need different measures. The process measures ask whether the change happened as designed: was the consultant messaged, was the call made. The outcome measure asks whether patients reached behavioral health. Reading both together separates a change that was not done from a change that was done and did not work, a distinction implementation research treats as essential (Proctor et al., 2011).
Splitting by Language
Each measure will also be reported separately for patients whose preferred language is English and those whose preferred language is Spanish, since language is a structured field and published work on Latino patients suggests language may change how a handoff lands. If either group's figure moves differently, the weekly summary will show it.
Why the Threshold
The denominator uses the PHQ-9 cut point of 10, the usual threshold for moderate symptoms on a validated measure (Kroenke et al., 2001) and the threshold the site already uses for referral.
Why These Balancing Measures
Visit length, because a warm handoff could keep patients in the clinic longer and delay later visits. Missed follow-ups, because moving ten follow-up slots a week to other days could increase no-shows among patients already in care. Either could show that the change helps one group at another's expense. Visit length is measured from time stamps that already exist, so it adds no work for anyone at the site; missed follow-ups come from the behavioral health schedule the team already reviews monthly.
A Dry Run on Old Data
The analyst ran the outcome, same-day and visit length measures for the week of 9 to 13 June 2026, before any change. Results: 21 eligible patients, 7 with a completed contact within 30 days, 1 with a same-day contact, median visit length 52 minutes. The single same-day contact happened because the consultant was walking past the room, which is exactly the kind of chance contact the change aims to make routine. The outcome figure matched the baseline week's figure exactly. The warm handoff and call measures could not be run, since the message group and call timing did not exist; their dry run will happen in the first week of the test.
Who Runs What, and When
The quality analyst runs the outcome, same-day and visit length measures every Monday for the week before last, so that the 30-day outcome has had time to occur for the earliest visits; the outcome is updated again when the full 30 days have passed. The student counts handoff requests from the message group every Friday. The behavioral health assistant records call times in the referral log as part of the call itself. Monthly, the analyst produces the missed follow-up figure from the behavioral health schedule.
What Happens When a Measure Cannot Be Produced
If the analyst is away, the queries are saved and documented so that the site's second analyst can run them. If the message group fails, the handoff requests will be counted from the visit note smart phrase once it is live. Each measure has a named backup, recorded in the measure table's notes, so that a missed week is a rare exception rather than a gap in the run chart.
Display
How the measures are shown affects how they are read. Weekly outcome and process figures on run charts with the baseline median (Perla et al., 2011). Balancing measures in a monthly table, with the baseline month beside each test month so that a change is visible at a glance.
What the Measures Cannot See
Every set of measures has blind spots, and naming them now prevents overclaiming later. Whether the first contact led to ongoing treatment, whether symptoms improved over the following months and whether patients felt pressured by a same-day introduction. Each is noted for the evaluation term.
References
Kroenke, K., Spitzer, R. L., & Williams, J. B. W. (2001). The PHQ-9: Validity of a brief depression severity measure. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 16(9), 606-613. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1525-1497.2001.016009606.x
Perla, R. J., Provost, L. P., & Murray, S. K. (2011). The run chart: A simple analytical tool for learning from variation in healthcare processes. BMJ Quality & Safety, 20(1), 46-51. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs.2009.037895
Proctor, E., Silmere, H., Raghavan, R., Hovmand, P., Aarons, G., Bunger, A., Griffey, R., & Hensley, M. (2011). Outcomes for implementation research: Conceptual distinctions, measurement challenges, and research agenda. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 38(2), 65-76. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10488-010-0319-7
The Chamberlain NR 705A Week 5 instructions
Build a narrow table where each row names one measure and its job, outcome, process or balancing, and gives the top and bottom of the fraction as populations rather than a percentage. Add the source report, the person named to run it, how often and the period each figure covers. Under the table, write the counting rule: what counts as one event, when two entries are the same event, what to do with a partial record and what is excluded by rule. Explain how process and outcome measures together separate a change not done from a change that did not work. Run the measures on old data before the change starts, and say what the measures cannot see.
How this NR 705A Week 5 example is built
The sample's table defines six measures, from completed contact within 30 days to missed follow-ups, each with numerator, denominator, source, runner, frequency and window. Counting rules make each patient count once per 90 days, treat a handoff note and encounter as one event, check partial encounters against the consultant's notes and exclude deaths, transfers, other sites and under-18s. Results are split by English or Spanish preference. The analyst runs most measures on Mondays, the student counts handoff requests on Fridays and each measure has a backup. A dry run on 9 to 13 June 2026 found 21 eligible patients, 7 completed contacts, 1 same-day contact and a median visit of 52 minutes. Each measure names a backup person so a missed week is rare.
NR 705A Week 5 rubric: what full points look like
Measure tables lose most when they give percentages without saying what the numerator and denominator are, so nobody can reproduce them. Next are measures with no named person to run them, which then go unrun. Counting rules for duplicates and partial records are often missing, leading to different counts each week. Many tables include only an outcome measure, so a failure to implement cannot be told apart from a failure to work. Balancing measures are frequently left out. Tables never tested on old data often fail in the first week. Subgroup splits that matter for the evidence, such as language, are rarely planned in advance. Tables without backups for each measure also produce gaps in the run chart. Display plans are often left out.
Common NR 705A Week 5 mistakes, and how to avoid them
Defining measures precisely enough that anyone could produce them is tedious and essential. Measure by measure, we can help you pin down each fraction, source and owner and write counting rules for the awkward cases. We can also help you choose balancing measures and plan a dry run on old data. Running even one week of old data through your definitions usually exposes a rule you had not written. The measures are yours. Naming a backup for each measure is worth doing too. Splitting results by a subgroup that matters is worth planning early.
Get a NR 705A Week 5 example written to your instructions
Give the desk the template your section issues for the table, along with the rubric, and a custom NR 705A Week 5 example arrives inside 24-48h with the first one free. Naming the two or three measures you already have in mind lets the counting rules be written around your own project rather than a generic one.
More NR 705A papers and DNP samples
- NR 705A Week 1: Change Proposal Post
- NR 705A Week 2: Intervention Design
- NR 705A Week 3: Change Package Outline
- NR 705A Week 4: Baseline Description
- NR 705A Week 6: Survey Instrument Draft
- NR 705A Week 7: Approval Determination Memo
- NR 705A Week 8: Design Defense Summary
- NR 702A Week 5: Aim Statement Draft
NR 705A Week 5 questions, answered
Is this the analysis plan?
No, and keeping them apart protects both. This document settles what a number means and how it is produced. Which test is applied to those numbers, and what the result can support, belongs to the analytic methods courses and to the term where data actually exists. A table that turns into a statistics section usually has thin counting rules underneath it.
How many measures is the right number?
Most projects carry three or four and defend them easily. One or two showing the change was delivered, one showing the effect, one watching for harm elsewhere. Beyond that, every extra row is a weekly pull somebody has to perform for the rest of the project, and faculty read a long table as a plan that has not met a real week yet.
Who should be named as the person pulling each measure?
A role that exists whether or not you are there. Tables listing the writer against every row describe a project that pauses during vacations and ends at graduation, and reviewers notice. Where the writer genuinely is the only person with access, saying so and naming who could be trained to take over reads better than a name that will not hold.
Where can I find a free NR 705A Week 5 sample paper?
The finished measure definition table for the warm handoff test is reproduced on this page.
Why does the NR 705A Week 5 table split results by language?
A published study found warm handoffs worked differently across language groups among Latino patients, so English and Spanish results are reported separately.