| Course | NR 730 DNP Project |
|---|---|
| Week | 5 |
| Paper type | Data collection plan |
| Length | About 1,100 words, 5 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for NR 730 Week 5
Data Collection Plan: Seven Measures for Sleep Apnea Screening at an Ambulatory Surgery Center, Each With Its Numerator, Denominator, Source and Day
Student Name
College of Nursing, Chamberlain University
NR 730: DNP Project
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Data Collection Plan: Seven Measures for Sleep Apnea Screening at an Ambulatory Surgery Center, Each With Its Numerator, Denominator, Source and Day
What the Plan Is For
This plan is written for the two people who will collect the data, the center's quality coordinator and the recovery charge nurse, so that each can produce the same figures without asking the project lead what was meant. It covers the twelve weeks from 3 March to 26 May 2027 and compares them, where a baseline exists, with 1 January to 30 June 2026. The analysis for each measure was chosen before collection began and is stated beside it.
The Measures, Written Out
Table 1
Data Collection Measures, Sleep Apnea Screening Project
| Measure | Numerator | Denominator | Source and who pulls it | When |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Screening completion | Adults with a complete STOP-Bang score before entering the operating room | Adults having procedures under general anesthesia or sedation | Record report, quality coordinator | Mondays, previous week |
| 2. Pathway delivery | High-risk adults with all four pathway elements documented | Adults scoring 5 or more | Chart audit, recovery charge nurse | Mondays, previous week |
| 3. Recovery respiratory events | Adults with one or more logged respiratory events | Adults having eligible procedures, also by score band | Recovery event log, quality coordinator | Mondays, previous week |
| 4. Unplanned transfers | Adults transferred or admitted from the center | Adults having eligible procedures | Transfer log, quality coordinator | Mondays, previous week |
| 5. Recovery length of stay | Median minutes from recovery arrival to discharge | All adults, and high-risk adults separately | Recovery timestamps, quality coordinator | Mondays, previous week |
| 6. Order set overrides | High-risk adults whose opioid-sparing order set was overridden | Adults scoring 5 or more | Order audit report, pharmacist | Every two weeks |
| 7. Primary care letters | High-risk adults whose clinician was sent a letter within two business days | Adults scoring 5 or more | Letter log, preoperative phone nurse lead | Mondays, previous week |
Note. Note. A respiratory event is any of: three or more oxygen saturation readings under 90%, breathing slower than 8 a minute, a pause of 10 seconds or longer or any airway support, following the recovery log's own definition.
Every measure has a denominator. A count of respiratory events alone would mean nothing if the number of procedures changed from week to week, and the center's volume varies by about 15% between weeks.
Source and Access, Confirmed
Each source was opened before go-live to confirm it holds what the plan needs. The quality coordinator ran the screening report on test patients on 25 February and confirmed it captures the completion time. The recovery event log has been kept in the same format since 2024 and supplied the baseline. The transfer log is kept by the nurse manager and is already reviewed weekly. The order audit report exists in the pharmacy system and was tested by the pharmacist. The letter log is a new spreadsheet kept on the center's shared drive. No measure depends on data the collectors have not already opened.
The Balancing Measures
Two measures watch for harm the project might cause. Recovery length of stay, measure 5, will show whether extended observation of high-risk patients is backing up the recovery unit; the baseline median was 64 minutes overall across all adults. Order set overrides, measure 6, will show whether anesthesiologists find the opioid-sparing defaults unworkable, which would mean patients receiving opioids without the pathway's intent. The anesthesia guideline that shaped the pathway recommends limiting opioids where possible for these patients (American Society of Anesthesiologists Task Force, 2014), so frequent overrides would be a signal worth discussing, not a failure to punish.
Handling the Data
The project lead receives only weekly aggregate counts, sent by internal secure email from the quality coordinator and the charge nurse. Nothing that identifies a patient leaves the center, and the chart audit is done on site by the charge nurse. The counts are kept in a password-protected file on the center's quality drive and will be retained under the center's quality records policy. The research office determined the project to be quality improvement, not research, on 20 January 2027.
The Analysis, Chosen First
Measures 1, 2 and 7 will be plotted weekly on run charts against their targets, 90%, 85% and 90%, and read with the usual run chart tests for shifts and trends (Provost & Murray, 2022). Measures 3 and 4 will be reported as proportions with 95% confidence intervals for the twelve weeks and compared with the 2026 baseline, and measure 3 will also be reported by score band. Measures 5 and 6 will be reported as medians and proportions.
What a Center This Size Can Show
About 1,700 adults will have eligible procedures in twelve weeks. With a baseline respiratory event rate of 4.1%, a comparison of this size can reliably detect only a large change, a fall to about 2.5% or lower; a smaller real improvement would look like no change. Unplanned transfers, at 0.6%, are too rare for any twelve-week comparison to mean much. The plan therefore treats outcomes as descriptive and judges the project mainly on screening and pathway delivery, which it can measure precisely. The score band analysis has a further use: it will show whether recovery events in this center rise with the STOP-Bang score, as the meta-analysis of the tool would predict for severe sleep apnea (Nagappa et al., 2015).
Who Checks the Counts
Two checks protect the figures from simple errors. Each month, the project lead and the quality coordinator choose five high-risk patients at random from the weekly lists, and the coordinator confirms on site that the charge nurse's audit matched the chart for each of the four pathway elements. And the screening completion figure is cross-checked once a month against the operating room schedule, to make sure every eligible adult appears in the denominator and that canceled cases have been removed. Disagreements are resolved by the coordinator, and any correction is applied to the affected week and noted in the run chart.
When Data Are Missing
If a week's report fails, the coordinator reruns it the following day; if the chart audit is missed, it is completed the next Monday, covering both weeks. Patients whose score was not completed are counted in the denominator of measure 1 and reported as a separate group in measure 3, so they are not lost from the outcome comparison.
References
American Society of Anesthesiologists Task Force on Perioperative Management of Patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea. (2014). Practice guidelines for the perioperative management of patients with obstructive sleep apnea. Anesthesiology, 120(2), 268-286. https://doi.org/10.1097/ALN.0000000000000053
Nagappa, M., Liao, P., Wong, J., Auckley, D., Ramachandran, S. K., Memtsoudis, S., Mokhlesi, B., & Chung, F. (2015). Validation of the STOP-Bang questionnaire as a screening tool for obstructive sleep apnea among different populations: A systematic review and meta-analysis. PLOS ONE, 10(12), Article e0143697. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0143697
Provost, L. P., & Murray, S. K. (2022). The health care data guide: Learning from data for improvement (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass.
NR 730 Week 5 instructions, in plain terms
Write the plan for the person who will collect the data. For each measure, spell out the numerator and denominator so two people counting on different days would get the same figure. Name the source, a specific report, screen or log, and who has access, and confirm that access before collection starts. Fix the cadence, naming the day. Include at least one balancing measure that would show harm or cost from the change. Describe how the data will be handled and stored, what the project lead sees and how patient identity is protected. Choose the analysis for each measure before collecting, and say honestly what a sample of your size can and cannot show. Add a simple check that the counts are accurate, and say what happens when data are missing.
How the NR 730 Week 5 example is put together
The sample states its readers, the quality coordinator and the recovery charge nurse, and its window. A seven-row table gives each measure's numerator, denominator, source, collector and timing, with a note defining a respiratory event. A section records that each source was opened before go-live, including a test of the screening report on 25 February. Recovery length of stay and order set overrides serve as balancing measures. A handling section limits the lead to weekly aggregate counts by secure internal email. Analysis is chosen in advance: run charts for process measures and proportions with confidence intervals for outcomes. A power section explains that only a large fall in events is detectable. Monthly agreement checks and rules for missing reports close the plan.
Where the points sit in the NR 730 Week 5 rubric
The most costly single defect is a measure with no denominator, which turns every later comparison into a count nobody can interpret. Second is a source nobody has confirmed access to, since a plan built on a report the writer has never opened tends to collapse mid-project. Third is a sample size stated with no acknowledgment of what a unit that size can show. Marks are also lost for no balancing measure, vague data handling and analysis chosen after the data arrive. Plans score well when every measure is executable by someone other than the writer, sources are confirmed, the analysis is fixed in advance and the plan is honest about its power.
NR 730 Week 5 help: mistakes that cost points
Data collection plans fail most often on a missing denominator or a report nobody has actually opened. Share your measures, the systems at your site and the people who can pull the data, and the plan can spell out each numerator and denominator, name the source and the day, add balancing measures, describe how data are handled and fix the analysis before collection. Estimating what your sample size can detect is a step reviewers notice. The measures and sources come from your own project. A small agreement check between two collectors is cheap and makes every later figure easier to defend.
Get a NR 730 Week 5 example written to your instructions
Send the Week 5 assignment and rubric along with the measures you intend to collect, and a custom example is written to your measures rather than to a generic project, returned inside 24 to 48 hours. The first example is free and no site data is needed to produce it.
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NR 730 Week 5 questions, answered
What if my sample is small?
Most unit-level projects have small samples and faculty know it. The plan states the expected number, what that number can support, usually a descriptive comparison or a simple test, and what it cannot. Claiming inferential power that a handful of cases does not carry is a bigger problem than the small sample ever was.
Can I use a published survey instrument?
Often, provided the permission terms allow it and the plan names which instrument, which version, and what is known about its reliability in a similar population. Modified instruments need the modification described. A sample can model the section describing all of that, while the permission you obtain and file stays yours.
Does the site's data go into the example?
No. Anything extracted from an organization's records belongs to that organization and stays inside it. An example uses plausible invented figures in the same shape as yours, so the structure, the definitions and the analysis are all visible while your real numbers stay where they were collected.
Where can I find a free NR 730 Week 5 sample paper?
A complete data collection plan with seven fully specified measures for a sleep apnea screening project is shown on this page.
What does the NR 730 Week 5 sample say its sample size can show?
With about 1,700 patients and a 4.1% baseline event rate, only a fall to roughly 2.5% or lower could be reliably distinguished from no change.