Part 1
Of the many borrowed principles which are currently in use in the professional nursing world, the social exchange theory has proved to be very crucial as regards to the relationships which care providers have with their patients. The stability of relationships between different persons in the society is based on the interactions which they have amongst themselves. Furthermore, the benefits which an individual stands to gain from their relationships are what make them enter into coalitions (Cook et al., 2013). A balance in the relationships between different parties is the primary goal for people forming such coalitions.
The core concepts which define this theory are as discussed. First, individuals enter such relationships with the intentions of achieving rewards and avoiding possible losses. Secondly, persons involved in such relationships focus more on maximizing the benefits which they will get from the relationships and avoid accumulating higher costs from the process. Such a realization is guided by individuals focusing their expectations on rewards rather than on the costs involved in the process. Thirdly, individuals act rationally in their undertakings and as such, they are able to make calculations regarding the benefits which they are set to achieve from particular relationships. Finally, the standards which individuals employ in evaluating the expected benefits from a particular relationship vary from person to person.
As an advanced practice nurse, the application of the social exchange theory will be essential for my practice as it lays down the strategies which can be employed in achieving maximum patient care. By ensuring that I apply only evidence-based care while taking care of my client’s needs, the advantages which are likely to come out of such a move will be higher on the patients’ side compared to only if standard usual care is employed in the process (Cook et al., 2013). Applying this form of care will prove to be advantageous to patients since cases of readmission and mortality will be greatly reduced. The end product from such a move is the realization that the quality and safety of care which patients receive will have been enhanced. As regards to my knowledge, applying evidence based care will mean that a research process will have to be followed which by extension will open up my grasp of nursing protocols.
Part 2
In my practice environment, the need for constantly developing new procedures which can be used in the care provision process has necessitated me to carry out research on how different healthcare problems can be addressed in our healthcare facility. Carrying out research on the effectiveness of massage therapy in addressing instances of pain in post-operative patients and utilizing the technique on patients has been a crucial step in ensuring the wellbeing of such patients. Such a strategy is aligned with application scholarship (Bowen & Graham, 2013). Secondly, I have been at the forefront in researching the efficacy of bed alarms on addressing the issue of falls amongst elderly patients battling with dementia as compared to using physical restraints. This serves as a form of discovery scholarship.
The type of scholarship which my DNP program will be based on is the scholarship of discovery. I believe in constantly looking for solutions regarding the different ailments which patients present with to our healthcare facility. As such, I intend to take a discovery scholarship for my DNP project as it will assist me in carrying out empirical and methodological studies from whose inferences new forms of care will be developed (Chism, 2015). Such a realization will be essential in making discoveries concerning human alignments and the vast forms of corrective mechanisms that can be employed to address them.
As regards to the categories of projects, my DNP scholarship will be aligned with the quality improvement type based on the realization that by new discoveries regarding care provision being generated, the quality and safety of the patients will be improved. Utilizing new forms of knowledge in the process of care provision plays the crucial role of improving the outcomes of patients.
References
Bowen, S. J., & Graham, I. D. (2013). From knowledge translation to engaged scholarship: promoting research relevance and utilization. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 94(1), S3-S8.
Chism, L. A. (2015). The doctor of nursing practice. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Cook, K. S., Cheshire, C., Rice, E. R., & Nakagawa, S. (2013). Social exchange theory. In Handbook of social psychology (pp. 61-88). Springer Netherlands.
