| Course | NU 725 Technology and Nursing Informatics in Advanced Practice |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 8 |
| Paper type | Adoption and evaluation plan |
| Length | About 880 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Herzing University |
| Program | MSN |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for NU 725 Unit 8
Adoption and Evaluation Plan: Replacing Pagers With Secure Clinical Messaging on Three Inpatient Units
Student Name
Department of Nursing, Herzing University
NU 725: Technology and Nursing Informatics in Advanced Practice
Instructor Name
April 7, 2026
Adoption and Evaluation Plan: Replacing Pagers With Secure Clinical Messaging on Three Inpatient Units
The Change and the Timeline
On May 4, three inpatient units, a medical unit, a surgical unit, and the step-down unit, will replace numeric pagers with a secure messaging application on hospital-issued smartphones for communication between nurses, hospitalists, residents, pharmacists, and respiratory therapists. Nurses will be able to message the covering clinician directly from the patient's record, attach the patient's name and room automatically, and see when the message has been read. Pagers remain available for downtime. The plan covers training, first-shift support, measurement, and a decision point at 90 days. Diffusion of an innovation in a health service organization depends on the innovation's perceived advantage, its compatibility with existing work, and the support and resources around its introduction, not only on the technology itself (Greenhalgh et al., 2004).
Training by Audience
Nurses, about 160 across three units: a 30-minute hands-on session on the unit during the two weeks before go-live, delivered by unit super-users, covering sending a patient-linked message, marking urgency, escalating when no reply arrives, and what must still be called by phone. Hospitalists and residents, about 45: a 20-minute session at their morning meeting by the physician informatics lead, focused on receiving, replying, and setting availability status, plus a one-page guide. Pharmacists and respiratory therapists: a 20-minute virtual session. Unit clerks: 15 minutes on routing messages to the correct covering clinician. Technical staff who maintain the build: a two-hour session with the vendor on escalation paths and message logs. Each group's content is matched to what it will actually do, rather than delivered as one lecture to everyone.
Support Through the First Shifts
Coverage for the first seven days: one super-user on each unit on every shift, including nights, identified by colored vests, plus one informatics nurse circulating on days and one on call by phone on nights. A dedicated help line answers within two minutes around the clock for the first two weeks. Escalation: device or login problems go to the help desk; routing problems, such as messages going to the wrong covering clinician, go to the informatics nurse on call, who can correct the schedule in real time; any message-related safety concern goes to the house supervisor and is entered in the safety reporting system. Who answers at 3 a.m.: the night super-user first, then the on-call informatics nurse. Daily huddles on each unit in the first week will collect problems and report fixes.
Measuring Adoption Separately From Effect
Adoption and effect are different outcomes, and a change can be widely used without producing the benefit it was meant to produce (Proctor et al., 2011). Adoption measures, from the messaging system's logs: proportion of nurse-to-clinician communications sent by secure message rather than by page, with a target of 80% by day 30; proportion of active users among trained staff; and proportion of messages linked to a patient record. Effect measures: median time from a nurse's message to the clinician's reply, compared with the baseline time from page to callback measured in March; number of repeat pages or messages for the same issue; nurse and clinician satisfaction with communication, by a survey repeated from baseline; and safety events related to communication delays or misrouting.
Baseline, Captured Before Go-Live
For two weeks in March, unit clerks recorded the time each page was sent and the time the callback arrived for a sample of 400 pages. The median time to callback was 11 minutes, and 14% of pages required a repeat page. The baseline survey found that 38% of nurses were satisfied with their ability to reach covering clinicians promptly. These baselines make the effect measures meaningful. A similar project at one academic hospital found that clinicians rated secure messaging as more efficient and less disruptive than paging, although effects on patient outcomes were not measured (Przybylo et al., 2014); this plan therefore measures response time and safety events directly rather than relying on satisfaction alone.
Unintended Effects to Watch
Three unintended effects are anticipated and monitored. First, message volume: clinicians may receive more interruptions because messaging is easier than paging; the log will track messages per clinician per shift. Second, urgent issues sent as messages rather than calls: the policy states that anything requiring action within 15 minutes must be a phone call; a monthly audit of messages marked urgent will check compliance. Third, device problems, such as battery failure or dead zones in the building, which could delay messages; device and connectivity problems will be tracked through help desk tickets.
Decision Point
At 90 days, the informatics council will review the adoption and effect measures and decide to keep, alter, or stop the change. Keep, and expand to the remaining inpatient units, if adoption exceeds 80%, the median reply time is at or below baseline, and there are no serious safety events attributable to messaging. Alter, for example by changing routing rules, urgency policies, or training, if adoption is high but reply times or message volume are worse than baseline. Stop, and return to pagers while problems are addressed, if any serious safety event is linked to messaging or adoption remains below 50%. The decision and its reasons will be shared with staff on all three units within one week.
References
Greenhalgh, T., Robert, G., Macfarlane, F., Bate, P., & Kyriakidou, O. (2004). Diffusion of innovations in service organizations: Systematic review and recommendations. The Milbank Quarterly, 82(4), 581-629. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0887-378X.2004.00325.x
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
Przybylo, J. A., Wang, A., Loftus, P., Evans, K. H., Chu, I., & Shieh, L. (2014). Smarter hospital communication: Secure smartphone text messaging improves provider satisfaction and perception of efficacy, workflow. Journal of Hospital Medicine, 9(9), 573-578. https://doi.org/10.1002/jhm.2228
What the NU 725 Unit 8 instructions ask for
The Unit 8 assignment asks you to plan the implementation and evaluation of a health information technology, often the one proposed in Unit 7. Expect to describe the change and timeline, plan training for different user groups, arrange support during go-live, and define how adoption and outcomes will be measured. Many versions also ask about unintended consequences, sustainment and a decision point for continuing or stopping. Some sections ask you to use an implementation framework such as diffusion of innovations or Proctor's implementation outcomes. Check whether your plan must continue your earlier proposal or may take up a new change. Measures should be specific, with a data source and a baseline. A plan that a manager could follow, with dates and owners, scores better than one written in general terms.
How the NU 725 Unit 8 example is put together
The plan opens with the change, the units and the date, so every later step has an anchor. Training is divided by audience, each with its length, format, timing and trainer, rather than a single session for everyone. Support is scheduled shift by shift for the first week, with named roles. A short section explains why adoption and effect are measured separately, citing Proctor and colleagues, and then lists each measure with its source in the messaging logs. The baseline section describes how the March paging data was collected, giving the reader confidence in the comparison. Unintended effects are named in advance with a way to track each one. The decision point gives numeric thresholds for keeping, altering or stopping, which turns evaluation into a real choice.
Where the points sit in the NU 725 Unit 8 rubric
Herzing rubrics for an implementation plan usually award points for the description of the change and timeline, training and communication, go-live support, evaluation measures, attention to unintended consequences or sustainment, and writing. Training criteria reward plans tailored to different users. Support points require coverage across shifts, not days alone. Evaluation tends to carry the most weight, awarding full credit when adoption and outcome measures are separate, specific, sourced and compared with a baseline. Many rubrics include a framework criterion, so naming Proctor's outcomes or Greenhalgh's diffusion work helps. The unintended consequences row rewards risks identified in advance with monitoring. The writing criterion looks for a clear, followable plan with dates and owners, plus APA 7 citations for the frameworks and the paging literature.
NU 725 Unit 8 help: mistakes that cost points
Most Unit 8 plans lose points by measuring only whether people use the technology, not whether it improves anything. Another common gap is training described as one session for all staff, which ignores how differently nurses, physicians and clerks use the tool. Night shift support is often missing. Evaluation measures without a baseline cannot show change, and measures without a data source cannot be collected. Students also forget unintended effects such as more interruptions or misuse of urgency flags. A decision point without thresholds is a review date, not a decision. Plans that read like essays instead of schedules lose clarity points. Finally, cite an implementation framework, since many rubrics expect one even when the instructions mention it only briefly.
Get a NU 725 Unit 8 example written to your instructions
Send the Unit 8 instructions and the rubric from your NU 725 classroom, plus the change the plan has to carry and any template your instructor supplied. We write a custom example against those instructions, with training, support, baseline and the decision point built in, and return it in 24 to 48 hours. The first one is free.
More NU 725 papers and MSN samples
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- NU 725 Unit 3: Data quality report
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- NU 725 Unit 5: Usability review
- NU 725 Unit 6: Access and privacy audit
- NU 725 Unit 7: Informatics proposal
- NU 700 Unit 8: Reflection
- NU 726 Unit 8: Leadership philosophy reflection
- NU 730 Unit 8: Outcome evaluation plan
- NU 760 Unit 8: Peer review response
NU 725 Unit 8 questions, answered
What separates an adoption measure from an effect measure?
An adoption measure tells you the new path is being used: how many of the eligible encounters went through it, by role and by shift. An effect measure tells you whether the thing you cared about moved, such as the defect rate the change targeted or the time a task consumes. Reporting only the first is the most common way a plan overstates its own success.
How long should the plan run before the review?
Long enough for the initial disruption to settle and short enough that a failing change can still be reversed. Many plans set an early check in the first days after go live to catch safety problems, then a fuller review a few months later for effect. Whatever interval you choose, state the reason for it and name who is authorized to act at each point.
What belongs in the sustainment section?
Whatever keeps the change alive once attention moves elsewhere: how new hires are trained, who owns the build when the project team disperses, how future upgrades are checked against this configuration and where the documentation lives. Plans that end at go live tend to describe changes that quietly reverted, because nobody inherited responsibility for keeping them in place.
Where can I find a free NU 725 Unit 8 sample paper?
This page shows the complete NU 725 Unit 8 secure messaging plan for free, from training by audience to the 90-day decision thresholds. A custom plan can be written for your own technology, whether it carries forward your proposal or starts fresh.
What is the difference between adoption measures and outcome measures?
Adoption measures show whether people use the new system, such as the share of messages sent through it. Outcome measures show whether it helps, such as faster replies than the paging baseline. This sample tracks both because high use does not guarantee benefit.