The update on my project since the last blog; I found out just a few weeks ago that UNM IRB would not sign my project proposal. This went on from July 31st to the first part of September. I had to escalate to a higher power the need to get this signed or not so that I could move on. The Director of the IRB for the UNM College of Nursing was helping me with this; she was dismissed multiple times no reason given for the “one” signature that I needed. This individual did not sign citing I was not an employee of UNM any longer, and I was not a student with UNM. However, if we would have known this week’s earlier, we could have submitted an agreement with FHSU and UNM, which may have been accepted. I had to switch to a survey which will be going out to NPs in the state of New Mexico. The study developed was done with Survey Monkey (which I just got done); will need to redo the FHSU IRB BEFORE October 7th and submitted by that date to be able to send the Survey later in October. I received assistance from Dr. Keenan and Dr. Manry on how to manage this situation and the new direction we needed to take. It will by no means be as strong of a study. However, it will still yield valuable information on the attitudes, beliefs, and barriers to practice with guidelines from nurse practitioners.
My new proposal: “Assessment of attitudes, beliefs & barriers of New Mexico nurse practitioners on the utilization of the 2016 CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain.”
I created a simple time-line (check points) for the new and current proposal. The yellow arrow represents the very start and “yield”. The “green” is a go; the “red” is stop and evaluate. This will be tweeked as I continue over the next few weeks and will most likely change.
Oh my Kay. I think I would have had a panic attack. I am so sorry to hear of this unfortunate turn of events. Hopefully your new project idea will work out for you. I hope enough NPs respond to your survey so you can obtain valuable statistics. I know you are on a time crunch, but do you think 6 days is feasible to have the NPs respond to your survey, especially with that week being a holiday week? Whatever happens, I know you can make this happen. Good luck to you!
Hi Paula,
I went over my timeline, and no, six days is not enough. Thanks for seeing that. I ultimately want to send out the surveys (if not earlier) on or around 10/21—then they will have a few weeks to answer. Will go into December. I would think 2 weeks is plenty of time.
Thanks for your great comments!
PS I did lose my mind a time or two waiting for an answer for my IRB.
Kay
Kay- Your new project will also be very interesting, sorry you had a rough start to your project. I think your current timeline is laid out efficiently, and will run smooth. I hope your IRB is processed quickly so you can keep your timeline. It will be very interesting to see the information you can glean from the nurse practitioners view on the current process and if it is appropriate.
Hi Violet,
It will be interesting to see what the response is. Will be getting the IRB and the survey submitted before the 7th. Waiting for the final approval.
I hope to send the survey out by the end of October. The timeline is an estimate. Things will change. Paula, brought to my attention “six days for return of the surveys, in the timeline” that is not enough time. I would think two weeks should be enough time. Generally, when I have a survey in my in-box, I am so intrigued, I just do it. They have never taken over 15 min to do. Survey Monkey has this one timed at 4 minutes. However, that is 21 questions and most of us think a little longer on a response unless it does not apply to us.
Thank you for your comment. So happy to be this far in the program!
Kay
I had to completely start an entire new project this summer. All of my previous work could not be adopted to my new project. My heart goes out to you in your struggles. That’s so frustrating. If the people involved knew the brick walls that are put up when things like this change or if they could realize the full potential your original project had as well as how it could greatly impact nursing practice, you’d think they’d be more open-minded to signing off on your project. I’m so sorry that happened. Your new project and timeline look reasonable for what you have to work with. I’m just so sorry that something you were passionate about had to be altered a little to adapt to the challenges we face in this arena. (My original project was also about pain management with opioids.)
Vicki,
I thought you were doing one on opioids. Yeah, I will probably never know the real reason “why” this guy did not sign the proposal.
A bit frustrating. And that is all I will say about it! I really hope to send the survey by the 21st. I anticipate a fairly good response. And each state is different, which is unfortunate. My husband said the other day he was asked to fill a script for someone; he looked and he was floored! He said this patient was getting 200 meq in 24 hours. High dose is 90. As Chief, he has some educating to do!. I really think, providers some of them anyway, when they do high dose prescribing they just seem to think “does not apply to me” or “my patient wants it and does not leave me alone if I do not give it to them”. Not once in comments like those do they say anything about patient safety or anything related to EBP. Amazing! Thanks for your comments and for sharing a little about your situation. I do think the project you have is upbeat and it is needed! Will be great to follow your project; looking forward to it.
Kay