Capstone Project Weekly Journals Research 2022

Running head: CAPSTONE PROJECT WEEKLY JOURNALS
CAPSTONE PROJECT WEEKLY JOURNALS
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

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Introduction
Maintaining a reflective journal during research is useful for the researcher to evaluate
every step underlying research implementation and paves the way for conducting a complete and
comprehensive academic study (Schmidt & Brown, 2016). The following reflective journal
highlights each step involved of my proposed Capstone research project.
Discussion
Topic 1
The chosen research subject for my Capstone research proposal was based on the role of
education in improving post-surgical recovery in bariatric patients as compared to bariatric
patients not receiving any form of education within the first year of their surgery. During the
initial stages of developing this research topic, I acquired skills and knowledge concerning the
current health concerns of the population as well as the role of new practice approaches such as
healthcare technology in improving healthcare outcomes among patients. Indeed, with rising
rates of lifestyle stress, lack of physical activity and nutritionally imbalanced food consumption,
obesity has emerged to be a major health concern, globally affecting 13% of the world’
population by 2016 (Hassapidou et al., 2017).
While alterations in lifestyle and physical activity are considered effective procedures
health status improvement, often patients with excessively high Body Mass Index (40 or more)
and a host of metabolic disorders (hypertension, type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea), for whom the
above have been unsuccessful, require alternative intervention (Donkin et al., 2016). Hence, this
where I gained knowledge on the rising importance of new healthcare practices and technology

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in improving overall healthcare outcomes in the global community Bariatric surgery, which
involves making surgical alterations to the gastrointestinal tract, has proved to be of major long
term benefit to morbidly obese patients mentioned above. Despite the potential benefits, bariatric
surgery may yield long term complications in the form of malnutrition, deficiency disorders,
hypoglycemia, gastrointestinal disorders (hernias, dumping syndrome, bowel obstruction)
(Anderin, Gustafsson, Heijbel & Thorell, 2015). Hence, obtaining information on the same
through research also expanded my knowledge of health concerns after new healthcare practices
like bariatric surgery are implemented on the target population. Hence, reflecting on the same,
this topic motivated me on the need to research further on the role of evidence based solutions
like educational interventions in the improvement of clinical and health outcomes among the
target population of bariatric patients. The process of developing the PICOT question for my
proposed Capstone project also assisted in my identification of a clinical health issue, which is
inadequate post-surgical recovery after bariatric surgery and its implications in quality nursing
practice in the form of ensuring positive health outcomes in bariatric patients.
Topic 2
After identifying the proposed topic for my Capstone project, my next topic was based
upon critically analyzing the research question as per each component of the PICOT process.
The format of PICOT, is a prevalent process of formulating questions which are researchable,
answerable and provide a simple, yet comprehensive way of answering the identified research
questions (Elias, Polancich, Jones & Convoy, 2015). Hence, as per my identified research
question, the PICOT format will be: bariatric patients (population), preoperative education
(intervention), standard or general bariatric care (comparison), post-surgical recovery and
psychological wellbeing (outcome) and one year post the bariatric surgery (time).

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The process of critically analyzing each component of the PICOT question, also assisted
in expanding my understanding on the importance of intra-professional collaboration in
healthcare. It is worthwhile to note that prior to surgery, bariatric patients are often agitated,
distress and unaware of the possible consequences and outcomes to suspect after surgery. Inter-
professional care comprises of a duty of nurses to comfort, educate and assure patients on what
they can expect from the surgery (Thorell et al., 2016). Additionally, my research on the PICOT
question also yielded me information on the role of multidisciplinary approach as an effective
intra-professional collaborative process where a team of diabetologists, bariatric nurses,
psychologists, bariatric nutritionists and surgeons must educate bariatric patients on lifestyle
recommendations to be followed after surgery resulted in improved recovery and patient health
outcomes (Aarts et al., 2017).
Topic 3
After extensively identifying the components of my PICOT question, the next step in my
research was based on conducting a literature review in alignment of these PICOT components
in my chosen research question. A literature review comprises of collecting and evaluating
existing research which has already been conducted in terms of the underlying research question
which proves to be helpful in the identification of a research gap (Machi & McEvoy, 2016).
My literature review yielded multiple studies most of which, extensively evaluated the
role of traditional pre-surgical interventions conducted prior to surgery of bariatric patients –
which mostly comprised of obtaining anthropometric measurements, biochemical lab reports and
handovers after every consultation session of the bariatric patient (Brown et al., 2016). In
criticism of the existing studies, I observed a dearth of information of studies which explored the
need to incorporate educational sessions prior to surgery of the bariatric patient. The thought of