The PICOT format is a helpful tool for developing evidence-based clinical questions and developing an actionable plan to develop a DNP project. The following are examples of PICOT search terms developed for two proposed DNP project topics:
1. Increasing Vaccine Uptake in Adults Aged 65+:
Population: Adults aged 65+
Intervention: Increasing vaccine uptake through educational interventions, such as informational pamphlets or workshops.
Comparison(s): Standard care (no specific intervention).
Outcome(s): Increased vaccine uptake rate among adults aged 65+.
Timeframe: 3 months.
2. Improving Hypertension Management Among African Americans:
Population: African Americans living with hypertension.
Intervention: Implementing culturally-sensitive education on lifestyle modifications and self-care strategies related to hypertension management.
Comparison(s): Standard care without targeted education.
Outcome(s): Improved blood pressure control and adherence to treatment regimen among African American hypertensive patients.
Timeframe: 6 months.
As discussed by Bottazzo (2005), a company’s employees are one of its main groups of potential stakeholders. As a result, the satisfaction of employees is considered equal to the satisfaction of customers and shareholders, becoming an important element of an organisation’s strategic mission. This has created a paradigm shift of internal communication from one-way informing of employees, to a two-way communication with the inclusion of training, education and motivation.
The goal of internal communication is to achieve employee-company advocacy, with workers buying into the missions and values of the organisation and reflect those to other potential stakeholders. Therefore it’s necessary for Recticel to maintain the use of different platforms for everyday communication, including email, telephone, webinars and Skype – which allows a range of users to ‘dial in’ to a meeting and share computer screens. For a multi-national company, well-rounded communication from management is crucial – to offer information, support and a sense of community for plants that cannot be supported through emails or phone calls alone (Pinsky, 2015).
Recticel address this through an internal intranet system, RICK (Recticel Intranet Centre of Knowledge). RICK contains all of the documents, training and support required by individual plants to help run their business successfully. In a manufacturing environment, changes can take place rapidly – this method of instantaneous communication will assist individual plants to sync their business activities.
RICK boosts the company’s efforts of ‘on boarding’ – the introduction of new employees to the company. In a company of this size, the automation of an on boarding programme streamlines talent management initiatives and improves productivity long term. A personalised level of access to the intranet system facilitates a steady flow of well-timed information to new employees (Friedmann, 2012). There are instances where automation in the ‘on boarding’ and communication processes have their disadvantages. In large manufacturing companies like Recticel, where most employees work the assembly line rather than at a desk, not all employees have the same access to information and training.
