Degree Name
Nursing Practice, DNP
Publication Date
2-22-2026
First Advisor
Sandra King
Second Advisor
Veronica Arredondo
Abstract
There is an international priority for early recognition of patient deterioration with adequate responses to facilitate patient safety. The modified early warning score (MEWS) tool is commonly used to identify and respond to acute patient deterioration, so it is effective to educate nursing students on its use to influence their future practice. However, there is a lack of a curriculum to integrate MEWS criteria for associate degree in nursing (ADN) students at a local community college. This quality improvement project aimed to enhance ADN faculty’s self-efficacy and ability to integrate MEWS criteria into the didactic curriculum at a community college to teach students how to recognize and respond to early signs of patient deterioration. This project aligned with Tanner’s Clinical Judgment Model and Lewin’s Change Theory to facilitate a curriculum development, implemented with the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle. A quasi-experimental/pre-post study design was utilized to evaluate self-efficacy changes using the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES) instrument. Eight didactic nursing faculty members participated in a MEWS educational session and their perceived self-efficacy was measured before and after this intervention. Results were analyzed using paired samples t-testing, which revealed mean GSES score improvements from 33.38 (SD=3.78) to 36.00 (SD=3.51) and were found to be statistically significant (P =.029). This confirms that the educational intervention enhanced faculty’s self-efficacy in MEWS tool integration into the didactic curriculum, although limited by the small sample size. Findings emphasize that perceived self-efficacy enhancement in nursing educators supports them in being well-prepared during curriculum development for the improvement of nursing student and program, and ultimately, patient outcomes.
Rights Management
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Recommended Citation
Bell, Breanna C., "Quality Improvement Project: Integrating Modified Early Warning Score (MEWS) Criteria into a Local Community College's Nursing Curriculum" (2026). Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects. 309.
https://arch.astate.edu/dnp-projects/309
