Assignment Brief

5,000 words

Module aims

The module will provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate understanding of research skills in order to critically analyse, safely use, share and apply research findings to promote and inform best nursing practice within their chosen field. Additionally, students will study leadership and change management theory in order to enhance their own professional practice and improve safety and quality of care.

On successful completion of this module a student will be able to:

1.    Select, plan and define a self-initiated project.

2.    Show evidence of reasoned discussion and analysis through critical appraisal of appropriate evidence.

The title should describe what the specific focus of the project; it should be no more 20 words in length.  It must be sufficiently detailed to make clear what the project is about. The project title is not a research question and it must offer sufficient details to the reader. It is strongly suggested that your project title and aims are the same.

20 words approx.

Key Words

Identify 4 key words that could be used to describe your project intent, focus, population, outcome and/or method

Introduction

Your introduction should aim to give the reader a brief account of what you aim to cover within this assignment. This is effect is a road map of the assignment in a logical order. You can include information from learning outcomes as a reference for which LO you aim to address. This is where your subject of topic is introduced the big picture points and ideas are briefly written here.

100-150 words

Rationale for choice for topic area

Identify the background for the project, identify why it is an important issue/ area, the policy drivers and how it will improve patient care and/or develop healthcare practice.  Outline the evidence that you have in order to support your proposal.  This evidence may be from a range of sources such as published research, policies and guidelines, local audit data, or from observations of care, reflections, and/or experiences of key stakeholders including the project team and service users. Much of this rationale can be transferred from your proposal, as long as you have made any necessary changes recommended by a member of the team. Any observations should be supported by academic evidence. Here it is important that you are clear why your innovation important in the context of healthcare. Relevance to patient care can be references here or relevance to staff health and well being (This can be linked to improved patient outcomes as a result), dependent upon your choice of topic.

200 words

Searching the literature (identifying contemporary research)

In this section you want to discuss the importance of searching the literature for contemporary research in nursing care. Here you may want to refer to the importance of evidence-based practice as a key driver in quality nursing care. Here you may want to also show your knowledge on the types of literature available and the importance of quality assurance of contemporary research.

Identification of key databases / journals

Here provide  a rationale for the journals and databases that you will be using for your search. Here you will be required to show your understanding and knowledge of databases available and other sources of literature available to you when looking for the best available evidence.

Inclusion / exclusion criteria

Here it is important to devise an inclusion / exclusion criteria for the studies to critically appraise. The idea here is that you give the reader a rational for studies that will be included and studies that will be excluded. Here you will need to justify your decisions. Here it is important that you present your inclusion / exclusion table in text (this is the factors for inclusion and exclusion – not the search results at this stage).

This table will allow you to screen the database, journal hits that you get when searching to ensure that the studies chosen meet the criteria set to be relevant to your chosen innovation.

Search results

Here you will present your search results. This will include listing hits on databases / journals and how many studies remain once you had screened your findings against the inclusion / exclusion criteria set. You will then present the chosen studies to critically appraise. Remember here that the studies chosen will need to research studies in order to apply the critical appraisal tools. This can be presented in text and as a table in the appendix.

Approx.

500 words

Approx

200-words

Approx

200 words

Approx

200 words

Critical appraisal of research studies.

Identification and Critical appraisals of contemporary research

It is advised that you identify approximately 4-6  research studies to include within your critical appraisal. Here you will present which studies will be critically appraised using your chosen critical appraisal tool. It is also advised that here you give a brief rationale for the studies you have chosen to include

It is important at level 6 that you can evidence your understanding of critical appraisal and its importance in nursing research. Here it is important you show your knowledge and understanding of the different tools used to critically appraise the research and a justification of your chosen tool. Within this section you will present your chosen studies.

Summary of key findings: Critical appraisal of identified studies for eg CASP analysis

Using your chosen critical appraisal tool, document your findings. This will provide you with key information about the study and provide you with key information of the quality, purpose and findings from each empirical study. A summary of each study will be presented in this section. Casp analysis for example can sit in this section. Your critical appraisal of the research will sit in this section whichever tool you choose to use.

Approx.

400 words

Approx.  1000 words

Taking your innovation into practice

Referring back to the aim of your individual business plan this section requires you to use the evidence you have identified by your search strategy and the studies that you have critically appraised to support / refute your innovation idea.

Link in evidence from critical analysis to the change management.

Is there any grey literature which would support your proposal which may not have be captured in a literature search? How do policy drivers support the literature? Any themes emerging from the literature?

Taking an innovation into practice needs to be underpinned by evidence based change discussion. Consider change management models to provide a framework for this discussion.

What does the evidence base say about implementing innovations in practice? How can you apply this evidence of leading new innovations in clinical practice (or staff development, or well -being), to contemporary theories of change and innovation management in nursing. Can you link this to future nurse standards. What leadership theories can you consider to link to the implementation process.

Remember you are analyzing what the evidence base says about the solution and not the problem

Approx.

2000 words

Provide a conclusion to your findings and discussion of the wider research. Restate the main argument in a simplified and clear manner that can  be understood by the reader. Emphasize the major takeaways of the assignment. Remember you should not be introducing any new information in this conclusion. What can you conclude as a result of searching for the literature and critically appraising the included studies? Would you recommend that your proposal is rolled out into your field of practice as a result of appraising the research?

Approx.

100-150 Words

The word count is flexible and is for a guide for you. You will not be penalized in the marking process for changing some of these recommended word counts – however it is advised that you apply the larger sections as a whole to the recommended counts to achieve the balance of work throughout the sections.

Word count

5020

The end text reference list should follow the guidelines of the APA 6^th Ed

Appendices.

This section contains material that is not included within the word limit. It may include examples of tables you have devised for your search strategy to collate search results for example.