Assignment Part 1 (60%) 1500 words
Students are required to identify a question of interest in health or social care. They are required to design and plan a project which will allow them to answer this question, considering appropriate methodology and ethical issues.
The following elements should be included within the project plan:
- A clearly focused research question or aim
- A background section which clearly identifies and provides context to the subject of the project
- A clear summary of the published literature, in which its strengths and weaknesses are discussed (critically appraised)
- A project plan which is clearly synthesised and is appropriate to the aim
- Clear and appropriate consideration of methodological approach and design (including ethical considerations)
- A clear structure and appropriate referencing
A project plan consists of several specific sections. For this assignment, it is recommended that you follow the structure detailed below.
All word counts are approximate and serve as a guide, rather than a requirement. As project plans can be very different depending on the type of project being proposed it is important that you do what suits your particular project however you must ensure that you meet the learning outcomes associated with this assessment..
Project research question or aim (50 words)
This is one or more sentences detailing what your research intends to find out. You may find it useful to look at existing research papers to see what aims they have.
These sections will address LO 1 “Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of published evidence that might inform practice”
Background (200 words)
In this section you should explain why this project is important. What is the problem that you would be able to solve by doing this project? You should also put the project/problem into context, for example how many people are affected by this problem and what is the impact on those people? You might want to mention what global national or local guidance(e.g.the NHS) says about the topic you want to find out about. Include relevant references.
Literature review (500words)
In this section you should provide an overview about what is already known about the topic from the literature. Rather than just describing the studies, critically appraise them, what are their strengths and weaknesses? Given their strengths and weaknesses what can you infer from the study. You might want to use one of the tools from CASP to help guide your critical appraisal (see lecture & seminar notes). We recommend here that you focus on a small number of around 1-3 papers.
(You can combine the background and literature review sections if you feel this works better for your particular question)
Project plan (750 words)
These sections will address LO2 “Explore the stages involved in the design and planning of a project in health or social care, including consideration of ethical concerns, selecting and justifying an appropriate approach and process”
Methodological Approach
You should indicate the methodological approach that you propose to answer your project research question e.g. literature review, qualitative or quantitative study and justify your reasons for this. Your plan should be clearly linked to the aim, make sure that the project that you are suggesting will allow you to answer your research question.
Methodology
You should clearly explain how you plan to collect data. For example if you are proposing to do a literature review, you must describe your search strategy. You need to demonstrate that the search strategy will direct you to suitable research publications, and it should be given in enough detail that another person would be able to follow your plans and find exactly the same articles. So you will need to describe: key words, databases, inclusion/ exclusion criteria and give reasons for these.
If you are proposing to conduct primary research, again you must give enough detail that another person would be able to conduct the study in exactly the same way as you. You must clearly indicate the study participants (how many, what age/characteristics will they be? E.g. 10 male UoP students, age 18-35, inclusion and exclusion criteria, as well as details of how and where they will be recruited. Describe exactly what will happen to the participants. For example, if they will complete a questionnaire, will this be online or pen and paper? How many questions will there be, what will the questions ask? Describe what data you will collect and how you will use this to answer the research question. You may want to use different headings to make this section clearer e.g. participants, materials (e.g. details about the questionnaire), procedure (exactly what will happen to the participants and in what order).
Ethical Issues
For all research questions you should consider what ethical issues might arise and how you will deal with these.
