Using Quantitative Research for Evidence Based Practice

ORDER NOW FOR AN ORIGINAL PAPER!!! Quantitative Research For Evidence Based Practice

NOTE: Since the purpose of this course is to understand Statistical Research, I expect you to reference at least four (4) peer-reviewed QUANTITATIVE studies within this assignment. All recommendations that you make and your plan should be backed-up with RESEARCH.

Part A: Formulate a Problem in your Field of Interest (400-500 words, 10 pts.)

Introduce your “Case Study”

·         Provide a description of a problem case study you might confront in your field.

·         Describe your case (such as a client, patient, student, co-worker, etc.). Describe the problem. Describe your role in intervening in this person’s problem (i.e. within context of your field).

·         Provide relevant background for your case (e.g. age, gender, cultural and socio-economic background, etc.).

·         Provide relevant background for case’s problem (e.g. a brief introduction with references).

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.

Identify your Question – this must be ANSWERABLE with evidence from studies that use Quantitative Interventions.  

·         INTERVENTIONS cover a wide range of activities from drug treatments and other clinical therapies, to lifestyle changes (e.g. diet or exercise) and social activities (e.g. an education program). Interventions can include individual patient care or population health activities (e.g. screening for diseases such as cervical or prostate cancer).   

·         Choose one question. Ensure it is an ‘effectiveness question’ (i.e. does treatment X work?)

·         Ensure that you make the link between your question and your case objective.

·         **** Examples of Case Studies and Questions provided on separate Document*****

Part B: Evidence-Based Search Strategy for Research (250 – 500 words, 10 pts.)

Describe your Evidence-based research Search Strategy

·         Identify the inclusion and exclusion criteria (i.e. key words) to search for research articles to answer your question.

·         How did you identify your literature? Which databases did you select? Why? How many citations did you retrieve? Justify your search strategy.

·         Include as an Appendix a table showing your precise search strategy including the order of the search terms.

Part C: Review Tables (1 page per study (at least 4 studies), 30 pts.)

The Review Table

·         Choose the best four articles you found and complete data extraction of relevant information of the best articles in a table format (please see sample table below)

·         This section should be logically organized, appropriate length, and concise. In addition, terms/short-forms should be understandable (easy to read by outsider).

·         Each table should include the following information:

o   Article Citation, Purpose/research question/intervention, Method, Sample/sampling frame, Measures, Results, Effect sizes, Methodological strengths and weaknesses

 

Citation & Research Question	Intervention	Research Design & Sample	Measure(s)	Results	Strengths & Weaknesses

 

Part D: Critical Review (800-1000 words, 30 pts.)

Critical Reviews

•       Write an integrated critical review of the articles (at least 4) to judge the evidence.

•       Compare and contrast the most important methodological strengths of studies and how these impact your confidence in the conclusions of the different studies

•       Compare and contrast the most important methodological weaknesses of the studies

•       Compare and contrast the potential for bias of the studies

•       Relate strengths and weakness of the research to your research question & implications for your field of practice

•       Taking into account the strengths and weakness of the research and methodological limitations, tell your reader what you can confidently conclude on the basis of this evidence. (i.e. what works, what doesn’t work, etc.)

Part E: Implementation & Evaluation Plan (500 – 750 words, 15 pts.)

•       What will you do with this information? What is your judgment in terms of your question, case study and field? Why? How will you involve your case study (person) in your action plan?

•       Please note: This is the point where the issue of client/student/ case diversity becomes crucial. Bear in mind that your case study is almost certain to be different from the individuals in the studies you reviewed. How is your case study different? What is the possible relevance of this difference in your case?

•       Even if you decide the intervention in answering your Question is not effective, please tell us how you would evaluate any intervention that you DO use with your case.

•       How will you know if you have succeeded (i.e., what is your outcome measure?) Which single system design will you use? How will you put this in place?

•       Provide a one-paragraph summary of your case and recommendation(s) for intervention.

References & Format (5 pts.)

•       Provide an APA formatted reference list for all references and selected articles.

•       Your paper should be typed, double-spaced, in a 12 point font.

•       Title each SECTION of your paper by the PARTS (A – E) and Sections as I have outlined above (i.e. Part A: Formulate a Problem in your Field of Interest, etc.)

Evidence-based nursing (EBN) is an approach to making quality decisions and providing nursing care based upon personal clinical expertise in combination with the most current, relevant research available on the topic. This approach is using evidence-based practice (EBP) as a foundation. EBN implements the most up to date methods of providing care, which have been proven through appraisal of high quality studies

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

• Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
• Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
• One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
• I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.

Weekly Participation

• Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
• In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
• Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
• Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.

APA Format and Writing Quality

• Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
• Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
• I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.

Use of Direct Quotes

• I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
• As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
• It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.

 

LopesWrite Policy

• For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
• Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
• Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
• Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

• The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
• Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
• If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
• I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
• As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

• Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: 
  • Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
  • Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.