This assignment gives the student the opportunity to develop an abbreviated DNP project proposal with a priority focus on developing a plan for statistical analysis that includes methods for gathering and recording data.
Process:
Choose a topic you are interested in as a possible topic for the project you will conduct toward the end of the program. You may, and probably will, change your mind about a focus for the DNP project many times as the program goes on. The purpose of this project is not for you to write a first draft of the project you will conduct. The purpose is for you to demonstrate how to formulate a data analysis plan that will fulfill the purpose of a practice change project.
Here is the outline of the basic content of an abbreviated proposal for a hypothetical DNP project with a focus on statistical analysis. The usual proposal is around 40 pages in length. The length of this brief proposal is usually 4-6 pages.
A. Short (3-5 sentences) introductory paragraph that describes the topic that will be studied. At least one sentence must be included that describes the purpose and structure of the paper.
B. Evidence related to the number of persons affected by the issue and the seriousness of the issue. This evidence establishes the importance of the issue.
1. Three sources must be cited.
a. Two scholarly articles reporting previous research on the topic must be cited.
b. One credible website, for example the CDC, that provides current (ideally less than three years) evidence on the number of persons affected by the issue can often be found on the CDC or similar webs.
C. State the purpose of the project. This is similar to how a purpose/objective/aim is given in a published research article.
D. Transform the purpose statement into a PICOT-formatted project question (See the Gallagher & Melnyk, 2019 editorial for additional information).
P = Population – who will be included in the project and how many groups will be studied in the project.
I = Intervention – the treatment or intervention that will be manipulated or changed during the implementation phase of the project.
C = Comparison – the usual treatment or intervention used prior to the project.
O = Outcome – the characteristic that will be measured to determine the effect of the intervention.
T = Time: Total time for data collection from the start of data collection to the end. The usual time is 8-10 weeks.
E. From the purpose statement and PICOT-formatted project question, identify the population that will be studied in the project, the independent variable that will be implemented, and the dependent variable that will be measured.
F. Describe a data collection instrument that can be used to measure the outcome (You can often find this from a previous study on the topic.):
1. For a continuous measurement, describe the instrument:
a. The name of the instrument or physiological measure.
b. The variable it measures.
c. For a continuous variable that is a scale:
1) The number of items on the instrument.
2) How the instrument is scored.
3). The range of possible scores.
2. For a categorical variable:
1) How many categories will be used.
2) The names of the categories.
G. Data analysis – Descriptive statistics:
1. The type of data the data collection instrument produces: categorical or continuous.
2. The level of measurement for the instrument used to collect data on the outcome (nominal, ordinal, interval, or ratio).
3. The descriptive statistics that will be used to organize and summarize the data collected – choose one of these and give the rationale for your choice based on the type of data produced by the data collection instrument:
a. Measure of central tendency with measure of variability and range.
b. Frequency with percentages.
H. Develop a spreadsheet for recording the data from each subject.
1. Minimum number of subjects to try to recruit into the study.
2. Columns for recording data.
3. Hypothetical data for five subjects.
I. How to illustrate the descriptive statistics with a graph or histogram
1. Use the hypothetical data from the spreadsheet to create an appropriate method for illustrating the data.
J. Data analysis - Inferential statistic:
1. Name the inferential statistic
2. Give the rationale for your choice based on the purpose statement and project question and the type of data produced by the data collection instrument.
K. Write hypothesis statements for the inferential statistic in words and in an equation using the same designations of the population, variables and time that were used in the purpose statement and PICOT-formatted clinical question:
1. Null hypothesis
2. Alternative hypothesis: Is this a 1-tailed or 2-tailed test?
3. Directional hypothesis: Is this a 1-tailed or 2-tailed test?
L. How will the effect size of the findings be determined?
1. Name the appropriate statistical test for determining the effect size of the findings.
2. Describe the clinical significance by proposing what would be a meaningful change in descriptive statistics:
a. How much must the measure of central tendency change to be clinically meaningful?
b. How much must a frequency change to be clinically meaningful?
M. Discussion of possible findings.
1. Discuss what statistically significant findings might mean in terms of support for adopting the intervention. How can the intervention be used in practice?
N. Conclusion
1. Short (3-5 sentences) summarizing the paper in terms of how it fulfilled the purpose statement given in the introductory paragraph.
O. References listed using APA format and style.
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