Part 3 Research Utilization

We are moving along quickly as we've reached the midway point of the course. Below are a few tips to assist you with this week's assignment:

 

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

· Your bibliography will be graded based on providing relevant articles (this is the "research base") and appropriately critiquing these articles to build support for your solution. 

· Your evaluation should be a critique of the article, which will include a discussion of the study design, purpose, sample, setting, interventions (if any), results (including p-value for statistical significance, if applicable), limitations, etc. Be sure that you address ALL of the essential components for EACH article you review. Your critique should clearly answer the "who, what, where, when, why, and what happened?" for each article.

· Remember that the articles you select should support your SOLUTION, not be further information to describe the problem. This is a major area where students falter, so please be conscientious.

SOLUTION

· Describe your overall solution i.e., state what it is. You will not need to detail how you plan to implement it until Week 4. I suggest looking forward to the Week 4 assignment to be sure there is no potential for redundancy with what you submit this week.

· Be sure to include a specific, measurable, time framed objective for your proposal. For the evaluation portion of the project in Week 5, you will need to identify appropriate outcome measures based on your objective, so I suggest identifying ONE strong objective based on your clinical issue, rather than multiple objectives.

· Good objective:  "The objective of this project is to decrease falls in medical patients by 25% within six months." This objective includes a specific measurable outcome of the project that demonstrates if the project is successful. If you refer to Week 5, you will see why it is vitally important to have your objective framed in this manner.

· Poor objective:  "The goal of this project is to implement a fall prevention program." This is not a strong objective because the solution itself (i.e., fall prevention program) is stated as if it is an outcome. Your outcome must be a result of whatever you implement, not the implementation itself. 

· Feasibility will be addressed throughout your RUP assignments. Bear in mind that feasibility refers to the availability of resources and the organizational culture that support your project. It is inadequate to state that the project is feasible simply because it worked in another facility in the literature. You must always state why it is feasible in your specific setting.

FORMAT

· You must support any statements you make as factual with citations from the literature. I strongly discourage direct quotes and would suggest that you paraphrase any content obtained from a source other than yourself.

· Never refer to your articles by title or journal in the body of the paper- only use the author(s) and date.

Submit only a single document with the annotated bibliography at the beginning and the solution after.