SLN563: Practice-based Research

College of Human Ecology, Cornell University

Course Project: “Practice-based Research”

Complete this course project document in sections as you move through the course, and submit it to your instructor at the end, as instructed.

When you have completed your work on Part 1, please save this document as “courseproject_abc” where “abc” is your initials. Be sure to save it to a convenient location (for instance, the My Documents folder on your hard drive) where you will be able to find it easily. You will be asked to continue your work on this project at subsequent points in this course. After you complete each part of the project, please resave this document. You will submit all six parts of the project to your instructor later in the course.

Part I: Identify an Issue

To begin, identify a design-related issue or question in your facility (or, if you prefer, a hypothetical healthcare facility) that would benefit from the application of practice-based research. It might be something similar to the issue of noise levels in the emergency department at Skyview Hospital and the potential benefits of sound-masking technology. Or it might be an issue involving infection rates, patient satisfaction, patient safety, or staff retention. All of these present questions that might be answered through the application of practice-based research.

Once you have identified an issue, explain in a few sentences why you chose it.

Part II: Formulate a Hypothesis

Compose a hypothesis for the issue or question you developed in part 1 of the course project.

Explain in a brief paragraph the rationale or basis for your hypothesis. Why do you expect it to hold true?

Part III: Identify the Research Design Model

Indicate which of the following research designs is best suited to your project and explain why:

Case study

Comparative case study

Experiment

Quasi-experiment

Part IV: Collecting Data

  1. How will you collect data related to this project? Will you use surveys, interviews, observational methods, shadowing, or other methods? Explain your choices.
  2. How large a sample will you need: 1–5, 20–40, or 1,000–3,000? Explain.
  3. Remember that a good research study will collect both quantitative and qualitative data. How will you ensure that you collect both?

Part V: Present Your Findings

Compose a short paragraph explaining which of the following charts or graphs would best and most effectively present the data you propose to gather in the course of your research project.

  1. Pie chart
  2. Bar chart
  3. Time series
  4. Bar and whisker plot
  5. Annotated plans and charts

Part VI: Create a Proposal

Create a proposal for your research project that answers the following questions:

  1. Why is this project necessary or important? What needs or problems related to your healthcare facility does it address?
  2. Has academic or other research been done on this subject?
  3. How does your experience affect your approach?
  4. What form will the research take? How and where will it take place?
  5. What stakeholders are involved?

Make sure your proposal is carefully worded, detailed, and complete. Include notes about any further research you need to do.

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