Assignent Solutionnurs

Learning outcomes
On successful completion of this module a student will be able to:
1. Select, plan and define a self-initiated project.
2. Show evidence of reasoned discussion and analysis through critical appraisal of appropriate evidence
3. Critically discuss application to innovation and/or research in contemporary nursing practice within chosen field.
4. Critically reflect on the independent learning journey.
Whole portfolio summary
It is flexible in how you do each patch and also how you compile the two parts together. Each patch guidance is a guide to help you meet the learning outcomes.
Being a very inclusive approach, it will really play to your strengths and you will be able to work in ways that you enjoy, whether that’s essays, presentations, diagrams, posters, recordings, video’s etc. Plus, it will hopefully be an interesting, engaging and enjoyable piece of work.
If you don’t fully meet a learning outcome in one patch but meet it well in that part then you pass as it’s assessed as a part.
Putting the portfolio together
You can put the portfolio together how you wish, we’d recommend using Word, PowerPoint, Sway or Padlet. If using Word, you can use different fonts, sizes, colours, pictures, backgrounds etc. Be creative as long as we can read it and it has structure. You will do a very brief introduction to each part and a conclusion. The introduction would just be to introduce your work, mention the learning outcomes, not listing them just referring to relevant bits of them, like when introducing an essay, you may reference NMC for confidentiality etc. You do not need to define what a patchwork portfolio it. Keep intro brief, a few lines/ small paragraph.
Any SPLD forms will go at the start. You can include titles/ subheadings and put patch 1, 2 etc. Reference pictures if they are from google images etc., you can find free pictures online too which you can use (Sway uses these anyway) and not reference, this is much easier. Or take your own pictures. You don’t need to include an abstract, you’ve not enough words. You could include a contents page, not included in your word count, this would be good if you’re using word to put together your portfolio. You can anonymise all submissions. There is a full guide for how to submit the portfolio whether choosing Padlet, Word, Sway or Powerpoint, which is in the ‘Submission guidance and portals’ folder in the ‘Assignments folder’ on Blackboard. There is also extra guidance and videos on using Sway. If using Sway please make sure you put the link at the top of the word document as shown in the guidance. If doing a Padlet do not include your name in the link/ padlet name.
References
The reference list (in APA 7th) can come after each patch or at the end of each part. Make sure you keep a note of all of your references, then it’s not a huge job at the end, it always takes longer than you think. References within 5 years are great, shows current evidence, or 10 years is also good, you may have some older which is fine as will depend on your area, some core texts may be older, but if the large majority are up to date that’s okay.
The very rough general guide is 100 per 10000 word work, however you may use less than this but meet the learning outcomes and show level 6 study and get a really good mark or you could use loads more than this and not meet the learning outcomes or show level 6 study and not get a good mark. So it depends on how you use the references rather than the number of them.
You will use APA 7th edition. Referencing guidance is in the Assignments folder on blackboard.
You can quote the NMC, NICE, DOH etc., You may choose to use some direct quotes, don’t use loads of direct quotes though, you don’t have to use any, it is good to paraphrase and
apply evidence to show level 6 study where you can. Using too many quotes makes it difficult to demonstrate understanding of what you have read.
Word count
Don’t focus on word count too much initially, things will be in publish and they should be until you put the patches together. Keep everything you write and evidence you find. It’s 5000 maximum per each part so not 10% over.
You can go over and under on the patch word count guide, so you may write more in one and less in another as long as it’s not over 5000 in total for each part.
Tables, screen shots, self-assessment forms etc. are counted in your words.
Ideas
The project idea you’ll explore in the patches can be any idea in your field, so mental health, child, learning disability or adult. You need to pick one idea as each patch leads on to another, there needs to be flow and picking one idea enables you to go in to detail to be able to show level 6 study and critique and meet the LOs. Keeping your idea simple can help make things clearer, careful not to include loads of elements to your change and make it complicated, this is an important part of change management. You don’t have to have your plan completely perfect straight away and shouldn’t do, as through the module content and in doing the patches, especially the peer review in part two, you’ll continue to work on your plan and develop it. The good thing with it being submitted in two parts is you can work on different patches within each part at different times and go back to them once you’ve developed your idea and learned more.
It’s important to take ownership of your idea as part of level 6 study and your learning journey (LO4). It’s your choice what you pick, main thing is that it’s something you’re interested in and feel passionate about. Then of course that there’s a good evidence base to support you meeting the learning outcomes. Have a think about something that could be better, and what you’d like to happen. Think about what you are changing/ tweaking/ innovating/ enhancing/ improving/ introducing/ bringing from one area to another. Is it for staff, student, patient, organisational or financial benefit? Is it to enhance quality and/ or safety of care, improve outcomes or reduce risk? You could have a look at what is currently being done/ what’s available etc. This will help you narrow down an idea. Maybe have a go at writing down some ideas and doing brief SWOTs or mind maps on them to help you decide.
It is your choice what idea you pick. For LO1 you need to select the idea, so it’s not for us to say yes or no. We can advise you to not choose something too big, like NHS wide changes or full hospital changes or IT systems as they can be costly, involve more staffing/ equipment etc. and need involvement from lots of people/ services etc. It helps to be specific about your area, what type of ward/ community team/ specialist service etc. You can choose any area as long as it’s to do with your field. It helps to focus on what you could do as a student to keep it small. Make sure it is an achievable and realistic project.
You are not doing research. This would require ethical approval. You will of course be researching the evidence base, ie reading research. It is a project to implement a change. You are not actually implementing it, though may do in the future with the support of clinical areas and ethical approval by following trust processes. Please do not try to do this as part of your NU3373 work.
Person
You can write the whole portfolio in 1st person, and should in patches where you’re reflecting. However, more developed writing will be in third person apart from in reflections. Be mindful to underpin your work with references still to show level 6 study and meet the LOs, sometimes writing in 1st person can become very descriptive, all your own opinions. Use first person in parts or all of patches 5 and 6 where you are reflecting. Saying ‘the author will consider…’ can be clunky, so you can say, ‘this portfolio will consider…’ etc.
Part 1
Learning outcomes 2 and 3
Patch 1
Identification and rationale for idea
1000 words
Patch 1 is kind of like an introduction (although you will do a very brief introduction to the whole portfolio- see general summary above). It introduces your idea and gives a summary of main points.
Identify your project idea – What you are changing/ tweaking/ innovating/ enhancing/ improving/ introducing/ bringing from one area to another?
What is the rationale for your idea? Give a summary of main points, what are the key reasons and drivers? What key documents support this.
Questions to think about: Is it to enhance quality and/ or safety of care, improve outcomes or reduce risk? Is it for staff, student. patient, carer, family, organisational and/ or financial benefit? Is there a need for your idea? Is there evidence that your idea could work in practice?
You can do it as a written piece or on a powerpoint etc. Or you can use the project initiation document (PID). You don’t have to use PID, it’s an example. If you use it please include evidence. Not all parts will be appropriate to your idea so you don’t need to include them, if using this you should include references in it just like in an essay or PowerPoint. It’s good to show critique and use references where you can to show level 6 study. https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/qsir-project-initiation-document.pdf
Patch 2
Literature review including critical appraisal of the evidence base (of your chosen idea)
3500 words
Patch 2 is a critical appraisal of the evidence base and a really good way of meeting LO2 and showing level 6 study.
Essentially you will be doing three things:
1) Finding evidence
2) Appraising the evidence
3) Putting together a discussion on what you found from the evidence and appraisal
Patch 2 is one of the biggest patches and may seem like a lot to do, to reassure you though, you’ve probably started doing bits already by looking for evidence when thinking about your ideas, so may have done more than you think. It could be the hardest patch, it’s probably a new way of writing for you. Have a nosy at the guidance and module materials there are a load of resources on how to search the evidence base and write critically.
Structure
You can structure it how you want, this is an example:
You might do a brief introduction including key words
Explain how you found the evidence
– Include your search terms, refer to picture/ table/ PICO/ search hits. You should include inclusion and exclusion criteria for your search. Show us how you found/ got to your key papers.
Explain how you did an appraisal
– Use appropriate appraisal tool/s and say why you chose it/ them
Your reasoned discussion
-Identify themes (topics that occur in your evidence/ key papers).
-You may weave in important findings from the evidence and important parts of the appraisal.
A brief conclusion/ summary of main points from your literature review
You can use a key papers table if you wish (on blackboard in specific patch guidance folder in assignments folder), this is supporting document, counted in the words. You can include it with this patch rather than at the end. You may choose to put one in an appendix.
There is no set number of key papers you choose, it’s about quality of your discussion not quantity (number of articles). It will depend on your idea and what evidence you’ve found etc. Quality is important, it’s how you use the references and do your discussions, rather than focusing on how many papers.
You will be weaving the information from the articles together in a discussion rather than doing an annotated bibliography discussing them one after the other.
Themes (topics)- You can consider the evidence in themes (common topics/ areas you’ve noticed coming up in the key papers) weaving in main findings from your evidence and main points from your appraisal. The themes (common topics) (if you choose to structure your discussion this way) are main areas coming up from your key papers. As you read your evidence you’ll get a feel for the main threads coming up, maybe across a few pieces of evidence, main topics that are consistent, that stand out.
You may not specifically use themes (common topics) to structure your discussion, and do a overall reasoned discussion, this should have flow and structure, keep focused on the learning outcomes.
You could use subheadings in the patch if you wish, it is up to you. Have a nosy at some literature/ integrative/ scoping review articles and see how they’ve written their discussion, these are good examples of finding the themes (topics) and discussing the evidence, weaving in critical appraisal. You will find some on BlackBoard. Do remember these are often huge pieces of work, you are writing at level 6 not doctorate level.
Grey literature- grey is anything other than journal articles or books, so you could look for dissertations not published in journals, they’re really interesting, there are databases on the library pages for these. You’ll be discussing journal articles more in this patch. Government reports, policy, NICE guidance etc. are grey literature too, they may come more in to patch 1. This patch is a specific critical appraisal of the evidence base of your idea so is different from patch 1 which is the drivers/ reasons for your idea/ change and main documents relevant. This is about the evidence showing your idea is effective/ a good one.
PICO- the search terms tables or PICO are included in your words. You can include a PICO table or a search terms table (see literature reviews for examples).
Tools- You can use any critical appraisal tool/s. You can say you used CASP etc., and why (with evidence), then in the discussion you can weave in points that came up from the appraisal of the articles. So you will put together a reasoned discussion or talk about the topics you identified from the articles, key information about the articles and weave in some elements of CASP (or other tools). That’s showing really good level 6 study. Have a nosy at scoping reviews or literature review articles and how they do this for examples.
You can choose the most appropriate critical/quality appraisal checklist/ tool/s, one/s that you can make sense of and understand, we all have our preferences.
When you’re reading pieces of evidence/articles it’ll usually say what type of methodology it is in the abstract, anything with interviews is usually qualitative, and anything with stats/ numbers are usually quantitative, if they are randomised control trials (RCTs) it will say, if it’s both qual and quan it’s probably mixed methodology. Please access the module materials to help with this. You can make reference to what’s good and limited about these types of studies and reference the hierarchy of evidence.
The tools essentially get you thinking about what the strengths and weakness are (what is good and not so good- appraisal) about the articles, and not just thinking they are perfect and free from limitations. Helpfully a lot of articles have a limitation section.