Project Guidelines

Overview

The final project for this course is the creation of an introductory-level analysis of published research findings. Statistics play an integral role in the healthcare industry. For those entering the health field, understanding statistics is a must. Evidence-based healthcare is the current theme and is leading us into the future. For professionals in this field, seeking answers to health-related questions in scientific literature is common practice. While deciphering the information found in these publications can be challenging, it all starts with learning basic statistical concepts. This course will help you develop a baseline understanding of statistics. You will explore the areas of descriptive statistics and basic inferential statistics, along with variability and statistical significance. However, the ultimate goal is to provide an introductory-level analysis of published research findings.

You will select an article from a list provided by your instructor. The articles in the list are all peer reviewed, published within the last three years, and related in some way to the health professional programs at SNHU. Your analysis will be based on the statistical concepts you learn over the term and will include identifying and interpreting statistical findings. You will discuss the hypothesis of the study, the methodology used to conduct the study, and the statistical analysis used, including software. You will also discuss the study's results, limitations, conclusions, and next steps. This assessment will showcase your ability to read, comprehend, and interpret research done in the many fields of healthcare. Additionally, this assessment will demonstrate your ability to articulate research findings to individuals who may not have the background necessary to understand basic healthcare research.

The project is divided into two milestones, which will be submitted prior to the final project submission to scaffold learning and ensure quality final submissions. These milestone will be submitted in Modules Three and Five. The final project will be submitted in Module Seven.

In this assignment, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following course outcomes:

• Interpret data results from peer-reviewed healthcare research for determining the statistical significance of the findings

• Analyze common research methods used in the collection of healthcare data for determining their advantages and disadvantages in data-collection situations

• Analyze healthcare research for its contributions to scientific literature and future investigations

• Assess the impact of limitations within various healthcare studies on research conclusions

Prompt

Write an analysis of a peer-reviewed article published within the last three years that is related in some way to the health professional programs at SNHU. You will select this article from a list provided by your instructor. These articles have been vetted to ensure that they contain the information necessary to complete the critical elements below. Remember to read the article carefully as you will not only be analyzing the use of statistics in the research, but discussing possible further research as well.

Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:

I. Purpose: In this section of your analysis, you need to introduce the study you analyzed, describing its purpose, research question, and hypothesis.

A. Describe the purpose of the study, including the research question and hypothesis.

II. Research Methods: In this section of your analysis you will take a deep dive into the research methods used by the authors of the study you analyzed. It is important that you are able to identify, describe, and discuss the data collection and data analysis methodology used by the researchers.

A. Identify whether the study design is experimental or observational. Support your identification with examples from the study.

B. Identify the methods used to collect the data and explain why the methods are appropriate based on the research question.

C. Identify the data collected as quantitative or categorical. Support your identification with examples from the study.

D. Discuss the potential weaknesses of the data collection methods used. Support your discussion with examples from the study.

E. Identify the data analysis methods used and explain why the methods are appropriate based on the research question.

F. Discuss the potential weaknesses of the data analysis methods used. Support your discussion with examples from the study.

G. Describe the key demographics of the population sampled and identify the inclusion and exclusion criteria for participants.

III. Key Findings: Now that you have discussed the research methods used by the researchers, you will need to state and discuss their findings, differentiating between the results of the experimental and control groups.

A. State the results of the research, describing how the researchers determined whether or not the results are statistically significant.

B. Describe the differences in the results between the groups in the study and support your description with examples from the study.

IV. Limitations of the study: Unfortunately, every data collection method and data analysis method has limitations. In this section, you need to explain the limitations presented by the study population and the advantages and disadvantages of the statistical analysis used.

A. Explain the limitations presented by the study population and sample size used. Support your explanation with examples from the study.

B. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the type of statistical analysis used. Support your discussion with examples from the study.

C. Identify the limitations of the study design used and explain why those limitations exist.

V. Major conclusions from the study: In this section, you will need to analyze the conclusions reached by the researchers and compare them to the conclusions of another study from the reference section of your selected study. You will also need explain how the study you have analyzed contributes to scientific literature and speculate about further investigations that might take place because of this research.

A. Discuss how the results from this study compare with those of a study listed in the references or your main article. Support your discussion with examples from both studies.

B. Explain how this study contributes to scientific literature. Support your explanation with specific examples.

C. Describe further investigations that could take place because of this study.

Milestones

Milestone One: Research Methods

In Module Three, you will complete a table of the Research Methods section of your final project. In the Milestone One worksheet, you will analyze and discuss the research methods used in the study described in the article you selected for your final project. You will need to include a revised version of this table in your final project submission in Module Seven.

Milestone Two: Key Findings and Limitations

In Module Five, you will submit a draft of the Key Findings and Limitations sections of your final project. In this draft, you will analyze and discuss the key findings and limitations of the study described in the article you selected for your final project.

Submission: Article Analysis

In Module Seven, you will submit your final project. It should be a complete, polished artifact containing all of the critical elements of the final project. It should reflect the incorporation of feedback gained throughout the course. Copy the table from the Milestone One Worksheet document into your final project paper. You will need to include sections of the final project that have not been included in any milestone assignments.