Advance Application of Practice-Based Research in Health
Week 6
Theories and Conceptual Frameworks
Now that you have developed your Doctoral Study Prospectus, the next step is to begin expanding it into the Prospectus, which, in turn, will serve as the plan for developing the Proposal. The theoretical base or conceptual framework, which is the focus of this week, is an important section of the Prospectus, grounding the study by informing research questions and helping to identify research design decisions.
This week, you will determine the theoretical and/or conceptual framework that you intend to use in your study. You will also resubmit your updated Doctoral Study Prospectus document.
Learning Objectives
Students will:
· Evaluate theoretical and conceptual frameworks related to Doctoral Study topics
· Evaluate Doctoral Study Prospectus for clarity.
Week 6 Announcements:
Announcements
Writing Center Help Reminder
Posted on: Monday, July 6, 2020 10:39:56 AM EDT
You can find Cheryl’s academic writing discussion thread here. This link will take you to a thread in the Contact the Instructor area within our classroom, so you must be logged into Blackboard for the link to work. If you are logged in and the link does not work for you, try clearing your cookies and cache (see these online instructions for Firefox and Chrome browsers), or simply navigate manually to the Contact the Instructor area, where you will see the thread.
Make sure to participate so you can get answers to your questions about APA formatting, organization, scholarly voice, the writing process, plagiarism prevention, paraphrasing, and one-on-one paper reviews with writing instructors. Cheryl’s last day with us will be Saturday, July 11, so make sure to join the discussion soon!
Posted by: Heather Alonge
Posted to: DDHA-8246-1, Practice-Based Research.2020 Summer Qtr. 06/01-08/23-PT27
Week 6
Posted on: Monday, July 6, 2020 8:30:24 AM EDT
Dear Students,
Welcome to Week 6. We are more than halfway done with the quarter. As we move forward, I want you to know that it is important that you finish this course with a viable capstone topic and premise. I will be very detailed in my feedback to you and how I grade to ensure we meet this standard.
I hope that everyone is staying safe during this time. I understand many of you are working strenuous hours while finding a new normal with work, families and school. Please reach out to me at any time if you need anything.
I wanted to share this Walden Blog post with you about staying on track during COVID-19. There are some useful tips and resources. Stay safe. Stay well. Stay hopeful.
Posted by: Dr. Heather Alonge
Posted to: DDHA-8246-1, Practice-Based Research.2020 Summer Qtr 06/01-08/23-PT27
Writing Center Help
Posted on: Thursday, July 2, 2020 2:02:39 PM EDT
Greetings All!
This week, Cheryl Read, a Writing Center Instructor, will be joining us via the Contact the Instructor area. She is here to discuss writing, answer your questions, and introduce you to Writing Center resources. Using the thread in the Contact the Instructor area, feel free to ask about any writing topics or resources, including questions about APA formatting, organization, scholarly voice, outlining and drafting, plagiarism and paraphrasing, and one-on-one paper reviews with Writing Instructors. Cheryl will only be with us this week, so be sure to participate in the discussion while you can.
Posted by: Heather Alonge
Posted to: DDHA-8246-1,Practice-Based Research.2020 Summer Qtr 06/01-08/23-PT27
Secondary Datasets
Posted on: Thursday, July 2, 2020 10:13:34 AM EDT
Dear All,
As you begin to work on your research prospectus, you should be identifying which datasets would be most appropriate for answering your research problem. The attached document includes a list of healthcare administration datasets. Thank you.
Dr. A
9.2 Datasets 6.18.20.docx
Posted by: Heather Alonge
Posted to: DDHA-8246-1, Practice-Based Research.2020 Summer Qtr 06/01-08/23-PT27
Plagiarism Prevention Resources
Posted on: Monday, June 29, 2020 9:40:34 AM EDT
Dear Students,
As you begin to work on your assignments, your similarity index for plagiarism detection is a vital component to your overall score and success in this course. I noted some higher similarity index scores on the Week 4 assignments due to not properly paraphrasing citations. Please review the following resources from the Writing Center and utilize a writing center staff is you need assistance. Thank you.
https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/plagiarism
Learning Resources
Required Readings
Creswell, J. W., Creswell, J. D. (2018). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Chapter 3, “The Use of Theory” (pp.49-73).
Casanave, C. P., & Li, Y. (2015). Novices’ struggles with conceptual and theoretical framing in writing dissertations and papers for publication dagger. Publications, 3(2), 104–119.
Walden University. (n.d.j). Office of Student Research Administration: DHA Doctoral Study. Retrieved from http://academicguides.waldenu.edu/researchcenter/osra/DHA. Note: At this website, locate and review the Doctoral study Prospectus Rubric and Doctoral Study Prospectus Guide.
The Prospectus
The Doctor of Healthcare Administration (DHA) / Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) Doctoral
Study Prospectus Guide is a brief document that provides preliminary information about your
doctoral study research and is used in two ways:
• It serves as an agreed-upon plan for developing the proposal and is evaluated to ensure
doctoral-level work.
• Although your premise document will be used to assign your supervisory committee, the
prospectus may serve as a step to finalize the structure of your doctoral study
supervisory committee, who will work with you on completing the doctoral study.
Completing the Prospectus
The Doctoral Study Prospectus consists of several small sections, which are detailed in the
annotated outline. Your goal for the prospectus is to create a plan for developing your doctoral
study proposal. Therefore, you need to have more information for the prospectus than you did for
the Doctoral Study Premise, but you do not need to know all the specific details of the study that
you will ultimately conduct. For example, you may identify low birth weight as a covariate in a
quantitative study, but at this point you do not yet need to identify the instrument that you plan to
use to measure the covariate.
Also, because every doctoral study is unique and because this outline is general, you may be
asked to include additional information in your prospectus to help assure your supervisory
committee that you are headed in the right direction. For example, feasibility will be one
criterion for evaluating your prospectus, and if you are considering a unique sample group, your
committee may ask that you explore that aspect in more detail before moving forward.
The Doctoral Study Prospectus should follow Publication Manual of the American
Psychological Association (sixth edition) guidelines and be formatted as either a .doc, .docx, or
.rtf file. As you work on the document, you may also want to review the Litmus Test for a
Doctoral-Level Research Problem from the Doctoral Study Premise guide and materials
provided from your academic residency experience, as well as the quality indicators found in the
Doctoral Study Prospectus Rubric, which is included in this guide (see “Quality Indicators”).
One prospectus quality indicator that is not included as a separate section in the prospectus
document, but rather is holistically assessed throughout the prospectus, is research design
alignment. The rubric item reads: “Aligned? Do the various components of the research plan
align overall?” Alignment is critically important to the quality of research. Research design
alignment means that all pieces of the study design match and/or complement one another. For
example, the identified doctoral-level problem must drive the purpose of the study and the
research questions. The framework must support the research approach overall. There should be
common language throughout, with concepts and theories corresponding with the problem and
purpose—meaning that language should be repeated from earlier sections into later sections. As you write, be sure to connect the dots among each section of the prospectus, ensuring alignment throughout. The visual below represents this idea in a drawn V shape:
Social Problem Related to Your Discipline/Program/Specialization
Gaps in Practice Lead to Identification of Research Problem
Supporting Theory or Concepts
Research Questions
Analysis
Aligned
Research Study
Conceptualizing the research plan and various components of the design is
sometimes challenging. One way to assist with this, and to ensure research design alignment, is
to use a visual to help you see how the various parts of a research design should fit together and
therefore must align with one another. For example, as presented in the graphic below, the
Problem Statement, Purpose, and Framework in the prospectus must align with all other pieces
of the research design. This example has three research questions. If one research question does
not appear to fit with the study purpose, it does not belong in the study design. The method and
design make up the section in the prospectus called “Nature of the Study.” Each section must
coordinate with the others.
Problem _______RQI: Instrument, Source, Data Points
: Data Analysis
Purpose ———— RQI 2-: Instrument, Source, Data Points
: Data Analysis
Framework ————-RQI3: Instrument, Source, Data Points
: Data Analysis
As a self-check, you should ask yourself these questions about your research design:
1. Is there a logical progression from the research problem to the purpose of the study?
2. Does the identified framework ground the investigation in the stated problem?
3. Do the problem, purpose, and framework align with the RQ(s) and nature of the study?
4. Does each RQ address the problem and align with the purpose of the study?
5. Will the instrument, data source, and analysis address the RQ?
Submitting the Prospectus
Students work with their chair in a companion research forum course (PUBH/HLTH 8900 –
Research Forum) that supports prospectus development. Students work with their chair in the
PUBH/HLTH 8900 course to complete the prospectus before moving into the PUBH/HLTH 9100
Research Forum course.
Prospectus development is an iterative process, as you will receive feedback on working drafts
from your supervisory committee. When the prospectus is completed, please follow the submission
guidelines for your program. Generally, you should submit a final prospectus to your doctoral
study supervisory committee for review in PUBH/HLTH 8900 after completion of your research
sequence but before enrolling in the PUBH/HLTH 9100, and
• as required in your doctoral study course, if you are currently enrolled in this course;
• toward the end of your time in a companion course, following the guidance of your chair;
or
• prior to beginning your doctoral study proposal in PUBH/HLTH 9100, following the
guidance of your chair.
My Doctoral Research (MyDR)
If you have not done so already, you should familiarize yourself with the My Doctoral Research
(MyDR) system and other resources on the Center for Research Quality website. The MyDR
system was designed to assist you and your committee in navigating your doctoral research
journey, from the very beginning through the final approval. The various landing pages in MyDR
will track your progress and will serve as a central location for resources to support that progress.
The Task stream element of the MyDR system is used to establish a process flow tool in which you
exchange and store faculty evaluations of and feedback on your work as you progress along that
journey.
Students are entered into the MyDR system when both the chair and second member nominee are
approved by the academic program. At that point, you will be able to access MyDR from the home
page of your doctoral study completion course in Blackboard. When your supervisory committee
believes your Doctoral Study Prospectus is ready to finalize, it will be the first document that you
submit to MyDR. Your supervisory committee will evaluate your document (using the rubric that is
discussed herein), and, assuming they agree that it meets the quality indicators, your academic
program director or designee will give final approval of the prospectus. This may be an iterative
process, and more details of this process are located in the MyDR Student Process form. You will
begin working on your proposal upon approval from the program director or designee.
An Annotated Outline
The Prospectus document includes a title page (page 1) followed by pages containing the
required elements in the prospectus. Follow the format in the appropriate Prospectus template
(DHA or DrPH) on the Writing Center website.
Title Page
The recommended title length is 12 words, to include the topic, the variables and relationship
between them, and the critical keywords. Double-space the title if it’s over one line of type and
center it under the word “Prospectus.” Please note that your doctoral study title will likely
change as the project evolves.
Include your name, your program of study (and specialization if applicable), and Student ID
number—double-spaced and centered under the title.
Title
Start with “Prospectus” and a colon, and then include the title as it appears on the title page.
Double-space if over one line of type and center it at the top of the page.
Problem Statement
Note: A social problem involves an issue that affects a specific population/discipline. It is the issue that students see “on the ground” so to speak. The social problem is often when prompts students to think about a topic of interest that derives dissertation topic.
Usually such a topic is one that students identify with, sometimes having personally experienced some aspect of the problem as it exists in the world. All too often, students want to solve a specific social, organizational, clinical, or practical problem rather than explore a research problem.
A research problem is a focused topic of concern, a condition to be improved upon, or troubling question that is supported in scholarly literature or theory that you study to understand in more detail, and that can lead to recommendations for resolutions. It is the research problem that derives the rest of the dissertation: the purpose, the research questions, and the methodology. It is the research problem that is identified in the problem statement of the prospectus.
Provide a one- to two-paragraph statement that is the result of a review of research findings and
current practice and that contains the following information:
1. A logical argument for the need to address an identified gap in practice as supported in
the research literature that has relevance to the discipline and area of practice. Keep in
mind that a gap in the research is not, in and of itself, a reason to conduct research. Make
sure to clarify the problem that caused you to look at that research area in the first place.
2. Preliminary evidence that provides justification that this problem is meaningful to the
discipline or professional field. Provide three to five key citations that highlight the
relevance and currency of the problem. These references need not all be from peer-reviewed journals but should be from reputable sources, such as national agency
databases or scholarly books and should ideally be from the past 5 years.
3. Assure that the problem is framed within and primarily focused on the discipline
(program of study).
Purpose of the Study
Provide a one- to two-paragraph statement that discusses the overall purpose or intention of the
study. In quantitative studies, state what needs be studied by describing two or more factors
(variables) and a conjectured relationship among them related to the identified gap or problem.
Note: All DHA and DrPH capstones must be quantitative and use secondary data.
Significance
Provide one or two paragraphs, informed by the topic in the problem statement, that describe the
following:
1. How this study will contribute to filling the gap identified in the problem statement: What
contribution to the discipline or practice will this study make? This is an elaboration of
what the problem addresses.
2. How this research will support professional practice or allow practical application: Answer
the So what? question.
3. How the claim aligns with the problem statement to reflect the potential relevance of this