Occupational Therapy

Assessment 2 (60% of grade): The student will plan a research study/project investigating an issue relevant to his/her own profession or workplace and present a written proposal (3000 word limit). The planning and the written account should consider the background to the study/project, the method/s of collecting data, the method/s of data analysis, the ethical and clinical governance issues involved and how they will be resolved.

Learning outcomes tested: Numbers 4,5,6

• Identify and critically engage with ethical, data management issues and clinical governance processes involved in the design of research studies and/or healthcare improvement strategies/reports
• Identify and plan an area of independent study of relevance to current national/international health and social care research or health improvement  agendas/strategies
• Identify appropriate dissemination methods for the outcomes of health improvement/research findings

Explanation

Writing a research proposal will enable you to demonstrate your understanding of research methods in the context of a specific study. You can choose any topic area and design a study that will answer a specific research question. The design may be an empirical study, work based study or systematic review.  This assignment may provide the basis for your dissertation and, if appropriate to you, can be used to help you prepare the ethical approval documents. Please be aware that work submitted for this assignment will need to be paraphrased within the dissertation to avoid self-plagiarism.

Alternatively this assignment may present a purely fictitious study in a topic area of interest to you. 

The assessment will be written in an assignment style and not on the school ethical approval form.

Structure

The structure in Table 1 must be used for this assignment. Guidance on word limits for sections is provided. These are for guidance only to demonstrate where emphasis should be placed within the assignment. The overall word limit must not exceed 3000 words.