| Nursing Project |
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NURS S401
Nursing Project
| Introduction |  |
The Nursing Project is a compulsory, higher level, ten-credit course in the Bachelor of Nursing (Honours) programme. It consists of course materials originally developed at Athabasca University, Canada, together with supplementary material prepared by the OUHK nurse academics to make the course suitable for Hong Kong nurses.The prerequisite for this course is the completion of 60 credits from both middle and higher level courses within the programme, either core courses or electives, which may be from any other middle or higher level courses offered from other Schools in The Open University of Hong Kong. You are strongly advised to have completed NU302 Advanced Nursing I, as that course introduced research and statistics, and is therefore a good base for this course. In NURS S401 Nursing Project, you will revisit the basics of research, critically review and analyse literature, explore and use research methodology, prepare a research proposal, collect and analyse data, and write up the research report. You will be able to make use of your own clinical practice so that the findings are relevant to both you and the Hong Kong health care setting.
The material has much in common with other courses in your programme. It contains activities and self-tests or practice questions to help you gauge your progress. Readings are provided for critique and analysis, and the prescribed text will support your understanding of the research process, as well as give guidelines for using statistics should you need them, for analysing the findings and presenting the results of your research.
This course differs from the other courses in the Bachelor of Nursing (Honours) programme, in that you will be expected to prepare your reports for assessment during the course and the final assessment will be the final report of the findings of your research. This means that you spend less time than usual working through the study units, and more time on your assessment tasks. There is no examination, as the final report will count for 60% of your marks. The other 40% of your marks will be for the two reports which you present during the year.
During the course, you will be supported by tutors and academics of the nursing team who have themselves conducted research projects. They will hold regular tutorials and surgeries as well as be available for telephone consultation. It is important that you keep in touch with your tutors and keep them informed of your progress.
| What this course helps you do | |
This course will give you a deeper understanding of research in nursing and give you the opportunity to conduct a research project as a demonstration of that understanding. You will be able to benefit from learning from other researchers how to conduct meaningful research. You will also learn that research is the basis for change in some situations and for confirmation that what is already in place, in some situations, is the best it can be. The course will also help you understand the value of results for presenting the findings of research in order to influence change.
| Course aims | |
NURS S401 Nursing Project aims to:
- Deepen your understanding of research in nursing.
- Expose you to the process of conducting nursing research.
| Course objectives | |
Upon completion of this course NURS S401 Nursing Project you will be able to:
- Clarify a situation which can be addressed by a research protocol.
- Conduct a literature review and critically analyse relevant research reports.
- Demonstrate the ability to conduct a research project.
- Present a report on the research project.
| Project phase objectives | |
At this point in the Course Guide of other OUHK courses, you usually read the unit objectives. But as you will see below, this course has a rather different structure. The Course Workbook is organized in four parts, each of which corresponds to a phase of your project. Below are listed the phase objectives.
Part I An introduction to the nursing research process
By the end of Part I you should be able to:
- Recall previous studies which related to defining research and related concepts, describing sources of knowledge, relating the process of research to other scientific methods and outlining the phases of the research process.
- Briefly describe the history of nursing research and its relationship to theory development, and relate the Hong Kong perspectives to those of Canada.
- Examine ways of distinguishing between quantitative and qualitative research.
Part II The conceptual phase
By the end of Part II you should be able to:
- Formulate the problem as the basis for the project.
- Investigate the research variables inherent in the problem.
- Review and critically analyse literature relevant to the research problem.
- Define hypothesis and identify the purposes and characteristics of a hypothesis.
Part III The empirical phase
By the end of Part III you should be able to:
- Design a research project.
- Identify the population and sampling techniques to be used in the project.
- Discuss the importance and concerns of validity and reliability.
- Apply data collection methods to the chosen population sample.
- Analyse the collected data.
Part IV Discussion and conclusion
By the end of Part IV you should be able to:
- Discuss the findings and the conclusions of the research.
- Present the findings of the research project.
| Course materials | |
For this course you will need:
- the OUHK supplementary material (contained in a binder), which consists of:
this Course Guide
the Study Guide
the Assignment File
the Workbook
the Supplementary Readings- the Presentation Schedule
- the prescribed textbook by Polit, Beck and Hungler.
Course Workbook
This contains the bulk of your study material. The course is divided into four major parts or phases, each containing study units. They cover both the theoretical and practical aspects of research.
Set textbook
There is a book prescribed for this course.
Polit, D F, Beck, C T and Hungler, B P (2001) Essentials of Nursing Research: Methods, Appraisal, and Utilization (5th edn), J B Lippincott Company.
Study Guide and supplementary readings
The Study Guide is designed to help you work through the Workbook and to give you a local perspective on research in Hong Kong. It is accompanied by supplementary readings which will give you guidelines for a literature review and report presentation. You should read the Study Guide in tandem with the Workbook.
Assignment File
The Assignment File contains the details of how you need to present your reports, guidelines for format for presentation, delivery dates and word limits.
Good academic writing is expected, and plagiarism will not be tolerated. Remember that one of the outcomes of any research is the writing of a paper whereby you can disseminate your findings to the profession.
Presentation Schedule
This is in the pocket of your OUHK binder and gives guidelines on how you should progress through the material and when you should submit your assignments.
| Course assessment | |
There are three assessment exercises for this course. It is especially important for you to look at the Assignment File before beginning your study, as the assessment does not follow the pattern you are used to. Two reports and a Final Report will make up the total assessment of the course. For the second, Interim Report, you will also need to give an Oral Presentation of your work.
The following table gives you an outline of course assessment.
Type Initial Report
Interim Report and Oral Presentation
Final Report
Course marking scheme
This table clearly lays out how the actual marking is broken down.
Assessment Marks Initial Report
Interim Report and Oral Presentation
Final Report15% of overall course marks
25% of overall course marks
60% of overall course marksTotal 100%
| Course overview | |
This table brings together the parts, the time taken to complete them, and the assignments that follow them.
Part Title Weeks of Study or Work Assessment Activity 1 Introduction 2 2 The Conceptual Phase 4 3 The Empirical Phase 5 4 The Interpretive Phase 2 Initial Report (Week 13) 5 Proposal Revision & Research Implementation 20 Interim Report (Week 23) 6 Report Writing 9 Oral Presentation (Week 31) Final Report (week 42)
Total
42
| How to get the most from this course | |
As this course is possibly the last in your programme, or very nearly the last, you are expected to be comfortable with the skills of academic thinking and writing. NURS S401 really puts together all you have learned in previous courses. Let us just review those courses and see how they relate to each other. NU201 Bioscience for Nurses and NU202 Behavioural Science for Nurses augmented the work to which you were introduced in your pre-registration education. NU301 Comparative Studies in Health introduced you to concepts and beliefs related to health. I am sure you found many of the issues it covered relevant to your practice. NU303 Management and Health Promotion introduced principles and concepts of management and health promotion which you can use in your own professional practice. NU302 and NU304 Advanced I and II, introduced you to the theories of nursing, profession-related issues, and basic concepts of research and statistics. These brief introductions will help you in the work of this course. And, as a practising nurse, you have been exposed to the outcome of other research. Much of our practice is research based if you think about it.
To gain the most you can from this course and to help clarify your thinking and ideas, you should discuss what you are doing for your project, with colleagues, especially those who may have already undertaken research, either in their own studies or from interest. Your tutors will also be able to contribute to your discussions.
Although it is not compulsory to attend tutorials, I would strongly recommend that you do so in this course. The groups will be no more than six or seven people, and small-group discussion is fruitful. Also, unlike other courses in this programme, you will not offer your reports for grading until they have been thoroughly discussed with the tutor. Tutors will advise you on how to write your reports and make any necessary suggestions.
| Summary | |
Research can be great fun, a whole world of discovery, an opportunity to make a difference. Research can also be frustrating and quite hard work. There are protocols which ensure the reliability and validity of any research, and all research is subject to critique and analysis. It is also often subject to replication in different situations or even similar situations, for testing assumptions, theories and practice.
So, do enjoy it. As you are nearly at the end of your programme and will be graduating quite soon with an honours degree, this course is the one towards which you have worked so hard and thus should be enjoyed. All the very best with your studies.
| A note about the developer of this course | |
Athabasca University in Canada develops courses in distance education for nurses. They mainly serve the Canadian nurses. However, as research is a global issue, the material is appropriate for Hong Kong nurses, and we have adapted the material where necessary. Some of the readings are Canada-based, but they do serve as examples for critique and analysis. Hong Kong-related readings are also offered for critique and analysis.
