STUDENT NAME AND ID NUMBER

Qualification

Pearson BTEC Level 4 Higher National Certificate and Level 5

Higher National Diploma in Healthcare Practice for England (Health Care Management)

ACADEMIC YEAR

2021-2022

Unit 18 (CORE UNIT)

Unit 18 Innovation and Improvement through Action Research

UNIT Leader

UNIT TUTOR/s

Assignment Title

Improving the health of others through effective research

Type of Assignment

Research proposal and Project

Weighting

100%

Issue Date

25.03.2022

Formative Submission Date

15.04.2022@2pm. using theFormative link on Moodle

Summative Submission Date

20.05.2022 @2pm using theSummative link on Moodle

Assessor

IV

This is to confirm that this submission is my own work, produced without any external help except acceptable support from my lecturer. It has not been copied from any other person’s work (publishedor unpublished) and has not previously been submitted for assessment either at GBS or elsewhere.I confirm that I have read and understood the ‘GBS Academic Good Practice and Academic Misconduct: Policy and Procedure’ available on Moodle. LO1 Review the role of research in health and wellbeing improvement strategies

I confirm I have read and understood the above Student Declaration.

Student                        Name (print)

Signature

Date

INTRODUCTION

Research can have a positive impact on local practice and policy, as well as promoting and informing global health programmes. Refining and using effective research skills and methods is key to being able to produce high-quality research that can contribute to developing a richer understanding of a phenomenon, driving improvements in public health and in healthcare as a whole

The aim of this unit is to develop student’s research skills further to be able to carry out an independent piece of action research using human participants to contribute to service improvement. Students will make use of the Practice Themes in order to identify a suitable research project or extend a proposed study devised at level 4.

Students will firstly develop a deeper understanding of the types of research conducted in public health and develop their research skills further to carry out a research study using their own research questions. Students will then go on to design their research methodology and carry out a piece of action research and produce findings to a range of audiences.

By the end of this unit students will be able to evaluate their research journey and its impact on their own practice and provision as well as its significance in contributing to wider public health service improvement. Students will be able to evaluate the success of their research and make recommendations for future research that extends or deepens understanding further.

Unit Learning Outcomes - Unit 18 Innovation and Improvement through Action Research

LO1 Review the role of research in health and wellbeing improvement strategies

LO2 Develop a methodological framework for action research in health and wellbeing improvement

LO3 Carry out action research towards improvements in health and wellbeing

LO4 Examine the impact of research findings with regard to service improvement and own professional development

Submission Format

This assignment consists of two parts.

1. PART A: ACTION RESEARCH PROPOSAL: 1000 WORDS

Addressing the chosen theme as specified by Pearson “Approaches to person-centred care that embraces diverse, equitable and inclusive strategies”.

Note: Please ensure to enclose the Research Proposal form agreed and signed by you and your tutor and the ethics approval form along with your research proposal. Pearson set FOUR topics, for which GBS has chosen the one below. You are now advised to address the above theme:

• Approaches to person-centred care that embraces diverse, equitable and inclusive strategies.

2. PART B: ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT IN THE FORM OF DISSERTATION 3500 WORDS

Addressing the chosen theme as specified by Pearson “Approaches to person-centred care that embraces diverse, equitable and inclusive strategies”.

The topic and type of project chosen must be appropriate for small-scale personal research, which will include gathering evidence from service users, the wider community, colleagues, and other practitioners. The project must balance the duration of time committed to delivering input to support student`s research, and the time necessary to conduct the project.

Submission is in the form of an academic report. This should be written in a concise, formal business style using 1.5 spacing and font size 12. You are required to make use of headings, paragraphs, and subsections as appropriate, and all work must be supported with research and referenced using the Harvard referencing system.

A references list and bibliography should be provided using the Harvard referencing system. The recommended length is 1000 for Research Proposal and 3500 words towards Research Project, but you will not be penalised for exceeding this.

You must ensure you support the written report with a range of graphical illustrations and appropriate appendices.

Guidance on how to use this document:

• Consider the development of a methodical and valid research plan as the foundation for the project.
• Choose a topic of personal interest in a specialism to explore in your project.
• A good topic for your project is one that has an existing body of literature or source material that can be reviewed, and one in which you have access to primary research sources
• A good project is one that extends a current line of learning that will lend itself to further rigorous exploration.
• Develop your plan for your project based on the deliverables of the project brief, the constraints of the context and the assumptions made.
• Apply a range of secondary research sources to plan/scope and support the project and its findings. Secondary research sources may include textbooks, journal articles, newspapers and magazine articles (not factual accounts).
• Apply a range of primary research sources to plan/scope and support the project and its findings. Primary research sources should include first-hand accounts from service users, practitioners and other experts in the area of practice. They can also include legal and historical documents, results of experiments and other market research data collection. Apply both qualitative and quantitative research methods to evaluate data collected from primary research.
• Ensure that your research is ethical, reliable and valid. An ethics form must be submitted prior to completion of research as part of the research plan.
• Agree your research plan with your tutor before beginning your research.
• Conduct your research as outlined in the plan agreed with your tutor
• Carry out your research, analyse your research findings and draw conclusions. Apply both qualitative and quantitative research methods to evaluate data collected from primary research.
• Meet with your tutor to receive a sign-off at each stage of the process.
• Communicate your research outcomes in a manner appropriate to your audience.
• Keep notes of your progress throughout the process in your logbook. This is an important record of your work and should be used to record the development of your ideas and your progress through to the completion of the review. The logbook should include:
  • A record of what you did, when and what you were thinking.
  • A record of where things went wrong and what you did to overcome any unexpected results
  • You will be asked to reflect on the success of your project and your own performance in a personal performance review at the end of the project. This is a written reflection of around 500 words.

You must complete the project in order to complete your work for this unit.

PART A RESERCH PROPOSAL

ASSIGNMENT BRIEF AND GUIDANCE FOR RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Scenario and activity:

The healthcare practitioner is a key contributor to the service user experience and is instrumental in driving the changes needed to enable a more effective and efficient healthcare service. The effective practitioner should provide a values-based, high-quality service and environment for colleagues and users of services that is inclusive, welcoming and puts the individual needs of the service user at its centre. 

You are recently appointed as a research associate in a health and social care setting. Your main job role is to investigate possible solutions by conducting a small-scale action research. This research will give you the opportunity to explore the nature of the challenges to a view of improving the quality of care in the care setting. The Pearson-set theme for use with” Approaches to person-centred care that embraces diverse, equitable and inclusive strategies”.

Students are to research the topic given below. Strong research projects are those with clear, well focused and defined objectives. A central skill in selecting a research objective is the ability to select a suitable and focused research objective. One of the best ways to do this is to put it in the form of a question. Use the action research topic related to the theme to generate ideas for a good research objective. LO1 Review the role of research in health and wellbeing improvement strategies

The action research topic is specified below:

• Approaches to person-centred care that embraces diverse, equitable and inclusive strategies.

Once you have identified the action research topic and objective you will undertake the following steps to collate and present the proposal along with the ethics form.

Please note that you will need your topic to be approved by your tutor by submitting the proposal form along with the ethics form.

Submission procedure:

1. Submit a Research Proposal that includes your chosen organisation and addresses the above Person set theme
2. Your proposal should not exceed 1000 words excluding the proposal form and the ethics form.
3. Ensure your topic, research objective, research question is clear and precise.
4. Ensure you address the specified scenario, presenting your proposal in the context of your chosen organisation

Proposal form should include:

• Define your research problem or question. This can be stated as a research question, objectives or hypothesis.
• Provide a literature review giving the background and conceptualisation of your proposed area of study. This would provide existing knowledge and benchmarks by which your data can be judged.
• Consider and define your research methodology and research process. Demonstrate understanding of the pitfalls and limitations of the methods chosen and ethical issues that might arise.
• Draw points (1–3, above) together into a research proposal for agreement with your tutor.
• Please use the Proposal form and the Ethics form as specified below and see that it is signed by your tutor and you. This needs to be submitted in the portfolio link along with your action research proposal which is further submitted in the Turnitin link.

Develop a project proposal for researching the research objective identified: Your research proposal identifies the purpose of the research project with clear aim and objectives and justifies the chosen research methods in terms of the research question. Discuss the ethical issues which will need to be considered and examine the research methods and approaches to be taken. Prepare an action plan with target dates and methods for monitoring and updating your activities to ensure your meet the deadline for the final written report.

PART B Action RESERCH PROJECT - Unit 18 Innovation and Improvement through Action Research

ASSIGNMENT BRIEF AND GUIDANCE FOR RESEARCH PROJECT

Scenario and activity: You continue using the scenario that you used for the research proposal

Once you have identified the research topic and objective and have the approved proposal by your tutor along with the ethics form. You now continue to complete your Research Project and submit it in the form of Dissertation.

Submission procedure:

1. Submit a Research Project that includes your chosen organisation and addresses the above Pearson set theme
2. Your Report should not exceed 3500 words; however, you will not be penalised for excess words.
3. Ensure your topic, research objective, research question is clear and precise.
4. Ensure you address the specified scenario, presenting your proposal in the context of your chosen organisation
5. Please ensure your dissertation is presented in the prescribed format specified below.

Research Project format towards submission:

Title Page

• It is important that you state clearly, at the beginning of the assignment, what its title is, which module it applies to and your name as the author.
• You should also include the College name, report title and the date.

Executive Summary

• A summary should be provided, so that people can see at a glance what the report is about. You should mention your key findings, conclusions, and recommendations.
• This summary is usually printed immediately after the title page.

Contents Page

• Page numbers as well as section/chapter titles should be included
• If the report incorporates some appendices, their titles should be listed

Acknowledgements

• A list of names, roles, and organisations (if relevant) of all of those who helped you when compiling the report should be listed

Terms of Reference

• Refer to your project proposal

Introduction

• This section should provide some of the background of the subject that forms the principal theme of your report.
• If the report is designed to solve a perceived ‘problem’, the history of the ‘problem’ can be reviewed here, culminating in the situation that prompted the report to be written
• You should also provide some key information about the organisation in which your research is based.

Literature Review (Secondary Research)

You need to know what the key literature is related to the research objective in order to plan a research study to explore the phenomenon. Conduct a literature review using a range of sources relating to the research topic. Evaluate the validity and reliability of the sources, discussing current understanding on the research topic area.

In your report discuss the sources of literature found and how they relate or otherwise to the research topic. Your report should critically evaluate literature in order to assess the validity of the literature in supporting the research topic. LO1 Review the role of research in health and wellbeing improvement strategies

Methodology

• This section is needed for the reader to judge the authenticity of the ‘evidence’ that comprises the main body of the report. All sources should be mentioned and, if appropriate, describe how you put together your questionnaire or survey.
• Copies of questionnaires, interview questions etc. should be included in the appendices.
• If any published documents were studied, this should be mentioned here

Carry out independent primary research

Design, implement, collect, and critically analyse data. For example, using a survey/questionnaire/interview or other primary research technique to collect data and then present and analyse findings. Present your findings using visual illustrations e.g. bar charts/pie graphs/tables.

Your report will include the critical analysis of data and the advantages and disadvantages of the research methods and approaches taken to data collection.

• Main Body and Findings: (LO1, LO2, LO3, and LO4).

• This is likely to comprise many paragraphs or sections. It is often useful to break up your project into subheadings.
• This section should be structured around the key themes of your research
• Use tables, charts if possible. Your presentation of data is important
• This section should bring together your secondary and primary research and your findings

Conclusions

• In this section you should say what your facts or findings mean i.e., discuss the key implications arising from the wealth of detail you may have collected.
• The conclusions should not incorporate any new facts

Recommendations

• Your recommendations should clearly spell out your ideas to enable them to be acted upon.
• In particular, if your proposals involve expenditure, you must supply a cost benefit evaluation to show what it costs and what management will get from it.
• Finally, critically reflect on how you have conducted the project, the lessons learned and the alternative you would consider in the future with recommendations for actions to be taken forward.

References and Bibliography

• All references in the report should be listed in the correct Harvard format in a References list. Other materials used but not referred to in the Research Project should be included in a Bibliography.

Appendices

• All detailed statistical tabulations, graphs, lists, questionnaires etc. should be organised into separate appendices
• Include a list of references (sources that are cited in the report itself)
• Nothing should be included that isn’t referred to in the main body of the report

Section One: Title, aims, objectives

Title or working title of project (in the form of a question, objective or hypothesis)

Project aims and objectives (e.g. what do you wish to achieve? What do you want to learn to do? What do you want to findout?)

Section Two: Reasons for choosing this project

Reasons for choosing the project (e.g., links to other subjects you are studying, personal interest, future, knowledge/skills you want to improve, why you feel the topic is important)

Section Three: Precedents and sources

Use of key literature sources and precedents to support your project objectives

Section Four: Activities and timescales

Activities to be carried out during the project

How long will this take:

Milestone one:

Target date (set by tutor):

Milestone two:

Target date (set by tutor):

Comments and agreement from tutor

Comments:

I confirm that the project is not work that has been or will be submitted for another qualification and is appropriate:

Agreed:

(name)

(date)

Comments and agreement from project proposal reviewer (if applicable)

Comments:

I confirm that the project is not work that has been or will be submitted for another qualification and is appropriate:

Agreed:

(name)

(date)

Section One: Basic details

Project title:

Student Details

Student Name                                                                          Student ID

Programme:

School:

Start date:

End date:

Interviews

Questionnaires

Observations

Use of Personal Records

Data Analysis

Action Research

Focus Groups

Other (please specify)

Section Five: Ethical issues

Are there any features of your proposed workwhichmay raise ethical concerns? If so, please outline how you will deal with these: It is important that you demonstrate your awareness of potential risks that may arise because of yourresearch.Pleaseconsider/addressallissuesthatmayapply.Ethical concernsmayinclude,but are not limited to the following:

• informed consent
• potentially vulnerable participants
• sensitive topics
• risks to participants and/orresearchers
• confidentiality/anonymity
• disclosures/limits to confidentiality
• data storageand security, both during andafter the research (including transfer, sharing, encryption, protection)
• reporting
• dissemination and use of your findings.
• LO1 Review the role of research in health and wellbeing improvement strategies

Section Six: Declaration

I have read, understood, and will abideby the [insert name of college/center] Research Ethics Policy: Yes:                               No:

I have discussed the ethical issues relating to my research with mytutor: Yes:                        No:

I confirm that, to the best of my knowledge, the above information is correct and that this is a full description of the ethical issues that may arise in the course of my/our research.

Student Name(s)

Date

Please submit your completed form to:

Learning Outcomes and Assessment Criteria Unit 18 Innovation and Improvement through Action Research

Pass

Merit

Distinction

LO1 Review the role of research in health and wellbeing improvement strategies

LO1 and LO2 D1

Critically evaluate how effectively research methodologies selected support proposed action research study in health and wellbeing improvement

P1 Discuss the role of research in defining research questions for a piece of action research in health and social care

P2 Review own skills in conducting a piece of action research into health and wellbeing improvement

M1 Evaluate own skills in defining research questions for a piece of action research in health and wellbeing improvement

LO2 Develop a methodological framework for action research in health and wellbeing improvement

P3 Illustrate in detail appropriate research methods for investigating research questions/hypothesis

M2

Analyse the methodological approach taken to answer research questions

P4 Discuss ethical considerations when researching human participants

LO3 Carry out action research towards improvements in health and wellbeing

D4 Evaluate own role and practice in facilitating and empowering an individual to communicate their changing care needs in health, care, and support services

P5 Implement a piece of action research in health and wellbeing improvement

P6 Interpret data using appropriate data analysis techniques

M3 Analyse research data from action research using appropriate data analysis techniques

LO4 Examine the impact of research findings with regard to service improvement and own professional development

D3 Critically evaluate research study in terms of influencing change and its value in improving quality of health and social care service provision nationally and globally

P7 Discuss the potential impact of findings from action research study on health and wellbeing improvement

P8 Discuss own learning in research journey identifying strategies for future developmental needs in conducting ethical research into health and wellbeing improvement

M4. Evaluate how findings relate to research questions in supporting improvement in health and wellbeing and own professional development

Academic Integrity (Note to avoid Plagiarism)

Academic integrity is a fundamental expectation for all college/university students and while it is acknowledged that mitigating circumstances might be raised as factors in student behaviour, cheating cannot be disregarded. GBS definition of plagiarism, as contained in GBS Academic Good Practice and Academic Misconduct Policy and Procedure, has been expanded to make explicit that copying from texts or web sources and copying work from other students constitutes plagiarism.

“Plagiarism is the act of taking or copying someone else’s work, including another students, and presenting it as if it were your own. Plagiarism is said to occur when ideas, texts, theories, data, created artistic artefacts or other material are presented without acknowledgement so that the person considering this work is given the impression that what they have before them is the student’s own original work when it is not. Plagiarism also occurs where a student’s own work is re-presented without being properly referenced. Plagiarism is a form of cheating and is a disciplinary offence.”

Plagiarism is easy to avoid by making sure you reference all of the sources of material that you use in the completion of your work. Pearson has developed Guidelines on Harvard Referencing which are available in Academic Support Area for Students on Moodle (VLE) as well as on respective unit pages.

If you are concerned about referencing techniques, please draw the matter to your Unit Lecturer or Academic Support Team on academicsupport@globalbanking.ac.uk so that you may receive extra advice.

Group coursework may be designed so that the contribution of each student is identifiable, but inclusion of plagiarised material is still the responsibility of the whole group. All members of the group should exercise vigilance to ensure that work is properly referenced; in group- work, students have a shared responsibility for the assignment.