Goal: To identify the method that you will use to collect data and analyze your DNP project.
Task: 1) Organize and write the Methods section for your DNP Project: include the following sections: Research Design, Setting, Population, Study Plan, Instruments.
Write your PICOT question at the top of the page – include the following topics. Do NOT write the question in your paper. Just explain each section in a paragraph, or a few sentences. Also use headings to separate different areas of the paper.
1. Project Design: this is the first paragraph. Briefly in 2-3 sentences describe the study design that you will be using. (hint: quantitative, and/or qualitative are NOT research design if it is a quantitative study what type? If it is a qualitative study, what type?)
2. Setting: Briefly explain where will your Project take place. Will it be in a hospital, a clinic, the community, etc. Rural, urban, suburban?
Describe the type of setting i.e. public, private. How many patients are seen there and if in a hospital & what section of the hospital, etc. Anything else that will explain the context of the site. But ONLY the site.
3. Population: Who will be sampled for your Project? Identify age, sex, race, economic status. Disease status. Inclusion and exclusion criteria. How many people will you recruit for your study?
4. Interventions: if you are planning an intervention, explain it here. ONLY the intervention. Describe in detail your intervention. Who will implement it, who will take part, what will be done, how long it will take, etc. If there is NO intervention, just write N/A
5. Study Plan: This is a step by step plan that explains everything that you will do in the study. Be sure to include:
a) recruit subjects (how will you do this?)
b) consent subjects (how will this be done?)
c) explain what will happen next? what will they do? Take a pretest, be counseled, take a new medication, do a new exercise. Or what will you do? review charts?
1) if there is an intervention planned, although you explained it in detail above: here you need to explain where and how it will fit into the study. For example, how often will they do it, for how long and how many times will each subject have to do it?
d) next what will you do? How will you record what you have done for this study? if it is a chart review, who will pull the charts, where will you the data?
6. Outcomes/ sometimes this section is called “Instruments”. (every concept that you intend to measure should be included in your PICOT question or in one of your objectives)
a) what will you measure and how? (what is the name of the tool/instrument/survey that you will use; how often will you measure pre/post test, or only one assessment, etc.?
b) how long will it take for a subject to complete the tool? how many questions on each tool?
c) find the validity and reliability of the research tool and try to find articles that have used this measurement with a population that is similar to yours cite them in this section (hint: not all tools have validity and reliability data- if yours does not, then state that.)
In general, each section will be approximately 1-2 paragraphs, EXCEPT for the Study Plan which could be one page or longer depending on what you will have the subjects do
