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HSM 4410: Research Methods for Health Services (Assignment)

This guide provides a comprehensive look at resources that support the Health Services Research Methods course

Assignments from Different Sections of this Course

Please check with your own professor. Current sections may not be using this assignment. 

SUBJECT: Identify what aspect of health care interests you. It might be a disease, such as diabetes; a treatment process, such as robotic surgery; or a management process, such as electronic health records. Some aspect of health care that has made significant progress in recent years.

ASSIGNMENT: Find and discuss current (no older than 5 years) research, discoveries, treatments, diagnostic tests, clinical trial results, etc. on your topic of interest. 

GRADING:  

Content Quality. This paper should elevate the reader’s knowledge of your topic in a clear manner. Your paper should discuss:

  • The basis for the new information (why did they do this or look into this)
  • How it was researched and confirmed (what did the researchers do to test their theory or product to assure it will do what they claim)
  • Current status or implementation in the United States (is it the new standard of care? are only some physicians supporting it? If so, what percentage of professionals are using it? Has it received FDA approval?)
  • Your conclusions on the benefits or lack of benefit for this new addition to our health care arsenal

 Format

  • Minimum of Five (5) pages [not including cover page and reference page(s)]
  • Microsoft Word software application must be used to create the document.
  • Times New Roman font, 12 point, double-spaced; one inch and a quarter (1.25”) margins maximum are to be used: top, bottom, left, and right
  • Proper grammar and spelling (US English)
  • Page numbers should be shown in the upper right corner header
  • Paper must begin with an introduction and end with a summary
  • Must follow APA format. Cover page must include paper title, course code and title, instructor’s name, student’s name, and date submitted.

References   

A minimum of three credible references, in addition to your course textbook, must be presented on a separate reference page, correlating to the proper APA format citations within the paper’s body.  Appropriate references include: textbooks; articles from library databases; US government [.gov] and professional [.org] websites; interviews with current working health care professionals; etc. 

Please check with your own professor. Current sections may not be using this assignment. 

The research paper and presentation, are worth 30% of your final grade - 15% for the final written paper and 15% for the presentation.  This assignment description is only a brief summary. Look in Canvas to see the full requirements for this project.

HSM 4410 Research Paper

Select an area of research that interests you, the more specific the better. Some examples of interest could be:

  • Alzheimer’s Disease
  • Multiple Sclerosis
  • The lived experience of minority groups such as LGBT college students
  • Diabetes development in Latino or Caribbean populations,
  • Health Disparities affecting African-American patients

You should select a topic for which you will be finding research based upon what interests you, however your selection MUST be approved by the professor as no two projects can be alike. 

The final paper should elevate the reader’s knowledge of your topic in a clear manner. Your paper should discuss:

  • the basis for the new information (why did they do this or look into this)
  • how it was researched and confirmed (what did the researchers do to test their theory or product to assure it will do what they claim)
  • current status or implementation in the United States (is it the new standard of care? are only some physicians supporting it? If so, what percentage are using it.)
  • your conclusions on the benefits or lack of benefit for this new addition to our health care arsenal

Then you will prepare a presentation, such as s slideshow, on the results of your research. This will be uploaded to the week 13 discussion board (for online sections) or presented in class during week 13 and 14.

The Discussion Boards for weeks 3-10 will require finding articles that demonstrate different types of research. For your weekly posts, try to find studies or articles that pertain to YOUR final paper research topic. Keep your discussion board posts and citations in a safe place in one document. By week 11 you can write your paper using all the sources you found in the prior weeks. You will already have done research for your final paper while learning the vocabulary of research in health services and while learning how to do excellent research yourself.