AS6-04-23 MCAST Research Methods in Nursing, RMN2 Individual Assignment

Carefully read the following information before you complete and submit your work. 

1.This assignment shall follow the guidelines as per document ‘Academic Integrity Policy & Regulations’, document no: 099, found at https://www.mcast.edu.mt/wp-content/uploads/DOC_099__CORP_REV_C_ACADEMIC-INTEGRITY-POLICY-AND-PROCEDURE.pdf . 

2.AI-generated content:

a.AI tools should be used responsibly to enhance your learning and not replace critical engagement with the material as per document ‘MCAST policy on the proper and ethical is of AI systems’, document no: 066, found at https://mcast.edu.mt/wp-content/uploads/DOC_066_CORP_REV-A_MCAST-POLICY-ON-THE-SAFE-AND-ETHICAL-USE-OF-AI.pdf. 
b.You can use AI tools to support your writing no more than four times within the assignment. This may include paraphrasing AI-generated content; however, such material must be clearly cited in accordance with the APA guidance. In such instances, the work must be critically analysed and evaluated to demonstrate your own understanding and academic judgment. 
c.A sound justification is required when using an AI tool to brainstorm or paraphrase your work. If you use AI-generated content for such instances, you will need to present evidence on how it was used. Marks will be deducted if you do not present the justification.
d.You cannot rely solely on AI-generated content. You must include relevant citations from other reliable sources of information, such as books and articles.

3.Your work will also need to follow the academic style as suggested by APA guidelines for formatting, referencing and presentation of work. Some general rules include that fonts should be either Arial, font size 11 or Times New Roman, font size 12; left-alignment page presentation; the assignment should be double-spaced for the main body of the assignment, whilst 1.5 spacing for the reference list; and an alphabetical order for the reference list with no underlining, numbers or bullet points. 

4.In-text citations are not included in the final word count. 

5.A brief description of what is expected is provided for each question. Make sure that you have read what is required from you before completing the work. 

6.When the phrase ‘no more than …’ appears, it does not require that you use all the words.

7.It is important to note that the questions may ask for additional material. Be vigilant, and make sure you have completed every aspect of the question. 

8.Make sure that you READ and UNDERSTAND THE MATERIAL. 

9.Marks per acronym: K&U: 5 marks; A&A: 7 marks; S&E: 10 marks. 

Believe in yourself and you can do it. 

Good luck, 

Dr Marcia Gafa’

Learning Outcome 4.1: Outline the rationale for proposing a scoping review together with a research question. (A&A).
 
1.In no more than 350 words, select a topic of interest and provide a rationale for selecting this topic. (5.5 marks)

(You have to select a topic and give justification why you choose it)
Additional instructions to answer question 1. 

• The rationale is a reason or justification as to why you think that this topic requires further study. (3.5 marks)
• You will need to establish a link between your rationale and nursing practice. (1 marks)
• It is preferable that in your rationale you cite information from local sources before citing material from European sources or material coming from outside of Europe. 
• It is preferable that in your rationale you use statistical information as this gives further context to understanding the topic. However, there may be rationales where no statistical information can be used.
• You will need to support you work with a minimum of four in-text citations (1 mark). These citations can include any RELIABE sources of information such as local sources, NICE guidelines, WHO documents, EU documents, or any other documents and articles.

2.Write a research question. (1.5 mark)

(after write your rational you need to include a research question using PCC format)

Additional instructions.

• You will need to include a research question which is based on your rationale. 
• Your research question needs to be clear and focused, using a PCC format. 

Learning outcome 4.2: Articulate a literature search that generates the necessary literature for the research question. (S&E)

3.In no more than 450 words, you will need to search the library and select empirical (primary) research studies that you will use to help answer the research question.  This needs to be presented as a write-up and can include tables to help you present your work. 
Empirical primary research (meaning any from qualitative, quantitative or mix method study only) 
Additional requirements to achieve this learning outcome.

• You will need to select databases (not anything from grey literature, such as from google scholar) where you can find the relevant literature. (1 mark)
• You will need to establish keywords which are relevant to search for articles. (0.5 mark)
• Truncations and synonyms need to be included. (0.5 mark)
• You will need to detail any limiters that were used. (1 mark)
• You will need to devise an inclusion and exclusion criteria and apply these to your search. (1 mark)
• You will need to detail how the search was carried out. You should clearly state: 
  oCarry out an advance search and include the amount of hits/number of results. (0.5 marks)
  oYou should clearly state additional searches where additional limiters/ inclusion and exclusion criteria were included to minimise the number of hits to make the search more manageable. (0.5 marks)
• From your search, you will need to identify at least four articles which you will use to help answer your research question. 
  oThe articles need to be primary research studies; therefore, you need to exclude any systematic reviews, scoping reviews and discussion papers. A full citation of the selected article needs to be included for this part of the assignment (0.25 mark per article = 1 mark). 
  oAim to select four high-quality empirical articles and give a brief justification of their selection. To do this, you will need to use the Rapid Critical Appraisal tool to justify the selected article. This should be done in no more than 50 words for each article. (1 mark per article = 4 marks)

Learning outcome 4.3: Appraise the identified literature which has been generated from the literature search. (S&E) 

4.In no more than 600 words, you will need to provide a consolidated appraisal of the four articles you have selected to answer your research question. 

The 4 articles has to be consolidate (example it has to be like an discussion of comparison of the articles e.g. All 4 articles agrees on this but (Zara et al, 2024) does not apply this application as much as others. DO NOT SAY ARTICLE 1,2,3,4 use in-text citation

You can use a tool like ( POLIT AND BACK BOOK) to help you (optional)

Additional instructions.

• For the scope of this assignment, your appraisal needs to address: 
  oThe objectives of the studies.  (2 marks)
  oThe method of the studies. (4 marks)
  oThe findings and discussion of the studies. (4 marks)
• To carry out the appraisal, you can use the various critical appraisal tools discussed in class or use a nursing research book where there should be a list of questions at the end of a chapter on each of the topics mentioned above that you can use to critically appraise the articles.