31 Jan Project Topic Selection

NHS8050 Preparing for the Professional Doctorate in Nursing and Health Sciences

Unit 3 Assignment

Project Topic Selection

Note: Please complete the discussion in this unit before completing this assignment.

The purpose of the project in this course is to evaluate a possible professional doctoral project topic that could be used to complete your doctoral studies. This project will help you assess the worthiness of a chosen topic; assist with developing literature search strategies to investigate the topic; provide practice in evaluating, analyzing, synthesizing, and applying credible literature to your topic idea; and build your capacity to think critically and develop and write a scholarly critical review of the literature.

This assignment focuses on picking the topic for your course project. You will pick a topic that explores a gap in practice, process, or policy, or an opportunity for improvement. The topic you select should be related to a current process or practice issue in your field of study. To help address that gap or opportunity, in the later activities in this course, you will use a critical review of the literature.

To choose your topic, consider your own doctoral program. Discuss possible process issues, practice gaps, or opportunities for improvement that your organization (or possible sponsoring organization) may have that are worthy of a doctoral project.

You may review the SNHS Doctoral Project Prospectus (DPP) in preparation for the assignment. To download the prospectus, visit the Doctoral Capstone page (link given in the resources) and scroll down and click Doctoral Project Prospectus (DPP) under Capstone General Resources.

For this assignment:

Identify a researchable clinical (DNP), process, or policy (DHA and DrPH) project topic that you will work on throughout this course. The topic you select must meet the approval of your instructor.

Describe the topic and justify why this topic is important to your field of study.

Explain how this topic is appropriate for a professional doctoral project as opposed to a PhD research project.

Examine how a project related to the selected topic can be completed within the constraints of the professional doctoral program.

Identify at least one organization within your community or professional realm that would benefit from the type of scholarly work an investigation of this topic would provide.

Here are some examples of possible topics:

In the DNP program, a critical review of the literature might ask the question: What evidence supports the use of a stewardship model to reduce overprescribing of antibiotics?

In the DrPH program, a critical review of the literature might ask: What evidence is available related to decreasing teen pregnancies?

In the DHA program, a critical review of the literature might ask: What evidence is available related to the integration of meaningful use in electronic health records for rural hospitals?