The research proposal (3000 words)
Summary:
The first assignment for this module is the submission of a 3000 word proposal that will be used as the basis for your healthcare leadership case study.
The proposal may be framed around three key questions as follows:
What was the aim of your actions and those of others? (What did you do and what were you, your team or your organisation seeking to achieve?)
What happened? (How do you know what happened? What impact did your actions have and what evidence can you gather to consider this?)
What was the learning? (For you, your team and your service), and how was this learning used?
The proposal and subsequent research provides you with an opportunity to reflect on and evaluate the impact of your learning and the developmental or behavioural changes that you brought about in practice. Some of the case study may be retrospective, particularly in providing an account of context, but the case study should have a significant element of prospective enquiry.
Evaluations of impact and learning should be systemic – related to yourself, your team or colleagues and the service – and should reflect the golden threads that underpin the programme in relation to patient experience, care quality and equality and diversity. We would expect that links are made with all of these threads although you may emphasise one or two more than others, depending on the focus of your case study.
As there are likely to be many areas of learning and change that have taken place in the last 15 months, you will need to focus down on some specific aspects of learning and impact, rather than provide a broad account. However, there should be a clear justification for your focus.
In addition, your proposal should show how you intend to develop a critical and reflexive account of leadership and impact, and not just a description or rationalisation of what happened. A critical account does not mean a ‘negative’ one, rather it means that you should consider issues as objectively as possible, from different perspectives. A reflexive account recognises that you are both the researcher and one of the objects of the research.
Writing your research proposal
Throughout module seven you will develop your ideas for your research – looking at possible questions, clarifying the perspective you will adopt and consider what methods of data collection you will use. As you proceed through the module you will draft various sections of your proposal that you can go on to develop as part of the formal research proposal document.
Think of your research proposal as a plan of action that covers the key stages in the research process. The purpose of the proposal is to explain and to justify your research plan to your peers in your action learning set, to your colleagues at work, to your tutor and to the R&D ethics committee, if that is a requirement. The plan should be feasible within the timeframe and the resources available.
The structure of the research proposal
The research proposal should be structured as set out in this template. This is a suggested template, although depending on the specific nature of your proposed work you may wish to include some additional headings. The suggested length of each section is also intended to give you an idea of how to allocate words across the whole of the proposal and is a guide rather than a prescription.
The critical assignment will need to be uploaded onto Turnitin.