Guidance for MBA Students conducting their MBA Projects within School of Health and Social Care
Please use the existing guidance for the MBA project on Moodle for the MBA projects and use this as supplementary guidance.
Conducting a research project in health and social care for a Master’s project can be very time consuming given important ethical and feasibility issues with patients, service users, health and social care professionals. Given the timescales for Master’s projects, this can mean delays to your project. For this reason, you will be guided to conduct a secondary analysis comprising an integrated literature review in the area of health and social care matched to staff expertise within the School of Health and Social Care. Integrated literature reviews ask important research questions from the existing literature and aim to synthesise what is known on the topic. You should be able to make important recommendations for the health and social care sector based on this exercise after a careful analysis of this literature. This guidance is supplementary to the guidance provided for the MBA project. You will be guided to help develop a research question that can be addressed by examining primary qualitative and quantitative research papers in order to make recommendations for the sector. Please see an overview of the School of Health and Social Care:
https://www.napier.ac.uk/about-us/our-schools/the-school-of-health-and-social-care
Our research expertise lies in the following areas and we would be pleased to hear from you if you are considering an MBA project in one of these areas:
https://www.napier.ac.uk/research-and-innovation/research-search/school-centre-area/school-of-health-and-social-care
Population and Public Health: Theme Lead contact Dr Richard Kyle r.kyle@napier.ac.uk
Women, Children and Families: Theme Lead contact Dr Nicola Ring n.ring@napier.ac.uk
Mental Health: Theme Lead Professor contact Austyn Snowden a.snowden@napier.ac.uk
Cardiovascular Health: Theme Lead contact Professor Lis Neubeck l.neubeck@napier.ac.uk
Innovating for Practice: Theme Lead contact Dr Elizabeth McKay e.mckay@napier.ac.uk
Please get in touch at the research outline stage of Research Skills for Managers to help develop and plan your research outline for your integrative literature review at this early stage so that you will be in a strong position to conduct the research proposal and the project.
Essential guidance and the library text book required for this integrative review is: Doing a literature review in health and social care: a practical guide Helen Aveyard, author 4th edition.
https://pmt-eu.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/f/842jqm/ALMA-44NAP_ALMA5183090160002111
The format of your MBA Project will follow the same format as if you were using primary research for writing the Abstract, the Introduction Section, The Research Approach/Methods, The Findings/Critique of the Literature review, Discussion, Conclusion and Recommendations. However please see additional data for guidance on the following chapters:
Research Approach /Methods
In this section you will not have primary results to report. Here you will report on the methods of conducting an integrative literature. You should use references to research methods texts particularly around the use of literature reviews and justify the use of an integrative literature review. An integrative literature uses a systematic search of the literature to find relevant research articles on the research question. You should consult the Specialist librarian from the Business School for this part as this is a skill that requires support. You should design a search strategy detailing which databases were searched, the key words that were used to locate articles and justify these, the limiters used in the search, the inclusion/exclusion criteria used, what type of quality appraisal method was used to inform your judgements about the quality of the individual research articles and a rationale for all decisions made. You should consider using PICO / PEO or another appropriate model to structure your literature review questions and guide your ‘key words’ selection for your database search. This can be presented as a figure in your project. Provide an example of your search of the relevant databases by including a screen shot of one of your searches. Include a PRISMA flowchart to demonstrate how you screened and identified relevant articles and include this as a figure: Please see: http://prisma.thetacollaborative.ca/
• You should include only primary empirical research studies (qualitative / quantitative / mixed-methods studies) which have ideally been published in peer-reviewed journals.
• You should exclude all literature review articles, systematic reviews/meta-analyses, descriptive or discussion studies, opinion pieces etc. (You can include these in your introduction or discussion however).
• You should include, as an appendix, a list of all papers (full citation with links) included in your review.
– You should clearly describe your method for informing your quality appraisal of included papers e.g. CASP or SIGN. http://www.casp-uk.net/#!checklists/cb36, https://www.sign.ac.uk/methodology.html
– You should also use CASP or SIGN tools to help you appraise research studies –
– http://www.casp-uk.net/casp-tools-checklists; https://www.sign.ac.uk/checklists-and-notes.html. Here is additional guidance for analysing qualitative studies:
https://srs-mcmaster.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Guidelines-for-Critical-Review-Form-Qualitative-Studies.pdf
https://www.unisa.edu.au/Global/Health/Sansom/Documents/iCAHE/CATs/McMasters_qualreview_version2%200.pdf
– Please note: you are NOT conducting a ‘systematic review’ – by definition, this involves explicit methods to perform a literature search and quality appraisal and it involves more than one person. You are however, conducting a systematic search of the literature, and you are critically appraising the literature and writing a narrative account of your assessment and conclusions.
– Clarify keywords and concepts related to your research question or area of review now and refer to them as you continue writing the review and discussion.
– Use a glossary of research terms and ensure you can distinguish different types of studies and are able to differentiate them throughout the review.
Findings /Literature Review critique
The findings that you will report here will not be primary findings/results but will be focused on a critique of your selected research articles (10-15 in total is recommended) which meet your review inclusion criteria. You can decide on the order of article summaries and place them one after the other to critique and discuss in detail. In order to this do this process you should:
1. Critically appraise each research article using the critique framework table. This is your data extraction table. Use a critical appraisal tool such as CASP (Step 1) to help you complete the critique framework table. Do not include completed CASP checklists in the dissertation – only the critique framework tables. Put completed critique framework tables (of chosen articles) in the appendix.
2. Write up each of these tables in your literature review section. This involves – including, in your own words, a brief description of each study (e.g. design/methods, sample/population/setting, theoretical basis, data collection, analysis, presentation of results), and a summary of your assessment of the key findings/conclusions. Use your answers to the critical questions in the critique framework tables (see below) to help you highlight strengths and limitations of each study and make links to your literature review question.
The critical appraisal of each paper must include as a minimum your response to the following:
• Is it quantitative or qualitative or mixed methods?
• Is this design appropriate for the research question? Give some explanation of the relevant concepts of their research question so as reader can understand your critical comments.
• What type of sampling has been used?
• Is this appropriate for the chosen research approach? Explain your answer to this
• What methods did they use to collect the data?
• Was this appropriate to the research approach used? Explain why.
• How were the data analysed?
• Was the analysis technique appropriate to the research approach? Explain why.
• Were results clear?
• Did they answer the research question? How?
• How did the researchers address validity & reliability in quantitative studies OR trustworthiness & credibility in qualitative studies? Explain and justify your answer
• What study strengths or limitations have you identified?
• If and how this study relates to your research question
– Your appraisal of each study should focus on your assessment of the strengths and limitations of each research study and implications of their findings for your review question.
– Remember to read the limitations of study section located towards the end of each paper.
– Where relevant, you should compare studies in your review and refer to other wider literature, where relevant, in order to compare or contrast the findings. Remember to provide supporting references.
Discussion
The discussion should be a separate section here. It is usual to critically analyse the results of the integrative literature review in the context of the broader literature and research aims at this point, commenting on their significance in relation to previous work in the same area. Highlighting similarities and differences in your findings with those of other authors would normally be included here.
In addition: You will provide a brief overview of the findings from your critical appraisal of papers. Describe how these findings answer your research question. Conduct a synthesis of the findings from your review, including overall strengths and limitations: This means breaking down the findings and analysing them, then amalgamating (bringing together/building up a picture of the new knowledge) the new themes and important issues that have been revealed from within your findings. Discuss each of these themes and issues in depth, bringing in other relevant literature.
Overall strengths and limitations: You should consider the extent to which your critique of the literature was able to answer your research question and identify any remaining gaps in the evidence.
Conclusions, Recommendations and Reflections
Appropriate conclusions should be drawn from the synthesis of the integrative literature review undertaken (and cross-referenced, as appropriate). These should invariably relate back to your aims/objectives. Recommendations should be clearly specified: these should not consist simply of a series of generalised statements but should contain details of how they might be put into effect.
An element of self-reflection in your personal and professional development should be included (around 500 words). This could link specifically to your MBA project research, but may also incorporate learning from other modules – giving examples (and evidence) of how your learning has impacted on you both personally and professionally are expected. You may also link this to learning styles/models, development needs identified at commencement of the programme, etc.
This chapter would normally conclude with some suggestions for further research along with the implications of the findings for practice and/ or heath or social care policy.
APPENDIX Resources
Library Support
It is important to work with a librarian to help develop skills to conduct this literature review:
Business School Specialist Librarian: Keith Walker k.walker@napier.ac.uk. Look at the library guide here: https://libguides.napier.ac.uk/nubs
School of Health and Social Care Specialist Librarian: Sheena Moffat who you can also consult s.moffat@napier.ac.uk
Please see the library web pages:
https://libguides.napier.ac.uk/shsc
Sheena has highlighted important reading resources for conducting a literature review at master’s level and a useful video on how to do this:
https://napier.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=077d4e14-8169-4ae0-b702-aa7700ea9681&start=18.190249
https://libguides.napier.ac.uk/litrev
Examples of Published Integrative Literature Reviews:
Papadopoulos, & Ali. (2016). Measuring compassion in nurses and other healthcare professionals: An integrative review. Nurse Education in Practice, 16(1), 133-139.
Stewart, & O’Reilly. (2017). Exploring the attitudes, knowledge and beliefs of nurses and midwives of the healthcare needs of the LGBTQ population: An integrative review. Nurse Education Today, 53, 67-77.
Lewis, Neville, & Ashkanasy. (2017). Emotional intelligence and affective events in nurse education: A narrative review. Nurse Education Today, 53, 34-40.
*PICO
P Population/patient/problem
I Intervention/exposure
C Control/Comparison
O Outcome/s
*PEF (qualitative research review)
P Population
E Experience/Phenomenon
F Focus
Critique Framework Table for each of your research articles
Category Summary points Critique
(strengths and limitations) Implications for policy, practice and research
Research Design
Descriptive questions
Why was this study conducted?
Aim of study?
Design – Is it quantitative or qualitative or mixed methods?
In quantitative studies what is the intervention and control group?
Who delivered the intervention and what did it involve?
Critical questions
Is it quantitative or qualitative or mixed methods?
Is this design appropriate for the research question?
Sample / population
Descriptive questions
Setting of study?
Recruitment strategy?
Sample size and justification? E.g. power calculation?
Characteristics of participants?
Who was excluded from the study?
Critical questions
What type of sampling has been used?
Is this appropriate for the chosen research approach?
Data collection
Descriptive questions
Qualitative – semi-structured interviews or focus groups or observation?
Quantitative – what measures were used?
Who completed the measures?
When were the measures administered?
Did any participants drop out?
Length of follow-up?
Critical questions
What methods did they use to collect the data?
Was this appropriate to the research approach used?
Analysis
Descriptive questions
How was the data analysed?
Who analysed the data?
Was the analytic process transparent?
If quantitative – what statistical tests were used?
Could it be easily replicated?
Critical questions
How were the data analysed?
Was the analysis technique appropriate to the research approach?
Results
Descriptive questions
What were the main findings?
Include themes for qualitative study or ‘significant’ and non-significant results for quantitative study.
Critical questions
How were results reported?
Were they clear?
Did they answer the research question?
Rigour
Validity & reliability in quantitative studies OR
Trustworthiness & credibility in qualitative studies
Critical question
How did the researchers ensure these?
Ethical considerations
Descriptive questions
Was the study granted ethical approval?
Did the researchers ensure informed consent, anonymity/confidentiality for the participants?
Discussion
Descriptive questions
Did the authors discuss the results taking into consideration the findings of previous research on the same topic?
Strengths & limitations
Descriptive questions
Did the authors identify any strengths or limitations?
NOTES