units

OCC3041

Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences

18 September 2017 25 November 2024
Monash University

Undergraduate - Unit

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2015 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 2, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

LevelUndergraduate
FacultyFaculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences
Organisational UnitDepartment of Occupational Therapy
Monash Passport categoryResearch Challenge (Investigate Program)
OfferedPeninsula First semester 2015 (Day)
Coordinator(s)Associate Professor Ted Brown

Synopsis

This unit gives students an advanced overview of the skills necessary to critique and evaluate research evidence. Students will be introduced to the methodology related to conducting survey questionnaire based research (quantitative research methodology) and focus group and semi-structured interviews (qualitative methodology). This will provide the foundation to integrate clinically relevant evidence into daily professional practice as well as skills to be able answer clinical questions. Components of evidence-based practice in occupational therapy will be introduced and practiced. Students will also be introduced to methods of presenting evidence, generating research questions, selecting appropriate quantitative and qualitative research designs, completing data analysis and interpreting data analysis results. Specifically, students will learn the fundamentals of conducting survey questionnaire based research from quantitative perspective and qualitative research using focus group and semi-structured interview methods. This knowledge will enable students to be evidence-based practitioners

Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

  1. demonstrate an advanced understanding of the levels of evidence for evidence-based practice;
  2. demonstrate ability to critique ways all levels of evidence
  3. identify gaps in intervention practice knowledge, develop a researchable clinical intervention research question and search databases for best evidence to support practice;
  4. demonstrate ability to find relevant evidence using a variety of formal and informal methods (e.g. health science databases, Internet);
  5. demonstrate ability to select, appraise and/or design questionnaires/scales used to gather data;
  6. demonstrate comprehensive knowledge of survey research methodology;
  7. demonstrate knowledge of qualitative research methodology and the ability to design and conduct qualitative data gathering methods such as focus group or semi-structured interviews;
  8. demonstrate knowledge of quantitative and qualitative data analysis methods; and
  9. demonstrate knowledge of ethical issues related to conducting research in professional practice.

Assessment

Summative tasks:
Report (3,500 words) (7000 words if completed in pairs; 10,000 words if completed in three-person group) (60%)
Short answer test #1 (1 hour) (20%)
Short answer test #2 (1 hour) (20%)

Hurdle tasks:
Attendance at 100% of tutorials, practical skills sessions and seminars, unless a medical certificate is provided.
Development of mixed-methods survey questionnaire.
Gathering data using mixed-methods survey questionnaire and analysing it.
Completion of review test questions in tutorial sessions & online.

Workload requirements

Lecture component: 2 hours per week, Tutorial/Practicum component: 2 hours per week, Private study: 4 hours per week.

See also Unit timetable information

Chief examiner(s)

Associate Professor Ted Brown

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Occupational therapy

Prerequisites

OCC2022.