Task description
Create a case study in the form of a project plan (approximately 3000 words) which plans an innovation in chronic disease prevention or management in an Australian primary health care setting (e.g. in a remote community or metropolitan region) and explore how you anticipate it will improve health outcomes.
Choose from a range of chronic illnesses (or choose your own) such as:
Renal disease;
Type 2 Diabetes
Childhood obesity
Cardiovascular disease (not rheumatic heart disease)
Chronic ear infection
STIs perhaps chlamydia
Peer and academic support for this project
In the professional world, a task like this would rarely be undertaken alone.
Students are encouraged to work together in groups focused around a condition and group forums will be provided for you to engage each other within. Within these forums, or other forums which you yourself establish, you may share researching responsibilities, exchange drafts and post comments for consideration and constructive feedback. Students may work on the same project together but each submission must be unique and in the student’s own words. The Safe Assignment anti-plagiarism tool is used to enforce this. If you discover that a group member has plagiarized your work, please contact your lecturer with details.
You are encouraged to provide specific, honest, tactful and well-considered feedback to your classmates as well as learning from them. Group members retain the right to vote someone out of the group for unprofessional conduct or non-participation. If this becomes necessary, please contact your lecturer by email and ballot will be created.
There are no marks for this group work and it is completely voluntary.
Project (case study) Plan
The case study (project plan) should be structured as follows:
Introduction (no more than 250 words)
Brief statement of the background and what prompted you to design the planned initiative
Statement of the needs or problem that will be addressed
Explain why this topic is important to the health of the ‘target group’ as well as all Australians
Indicate the scope of the project (range and boundaries) and how it will develop
Literature review (1200 words) the purpose of which is to:
establish a theoretical framework for your topic / subject area
define key terms, definitions and terminology
identify studies, models, case studies etc supporting your topic
define/establish your area of interest, ie your chosen topic.
The literature review should reflect your scholarship and show evidence of a thorough literature search of the topic, including reference to external benchmarks and related outcome measures (projects of a similar nature). You should draw upon data taken peer-reviewed journal articles (at least five to ten) which are less than 10 years old, as well as literature, published reports and any other information that supports your innovation. Cite sufficient current and past literature to put your project into a meaningful context that shows how your project will ‘fill a demonstrated ‘gap’ and that it is worthwhile. To do this you will probably need to review about 10-20 articles, reports etc. All these documents must be primary sources (not text books, dictionaries, study guides, Wikipedia etc). The exception is the pathophysiology section where you may consult texts. Make sure you briefly describe the epidemiology of the chronic disease in the region you are addressing, the morbidity and mortality due to the disease, and the health, and economic impact of the disease. Describe the ways your proposal will have a positive effect on the control of the disease (problem).
Good literature reviews are well-researched with a sound line of reasoning, supported from the literature or other sources where appropriate. The writer’s voice and perspective are clearly evident, even if the discussion is largely based on source material. All content should relate to and support the central argument. The discussion follows the most logical order for the nature of the topic (e.g., by importance, chronologically, stages in a process). Structurally, the discussion is based on a series of paragraphs. Each paragraph should develop the central idea, adding to, and advancing, the central argument. Every paragraph should have a topic sentence that expresses the central idea of the paragraph. All ideas should link cohesively, rather than appear as isolated units. The last sentence of each paragraph should link the reader from one point to the next in a logical fashion. The literature review ends with a conclusion which identifies what is known and what is unknown. This statement leads into the next section.
Project Proposal (300 words)
Problem Statement – clear, concise statement of the problem to be solved by the proposed project, in no more than two or three sentences. Make sure that you BRIEFLY comment on:
Who is affected by the problem?
What are the causes of the problem?
When does the problem occur?
Where does the problem occur?
What is the impact of the problem i.e. lower life expectancy, infertility, hearing loss, heart disease (coronary, stroke)
Aims and Objectives – broad and general statements of intent, and should inform the reader of the overall purpose of the project. Objectives, on the other hand, are more focused and indicate the outcomes you hope to achieve. They are concise descriptions of what your project is intended to achieve They are characterised by being:
S pecific: detail about particular aspects of expectations
M eaningful: in language that is understandable to teachers & students
A ppropriate: ‘fit for purpose’ – suit learners and satisfy standards
R ealistic: given time constraints, resources etc.
T estable: some measure of progress/achievement of them can be made
Examples of a well written objective are to – such as “Reduce the prevalence of otitis media in Indigenous children (< 2 years of age) living in central Australia from 80% to 10% in five years” or “Reduce the prevalence of low birth weight infants (<1500g) from 200 per 1000 live births to 130 per 1000 live births in five years”
Project Design and Implementation (300 words).
This is the “nitty-gritty” of the project. This section should say who is going to do what, where, how they are going to do it, when they are going to do it and the human and physical resources required for each objective. Include the length of time required to complete each phase of your program.
Expected Outcomes and Evaluation (200 words).
Evaluation should be an ongoing component of your program. Describe how you will collect data on your program’s outcomes, how often it will be collected and who by.
Dissemination (250 words).
State how your findings will be disseminated to key stakeholder so that they reach its target groups
Implications (250 words).
Describe the future implications for providers, consumers, and the rest of the Australian health system should the initiative be successful
Conclusion (250 words)
In your introduction you tell the reader where your discussion is heading and in the conclusion you tell them where you will arrive. The conclusion should be a concise one or two paragraph summary, and as with the introduction no more than one-tenth of the overall word count. The conclusion does not usually include information not covered in the discussion, but it might be appropriate to mention areas that could have been addressed in your project plan but were outside its scope or if further investigation would be useful
Reference list (separate page)
All the sources of ideas or information used in an assignment need to be acknowledged in the body of the assignment, and in an alphabetical list at the end of the assignment using the CDU Harvard Referencing system.
Assessment criteria
The assignment will be assessed according the following criteria (a rubric will be attached rubric in Assessments):
Description of the selected innovation and how it relates to the chronic illness model in a primary health care setting.
Critical analysis of peer-reviewed and evidence-based literature analysing its anticipated performance with a comparison with other services or programs and the factors contributing to good or poor outcomes.
Project plan
Analysis of the implications for consumers, health workers and the health system.
Identification of anticipated opportunities and recommendations for change.
Overall quality of expression (communication of ideas).
Presentation of the assignment
White single sided A4 paper;
Font 12pt Arial or Times Roman
1.5 spacing
Margins 1.5 cm (left, right, top and bottom)
Header: put your student number in the header of each page
Footer : put the page number, student name and ID in the footer of each page Ensure that spelling and expression are correct
Referencing – in and end text must be according to CDU Harvard
