Thursday, September 29, 2011

Getting Geared Up and Ready to Launch

First, I completely understand the difficulty caused by wavering in trying to move forward for thesis work. However, I feel confident in the two proposals listed below can steer me in a direction for completing the graduate program AND serve as a valuable asset for my future ambitions. I appreciate the continued patience during your strenuous workloads and assignments!

An example of a simplistic, but powerful, example of meaningful research from Dr. Stoner during a discussion last night caused much thought and contemplation as I am in the verge of jumping into a hammering out my thesis research. Also weighing on my mind, is the availability I will have over the next several months to devote to normal studies and thesis along with work, family, and sleep somewhere in the middle. Currently, my family and I have planned to allow for at least a year between graduate school and beginning a PhD. During that time, I hope to put some effort into nurseacademia.com and work on getting published.

Meanwhile, I am contemplating between two separate ideas. The first dwells upon revamping alumni survey efforts and data analysis for significance. This purpose will be to investigate selected demographic factors having an affect on time between graduation and first RN job. The underlying purpose would be that it would serve a compact and great study for familiarizing myself with the mechanics and statistics involved. Second, would look at asynchronous communication between a nurse (or nursing student) and an EHR system. The purpose would be to find a trend between information decay and delayed charting (see below for more brainstorming).


Thoughts after discussion with Marilyn.....

This morning, I thought of an idea that could serve as a precursor to our bigger research study which could be a awesome if we could do between graduate school and phd for publication. I think that would allow more time for proper development of all systems involved...???

What if I could go around a hospital in a day, or maybe three hospitals over three days, and simply ask a nurse the following questions
  • BSN vs ADN
  • Years licensed?
  • Shift assessment done when?
  • Charted when?
  • Did you use a paper between action and charting for notes?
The purpose would be two fold. To first  measure the common time between action and documentation, second difference in between BSN and ADN. I know that it would be an interruption for the questions themselves but it could be supportive to arguing time lapsed decay of information. Literature tends to lean towards a similar concept solely focusing on medication administration.

Friday, September 23, 2011

Fall Portfolio Meeting

Added rough draft of Fall Portfolio to DropBox folder. Will continue to update as we move along.

Still need to schedule a session to meet with Marilyn to discuss initial visit.

Versant Data Query

Spoke with Crystal at Versant again today. Getting closer to understanding what it is I am looking for in their database. She is requesting a brief summary of the proposed project with specifics as soon as possible.

Items needed
  • Interested in: Length of time between graduation and hire dates of rn residents compared to respondents of local (my) survey.
  • Variables: Who they are
    • age
    • sex
    • ethnicity
  • Sample list of data I intend  to collect from my own survey
  • Hypothesis
  • Purpose
They don't need IRB approval to approve the release, just the above to keep the wheels moving forward. A disclosure agreement may be necessary with anyone who might have access to raw data from Versant.

Graduate Equity Fellowship

Over the summer, I was accepted for the Graduate Equity Fellowship. Participating in the program will help to propel my education into a PhD program upon completion of the MSN program at CSUSB. Dr. Marilyn Stoner has accepted to help offer suggestions and guide me through the required projects. A timeline below has been proposed and may change as needed.
  • Fall 2011 - Due October 14, 2011
    • Report #1 - Initial Faculty Discussion
    • Report #2 - Familiarizing with research
  • Winter 2012 - Due January 9, 2012
    • Report #3 - IRB Proposal
    • Report #4 - Schools of Interest
  • Spring 2012 - Due April 2, 2012
    • Report #5 - Admission Requirements
    • Self Study Essay