Online Course

NDNP 813 - DNP Project Evaluation and Dissemination

Module 4: DNP Project Manuscript

Squire Guidelines

The format for the DNP Project manuscript is based on the SQUIRE (Standards for QUality Improvement Reporting Excellence) guidelines. The SQUIRE guidelines provide a framework for reporting in manuscripts new knowledge about how to improve health care. While you should consider every SQUIRE item listed in the table below in the left column, it only necessary to address the items listed in the right column for the DNP project manuscript.

SQUIRE Guidelines
(Ogrinc et al., J Nurs Care Qual, 2015)
DNP Project Manuscript
Required Format
Title - Indicate that the manuscript concerns an initiative to improve health care (broadly defined to include the quality, safety, effectiveness, patient-centeredness, timeliness, cost, efficiency, and equity of health care Title
Abstract
  • Provide adequate information to aid in searching and indexing
  • Summarize all key information from various sections of the text using the abstract format of the intended publication or a structured summary such as background, local problem, methods, interventions, results, conclusions
Abstract
Introduction
  • Problem description - Nature and significance of the local problem
  • Available knowledge - Summary of what is currently known about the problem, including relevant previous studies
  • Rationale - Informal or formal frameworks, models, concepts, and/or theories used to explain the problem, any reasons or assumptions that were used to develop the intervention(s), and reasons why the intervention(s) was expected to work
  • Specific aims - Purpose of the project and of this report

Introduction

  • Background and Significance of the Problem
  • Purpose statement
  • Potential long- and short-term goals

Literature Review

Theoretical framework

Methods
  • Context -Contextual elements considered important at the outset of introducing the intervention(s)
  • Intervention(s):
    1. Description of the intervention(s) in sufficient detail that others could reproduce it
    2. Specifics of the team involved in the work
  • Study of the intervention(s):
    1. Approach chosen for assessing the impact of the intervention(s)
    2. Approach used to establish whether the observed outcomes were due to the intervention(s)
  • Measures:
    1. Measures chosen for studying processes and outcomes of the intervention(s), including rationale for choosing them, their operational definitions, and their validity and reliability
    2. Description of the approach to the ongoing assessment of contextual elements that contributed to the success, failure, efficiency, and cost
    3. Methods employed for assessing completeness and accuracy of data
  • Analysis
    1. Qualitative and quantitative methods used to draw inferences from the data
    2. Methods for understanding variation within the data, including the effects of time as a variable
  • Ethical considerations - Ethical aspects of implementing and studying the intervention(s) and how they were addressed, including, but not limited to, formal ethics review and potential conflict(s) of interest
Methods
  • Description of project, sample, setting
  • Procedures and timeline plan
  • Data collection plan
  • Data analysis plan
  • Measures to protect human rights
  • Plans for sustainability of project
Results
  • Results
    1. Initial steps of the intervention(s) and their evolution over time (e.g., time line diagram, flowchart, or table), including modifications made to the intervention during the project
    2. Details of the process measures and outcome
    3. Contextual elements that interacted with the intervention(s)
    4. Observed associations between outcomes, interventions, and relevant contextual elements
    5. Unintended consequences such as unexpected benefits, problems, failures, or costs associated with the intervention(s).
    6. Details about missing data
Results
  • report of changes in practices that were made (structures and processes)
  • description of the results of the data analysis and outcomes
  • observed associations between outcomes, interventions, and relevant
  • contextual elements
  • unintended consequences such as unexpected benefits, facilitators, barriers, problems, failures, or costs encountered and associated with the intervention(s)
Discussion
  • Summary
    1. Key findings, including relevance to the rationale and specific aims
    2. Particular strengths of the project
  • Interpretation
    1. Nature of the association between the intervention(s) and the outcomes
    2. Comparison of results with findings from other publications
    3. Impact of the project on people and systems
    4. Reasons for any differences between observed and anticipated outcomes, including the influence of context
    5. Costs and strategic trade-offs, including opportunity costs
  • Limitations
    1. Limits to the generalizability of the work
    2. Factors that might have limited internal validity such as confounding, bias, or imprecision in the design, methods, measurement, or analysis
    3. Efforts made to minimize and adjust for limitations
  • Conclusions
    1. Usefulness of the work
    2. Sustainability
    3. Potential for spread to other contexts
    4. Implications for practice and for further study in the field
    5. Suggested next steps
Discussion
  • Interpretation or nature of the association between the intervention(s) and the outcomes
  • Comparison of results with findings from other publications
  • Reasons for any differences between observed and anticipated outcomes, including the influence of context
  • Strengths of the project
  • Limitations:
    1. limits to the generalizability of the work, and
    2. factors that might have limited internal validity such as bias or imprecision in the project design, methods, measurement, or analysis
  • Efforts made to minimize and adjust for limitations
Conclusions
  • Usefulness of the work
  • Sustainability
  • Potential for spread to other contexts
  • Implications for practice, future QI projects, and education
  • Suggested next steps
Other information
  • Funding - Sources of funding that supported this work. Role, if any, of the funding organization in the design, implementation, interpretation, and reporting
 

Source: Ogrinc, G., Davies, L., Goodman, D., Batalden, P., & Davidoff, F. (2015). SQUIRE 2.0 (Standards for Quality Improvement Reporting Excellence): Revised publication guidelines from a detailed consensus process. Journal of Nursing Care Quality, 31(1), 1-8. doi:10.7812/TPP/15-141  Retrieved from http://journals.lww.com/jncqjournal/Fulltext/2016/‌01000/‍SQUIRE_
2_0__Standards_for_QUality_Improvement.1.aspx

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