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
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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
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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):
- Description of the intervention(s) in sufficient detail that others could reproduce it
- Specifics of the team involved in the work
- Study of the intervention(s):
- Approach chosen for assessing the impact of the intervention(s)
- Approach used to establish whether the observed outcomes were due to the intervention(s)
- Measures:
- Measures chosen for studying processes and outcomes of the intervention(s), including rationale for choosing them, their operational definitions, and their validity and reliability
- Description of the approach to the ongoing assessment of contextual elements that contributed to the success, failure, efficiency, and cost
- Methods employed for assessing completeness and accuracy of data
- Analysis
- Qualitative and quantitative methods used to draw inferences from the data
- 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
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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
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Results
- Results
- 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
- Details of the process measures and outcome
- Contextual elements that interacted with the intervention(s)
- Observed associations between outcomes, interventions, and relevant contextual elements
- Unintended consequences such as unexpected benefits, problems, failures, or costs associated with the intervention(s).
- Details about missing data
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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)
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Discussion
- Summary
- Key findings, including relevance to the rationale and specific aims
- Particular strengths of the project
- Interpretation
- Nature of the association between the intervention(s) and the outcomes
- Comparison of results with findings from other publications
- Impact of the project on people and systems
- Reasons for any differences between observed and anticipated outcomes, including the influence of context
- Costs and strategic trade-offs, including opportunity costs
- Limitations
- Limits to the generalizability of the work
- Factors that might have limited internal validity such as confounding, bias, or imprecision in the 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 and for further study in the field
- 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:
- limits to the generalizability of the work, and
- 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
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Other information
- Funding - Sources of funding that supported this work. Role, if any, of the funding organization in the design, implementation, interpretation, and reporting
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