Proposal of how communication is inherent in specific health care area
Each student will propose a topic for your final paper exploring how communication is inherent in specific health care area (example: the role of patient-provider communication and medication adherence among individuals living with HIV). The proposal should focus on a specific health topic that is narrowly focused. Focusing on a problem in your own city or locality will be beneficial but is not required. Proposals should be about 1.5 to 2 pages long. 25 points.
Due March 11, in the dropbox, by 11:55 pm
Your topic can be anything related to health, illness, health policy, health laws, veterinary health, mental health, etc. You can address mental or physical health, injury, chronic illness, etc. You can also focus on animal health, which I would love to see, if anyone is interested. An example could be the stigma attached to dogs who are of the “bully breeds” and the resulting negative treatment they experience. Another could be the role of communication in convincing owners of the need to neuter or spay their pets. The concept of stigma is a communication issue and could be explored in a variety settings, including mental health, HIV/AIDS, sickle cell disease, physical or cognitive disabilities, and many others.
Example topics:
- The role of patient-provider communication in medication adherence among individuals living with HIV.
- The role of communication in direct-to-consumer advertising and patient’s medication decisions.
- The role of communication in the struggle that sickle cell patients experience when seeking treatment for pain in the emergency department.
BE CREATIVE! BE SPECIFIC! Note that all of these examples begin with “the role of communication in…” Follow that example.
Proposals should address the following points:
Introduction:
Introduce the topic and say whether it is a local, state, or national issue. For example, adherence to HIV medication is a world-wide problem. But you could explain that you are focusing on one location, perhaps Memphis, or perhaps Kenya, or anywhere else, with its own unique culture and challenges. Explain why you picked this topic. Why does it matter to you?
Background:
What is the health communication problem? Give evidence from at least two sources from the health communication literature about the severity of the problem, how far it reaches, what the consequences are, and what has already been done to alleviate it. What are the stakes if the communication problem is not addressed? Who are the stakeholders involved in this communication problem? For example, in the communication around cystic fibrosis care, the stakeholders would be the patient, his or her parents or other family members, professional healthcare providers, and perhaps others.
Plan:
What do you plan to cover in your paper? How will you look for your sources? Will you be able to use your interview data? What particular challenges do you foresee? Who would be interested in reading your paper? Are you going to include graphics? If so, what might they be?
A key component to your topic proposal is: What is the argument you are going to make? That argument might change after you do some more research. But for now, what do you foresee as your argument? For example, in writing about pet therapy, you could make the argument that dementia units in nursing homes need to be educated about the value of pet therapy, they need to loosen their restrictions, and they need to proactively bring pets into the facility to interact with patients. Then in your paper, you’ll write much more about how that could be done, what the challenges and barriers are, what options there are, etc.
Conclusion:
- What specific sources are you going to use to get started? Specifically, what section of the text book are you going to use? You must be specific about that. Of the articles we’ve read, which ones will you draw from? Look ahead in the content and in other modules in eCourseware to see what you might use. What other information do you need and how will you find it?
- What do you hope to learn by writing this paper? Who do you want to share it with? What difference could your paper make in addressing the problem you’re concerned with?
Works cited page: APA format.
Don’t write this topic proposal as a list of answers to the above questions. Write this out as a narrative, explaining what you are planning to do. You can use the headings provided in these guidelines but you don’t have to as long as all of the information is provided. The paper needs to flow as a narrative and not as a list.
Grading:
Adherence to guidelines
Inclusion of all the required components (listed above)
Organization
Grammar and punctuation