Graduate Student Feasibility Committee

Purpose:

Guide and support access requests for data collection to be used in capstone projects or dissertations (applies to any DNP or PhD student from any academic program, completing a project at Ohio State Wexner Medical Center).

Meetings/Reviews:

Third Thursday of every month, 3:00-5:00pm

Prerequisites for feasibility committee review

  1. Student has a completed and committee-approved proposal.
  2. Student has passed professional/candidacy examination.
  3. Student has completed either a DRAFT of IRB application, or the OSUCON QI Project Form, whichever is applicable.

Timeline for review process:

Semester prior to implementation

  • Step 1: Materials submitted to and reviewed by Dr. Chipps (see checklist below)
  • Step 2: Meeting of FRC scheduled (3rd Thursday of month at 3:00-5:00pm)
  • Step 3: Student, advisor, and committee meet (30 minute review)
  • Step 4: Email notification of decision sent to student/advisor                     

Committee members: 

Please contact Dr. Esther Chipps, Clinical Nurse Scientist, OSUWMC at Chipps.1@osu.edu for the current committee member list.

Graduate student access, collection, and/or use of existing data at OSUWMC1

Introduction

Academic policies and procedures for Ohio State College of Nursing graduate student scholarly academic projects are included in the graduate student handbooks for each program in the College of Nursing student handbook website. Graduate students are responsible for being aware of and following the applicable policies and procedures for their program of enrollment.

Academic project proposal development should begin sufficiently early enough to facilitate timely completion of the project. For example, for a student enrolled part-time in the 3-year DNP program, the process of approval for data access and any other required approvals usually should start by about a year in advance of when the project is projected to be carried out.  This requires that the working draft of the student’s academic project proposal is: (a) sufficiently-enough developed to support feasibility discussions of data access and other required approvals (see process steps below); and, (b) has received feasibility approval from the student’s OSU academic committee.

Capstone academic projects proposal plans (e.g., DNP Final Project, PhD dissertation) are carried out once the student has passed the appropriate OSU candidacy examination (e.g., DNP Professional examination, PhD Candidacy examination). The final draft of the academic project proposal must receive review and approval from the student’s OSU academic committee prior to the student implementing the proposed project.

Process steps

The following steps guide OSU College of Nursing (CON) graduate student requests for access, collection, and/or use of existing data at OSUWMC to be used in capstone academic projects. CON students must follow the process steps as outlined below for academic projects that are conducted in a CON student role.  The student’s CON academic advisor is the primary contact for communication with OSUWMC for the outlined process steps. Students may not directly contact the OSUWMC for access, collection or use of data, regardless of employment or other affiliations with the OSUWMC.

Step 1 – Feasibility review

The student’s faculty advisor notifies Dr. Esther Chipps by email (from the advisor’s OSU email account to Esther.Chipps@osumc.edu) of a request to the Feasibility Review Committee (FRC)2 to schedule a feasibility review of a graduate student scholarly project proposal. The student’s advisor attaches the following documents for review to the email sent to Dr. Chipps (chairperson):

  • College of Nursing proposal approval form that has been signed by the student’s advisor and academic project committee members for the working draft of the academic proposal
  • Approved working draft of the academic proposal, including all appendices, instruments
  • 2-page executive summary of the proposed project
  • A complete working draft of the IRB application (including appendices), or complete OSUCON QI project form

Dr. Chipps will confirm receipt of the submitted materials and confirm a FRC meeting date/time with the advisor and student. The student, advisor and the FRC meet on the scheduled date/time to discuss the submitted materials in relation to feasibility considerations. The FRC will provide written feedback to the student and academic advisor by email following the meeting (see attached OSUWMC Organizational Review of Feasibility form). Some key feasibility considerations for which feedback will be provided include, but are not limited to: (a) available resources; (b) appropriateness of the project timeline; (c) extent of congruence with current institutional initiatives and priorities; and, (d) potential conflicts of interest.

  • The advisor and student may request additional informal consultation from Dr. Chipps to further refine the project plans.
  • If significant changes are made to the proposed project purpose or methods, the revised proposal must be reapproved by the student’s academic committee prior to resubmitting the proposal to the FRC (Step 2).
  • The FRC review feedback will indicate if additional reviews will be needed; e.g., Health Information Systems Access Review for IHIS access for protected health information, Quality Committee review, etc. Relevant policy documents guide standard operating procedures for these additional reviews.

Step 2 – If revisions are needed

For proposed projects for which revisions are required at Step 1 (Feasibility Review), the student’s academic advisor submits the following completed documents for FRC review by email to Dr. Esther Chipps (chairperson) at Esther.Chipps@osumc.edu:

  • Updated proposal approval form signed by the student’s OSU academic committee
  • Approved revised academic proposal, including all appendices, instruments
  • 2-page executive summary of the proposed project
  • A complete working draft of the IRB application (including appendices) or complete OSUCON QI project form

The FRC provides written feedback and a decision on the feasibility of the proposed project (‘feasible–accepted’ or ‘not feasible–rejected’) to the student’s academic advisor by email via the completed OSUWMC Organizational Review of Feasibility form. The FRC decision is final and may not be appealed for the reviewed proposal.

Step 3 – IRB review

  • The student is responsible for preparing the IRB proposal in collaboration with the student’s academic advisor, who submits the IRB application to the relevant IRB for the relevant level of review.
  • If IRB proposal revisions result in significant changes to the proposed project methods, the proposal materials must be re-reviewed by the FRC (see Step 2).
  • Documentation of IRB approval (including documentation of IRB approval for Exempt from IRB Review status as applicable), and the proposal approval form for the final version of the OSU academic proposal must be submitted by the student’s academic advisor to the FRC, together with documentation of approval for any other required reviews (see Step 1).

Step 4 – If additional reviews are needed

  • Refer to specific guidelines for other required reviews

1              As of July 2017

2              Feasibility Review Committee (FRC) members: (a) Dr. Esther Chipps (chairperson), (b) Dr. Bevra Brinkman (c) Dr. Deborah Francis, (d) Dr. Joyce Karl, College of Nursing faculty representative; (e) Dr. Amy Knupp, (f) Dr. Sheila Mapes (g) ad hoc members – unit manager, clinical nursing expert from area where project is proposed to be implemented.

Graduate Student Feasibility Review Schedule

Time: 3:00-5:00pm, Third Thursday of every month

2021 Dates:

  • 1/15
  • 2/19
  • 3/19
  • 4/16
  • 5/21
  • 6/18
  • 8/19
  • 9/16
  • 10/21
  • 11/18
  • 12/16

Contact Information:

Dr. Esther Chipps:

Phone:  614-293-7407; 614-581-2526

Esther.chipps@osumc.edu

Committee Members: Contact Esther Chipps

Scheduled Dates: Monthly, third Thursday of the month, 3:00-5:00pm

Additional Resources:

Graduate Student Feasibility Review Guidelines (Nursing)

Graduate Student Feasibility Committee: DNP Final Scholarly Project/PhD Dissertation