Writing Winning Proposals for Nurses and Health Care Professionals

FACILITATES WRITING SUCCESSFUL PROPOSALS OF SUBSTANCE, CLARITY, AND CONVICTION

With an in-depth focus on writing with substance, clarity, and conviction, this comprehensive resource takes the reader step by step through the entire process of writing and submitting a successful proposal. Written by preeminent authors and educators with extensive experience in teaching proposal and grant writing to nurses and other health care professionals, the book discusses how to create proposals for dissertations, capstone projects, research funding, fellowships, and career development awards, as well as for educational training, translational research, evidence-based practice, and demonstration projects. Using a clear, commonsense approach, it delineates the foundations and underlying structure of a well-written proposal and then focuses on the specific elements required for each different type of proposal.

The book provides readers with the tools to help them think through what they want to do and describe it clearly and succinctlyóavoiding unnecessary information that does not support the intent of their proposal. It discusses selecting a problem, developing an argument, and describing the aims of the project; showing the significance of the problem and describing the conceptualization and innovative aspects of the work; detailing the approach or research design and methods; composing the title and abstract; describing budgetary considerations; and preparing ancillary materials. The book also includes worksheets to help readers personalize the information for their particular project. Instructions on how to synthesize the relevant literature for a study is presented in helpful case examples. The book also addresses the processes of writing and submitting a grant, its review, and possible resubmission. It will be highly useful as a text in master's-level, DNP, and PhD research courses; doctoral seminars, for instructors who advise students on proposal development; and for practitioners who are interested in developing evidence-based practice.

• Provides abundant tools for writing proposals of substance, clarity, and conviction
• Takes readers step by step through the process of writing a great variety of proposals
• Facilitates clear thinking and to-the-point writing
• Includes worksheets to help readers personalize information for their particular project
• Provides formats required for all federal grant proposals

About the Authors:

Sandra G. Funk, PhD, FAAN, is a professor emerita of the School of Nursing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has taught research methods, statistics, and grant writing to master's and doctoral students, postdoctoral fellows, visiting scholars, and faculty, and co-teaches with Elizabeth M. Tornquist a program on grant writing. As associate dean for Research and director of the Research Support Center for many years, Dr. Funk led the school's research mission and mentored faculty on design, measurement, proposal development, and research management. She also consults with other universities in these areas. She has served as principal investigator or co-investigator on over $6 million in research funding and served as a reviewer for the National Institutes of Health and other federal agencies for over a decade. Her research interests, grants, and publications, which number over 100, focus on various aspects of applied measurement and research utilization and facilitation.

Elizabeth M. Tornquist, MA, FAAN, has been a faculty member of the Schools of Nursing and Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is currently a visiting lecturer at the College of Nursing, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. She has taught scientific writing for nearly 40 years and has conducted numerous workshops for university faculty, health care clinicians, and scientists in industry on writing grant proposals, research and technical reports, and articles for publication. She is nationally known as an editor and has helped scientists from many disciplines write fundable grant proposals and publishable articles. In addition, she has authored two books and dozens of articles, and she co-edited three books in addition to those written with Dr. Funk.

Together, Dr. Funk and Ms. Tornquist have taught proposal writing courses and grant-writing institutes; been awarded grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Division of Nursing, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; developed a research utilization model; published a dozen refereed articles and edited six books (five of which were honored with AJN Book of the Year awards and two of which were republished in other languages).

Sandra G. Funk, PhD, FAAN, is a professor emerita of the School of Nursing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Elizabeth M. Tornquist, MA, FAAN, has been a faculty member of the Schools of Nursing and Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is currently a visiting lecturer at the College of Nursing, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.