| Course | PUBH 9102 Completing Doctoral Capstone II |
|---|---|
| Week | Week 2 |
| Paper type | Protocol comparison |
| Length | About 750 words, 5 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Walden University |
| Program | PhD in Public Health |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for PUBH 9102 Week 2
Instructed Against Done: A Protocol Comparison Setting the Working Document's Own Words Beside the Inspection Record in a Composite County Pool Study
Student Name
Walden University
PUBH 9102: Completing Doctoral Capstone II
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Instructed Against Done: A Protocol Comparison Setting the Working Document's Own Words Beside the Inspection Record in a Composite County Pool Study
Purpose and Method
This comparison sets each element of my working document, quoted word for word, beside what the inspection extract, the district memos and my dated field notes show was actually done in the Alder County pool study. Quoting matters because a plan restated from memory tends to drift toward what happened, and the gaps disappear in the retelling. Each row ends with a verdict of none, minor or consequential. A gap is consequential when it could change an estimate or a theme; it is minor when it changes wording or timing but not what is counted.
The Comparison
Table 1
Working document wording, the record and the verdict for each protocol element
| Element | Working document (quoted) | Record and source | Verdict | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Window | "three seasons before" the first switch, "two seasons after" the last | Extract opens May 2021; 2020 records lack the critical flag (extract readme, file 02) | Consequential | |
| Switch date, North | Date tiering began in each district, "taken from" the memos | Memo gives 2023; visit intervals show tier scheduling from August 2022 (field note, Week 2) | Consequential | |
| Switch dates, Central and East | Same wording | Memo dates match visit intervals (pairs_analysis.csv) | None | |
| Routine inspection | Coded routine, unless "no more than three weeks after" a critical citation or closure | Applied as written; 61 visits recoded as follow-ups (routine.csv log) | None | |
| Pairing | "Two consecutive routine inspections" at a facility | Applied, but 9 facilities had two routine visits on one date after data entry duplication; one kept (pairs log) | Minor | |
| Repeat | Both visits in a pair carry "at least one critical" flag | Applied through 2024; 2025 visits recorded under a revised county code (violations_raw.csv) | Consequential | |
| Tier | Division's tier "at the date of the second" visit | Applied as written (tiers.csv) | None | |
| Interview mode | "Semi-structured interviews" running "about an hour" | Four in person, two by telephone; lengths 41 to 66 minutes (field notes) | Minor | |
| Coding | A second coder for a third of transcripts (chapter 3 draft) | Single coder; chair audit of two transcripts (email, Week 3) | Minor | |
File names refer to the division's secure drive; field notes are dated and kept with the study log.
The Three Consequential Gaps
The window gap removes one pre-switch season for North and Central. Each now enters the segmented model with two seasons before its switch, which weakens the estimate of the pre-switch trend in those districts more than any other change in this list. Segmented regression needs enough points on each side of an interruption to estimate both level and slope (Wagner et al., 2002), so the trend term may need to be fixed at zero for those districts, and that choice will be stated, not hidden. A tutorial on these designs also warns that a short baseline leaves seasonal swings easy to mistake for a pre-existing trend (Lopez Bernal et al., 2017).
The North switch gap affects which side of the interruption 74 pairs fall on. If they were left as pre-switch, any early effect of tier scheduling would be counted as baseline, which would shrink the apparent change. Treating 2022 in North as a transition season removes them from the main model and keeps them for a sensitivity run.
The repeat gap is the largest. The revised county code changes how violations are classified in the final season, so a repeat in 2025 is not recorded in the same vocabulary as a repeat in 2023. It needs its own memo, planned for Week 6, before any 2025 pair is counted.
The Minor Gaps
Telephone interviews ran shorter on average than in-person ones, which may have thinned the detail on how tiers are assigned in practice. The duplicate visits were a data entry fault with no bearing on what counts as a repeat once they are collapsed. The single-coder arrangement changes how the trustworthiness of themes is described, not what the interviews contain. Each is listed so the chair can disagree with my grading.
What the Comparison Does Not Claim
None of the gaps is assigned a direction. I do not yet know whether dropping a season or moving North's switch will raise or lower any tier's change in repeat share, and guessing now would shape how the results chapter is read. Reporting the departure and leaving its effect to the analysis is the safer order for any study that changed course partway (Nosek et al., 2018).
References
Lopez Bernal, J., Cummins, S., & Gasparrini, A. (2017). Interrupted time series regression for the evaluation of public health interventions: A tutorial. International Journal of Epidemiology, 46(1), 348-355. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyw098
Nosek, B. A., Ebersole, C. R., DeHaven, A. C., & Mellor, D. T. (2018). The preregistration revolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(11), 2600-2606. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1708274114
Wagner, A. K., Soumerai, S. B., Zhang, F., & Ross-Degnan, D. (2002). Segmented regression analysis of interrupted time series studies in medication use research. Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics, 27(4), 299-309. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2710.2002.00430.x
Reading the PUBH 9102 Week 2 instructions
The Week 2 task generally asks candidates to compare their approved protocol with what has actually been done so far. Prompts tend to ask for each protocol element in turn, the evidence of what happened, and a judgment of how much each gap matters to the study's conclusions. Many instructions ask candidates to quote or closely cite the approved document instead of summarizing it. Some request a short plan for handling the largest gaps. The aim is a fidelity record a committee member could verify, so candidates who describe intentions instead of records, or who leave out elements that went to plan, often lose credit for a comparison that cannot be checked.
How this PUBH 9102 Week 2 example is built
A short method paragraph defines the three verdicts before any row appears, so gaps are graded by consequence and not by embarrassment. The table quotes the working document in the second column and cites a file or dated field note in the third for every one of nine elements. Four rows show no gap and stay in the table so the reader sees what held. Three consequential gaps follow in prose: the shortened window, which weakens pre-switch trend estimates; North District's early switch, which moves 74 pairs; and the revised county code, which changes the outcome vocabulary. Minor gaps get a sentence each. A closing section declines to assign any gap a direction until the analysis runs.
Reading the PUBH 9102 Week 2 rubric
Faculty usually check fidelity to the original wording before anything else, because a paraphrased protocol can be made to match the record by accident. Quoting earns that portion here. Sourcing the record column with files and dated notes carries the next share, since evidence outranks recollection. Proportion in the verdicts is rewarded: marking everything consequential hides what matters, and marking nothing invites suspicion. Rows with no gap are credited for completeness. Paragraphs on each consequential gap that name the affected analysis show methodological understanding, and the segmented regression sources support the window paragraph directly. Restraint about the direction of any gap is judged as maturity, because a prediction made now would color how the results are read.
Common PUBH 9102 Week 2 mistakes, and how to avoid them
Open your approved document and copy each instruction into a table exactly as written. Beside it, record what you did and where the evidence sits, whether a file, a log entry or an email. Decide on your verdict scale before filling it in, and write the definitions down. Keep rows where nothing changed. For each serious gap, write a paragraph on which analysis it affects, and resist predicting the effect. If your records are scattered and the comparison keeps sliding into memory, we can prepare a sample comparison from your protocol and files. A row that says the record matches the plan is still worth keeping, since the committee will ask about any element it cannot find. Grade the gaps only after the whole table is filled, so early rows do not set the bar for later ones.
Get a PUBH 9102 Week 2 example written to your instructions
Send your working document and whatever shows how the study actually ran, extract notes, field notes, correspondence, plus the Week 2 prompt and rubric. The comparison quotes each protocol element beside the sourced record and grades every gap. Returned within 24 to 48 hours, free on a first request; this inspection protocol and its coding arrangement never existed.
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PUBH 9102 Week 2 questions, answered
Where can I find a free PUBH 9102 Week 2 sample paper?
The full Week 2 protocol comparison is shown above, setting a pool inspection study's plan beside its records.
Why quote the protocol instead of summarizing it?
A summary tends to drift toward what was done, which hides the gaps the comparison exists to find.
What makes a gap consequential?
In this example, any gap that could change an estimate or a theme.
Should rows with no gap stay in the table?
Yes. They show the reader which parts of the plan held.
Does the comparison say how each gap changed the results?
No. It names the analysis each gap touches and leaves the direction to the analysis itself.