Writing a Research Problem/Statement/Question/& Hypothesis & Identifying Search

Online Discussion #2: Writing a Research Problem/Statement/Question/& Hypothesis & Identifying Search Terms

This online discussion is open to you for posting from Monday, 1/13/20 @ 12:00 am through Sunday, 1/19/20 @ 11:59 pm.  Please be sure to review the rubric for this assignment in CANVAS (click on the 3 dots in the upper right hand corner to view),  or located in your syllabus and read all the information and the example provided for you below! 

Now that  you’ve completed the assigned readings and videos for this unit, use what you’ve learned along with your text to develop a problem statement, purpose statement, and research question. I’m also going to ask you to identify some key words and phrases for searching your topic in the literature, and also to write a simple directional hypothesis regarding what you think you will find. After you have completed your work, you should review the postings by your peers and respond substantively to at least one peer with honest, respectful feedback. Remember that a substantive response is one that adds value to the discussion – see syllabus for full description. See example of ideas for responses below. This is a great opportunity to learn from each other!

You are actually going to develop an EBP question here; remember that the difference between a pure research question and an EBP research question is that a research question is investigated to discover new knowledge. Here, you are preparing to conduct a literature search of existing  knowledge to learn about pain that will hopefully help you improve your practice. You need to identify the problem you will research, and write a good question so that you can develop and conduct your literature search in the near future.

Think about the many patients you’ve cared for and how providing patients with education in a way that they understand can improve their hospital experience as well as their individual health outcomes. Now consider what type of education you believe your patients really need, and design a research question around your education topic. How might you phrase your question and what results do you think you will find? (Please note that you may NOT use education and diabetic patients, (gestational, Type I or Type II) as diabetic education is the example is provided for you below). How will you go about searching to find the information you are seeking?  After you’ve thought about your topic related to patient education that you want to research in the existing literature, develop the following:

1. A Problem Statement (see pp 76-77 in your text for explanations and examples of problem statement and purpose statements. Note that the research question flows from both the problem statement and the purpose statement.

2. A Purpose Statement – i.e. the purpose of conducting your study (see example on p. 77).
3. A Research Question with PICO elements identified.  You do not need the “T” (be sure to identify the PICO components of your question within the question itself – put the appropriate letter behind each component in parentheses).

4. A simple, directional hypothesis – (what do you think the literature will reveal?)

5. Explain why you selected this topic; what does this mean to you as a nurse? (why the topic you selected is personally important to you)

6. Last but not least, identify at least 3 key search words, and 2 key phrases that you would use to begin a literature search to answer your research question.

Note: It’s important to identify and keep your variables consistent throughout the above statements. For example, you would not want to identify the problem as education needed for  heart failure patients, and then say that your purpose is to research whether having education about cardiac surgery contributes to improved outcomes in these patients. Heart failure is a very different variable than cardiac surgery. See my example below to help you understand how to stay consistent throughout your statements for this assignment.

It pays to get your responses in early – you cannot repeat what anyone BEFORE you… so get this done early. Additionally, because the example I’ve provided for you below deals with dietary education and Diabetes, you may not use this topic; this includes gestational diabetes and education also. This must be your own work, and not copied from anyone els’e work, existing studies or texts. Develop your information based on your experiences as a nurse. This is YOUR study. Please email me if you have any questions about your topic selection. I’ll be happy to help you!

EXAMPLE of how to write up this week’s discussion, using patient education as the general topic here (instead of pain):

1. Problem statement:
   When patients lack dietary education for managing their Type II diabetes, it can lead to high blood glucose levels.
2. Purpose of my study:
   To determine if increased patient dietary education for Type II diabetes will help these patients maintain stable, controlled, blood glucose levels.
3. Evidence-based Research Question:                                                                                                                 Do Will patients (P) that receive patient dietary education(I) for managing their Type II diabetes, have more stable blood glucose levels(O) as compared to Type II diabetic patients (C) who do not receive patient dietary education for managing their Type II diabetes? (note the PICO components in my question. Be sure to identify them in your question as well. Also note that I am comparing patients to patients – the P and the C; you cannot compare patients to outcomes, or patients to interventions.)
4. Hypothesis:
   Providing patients with dietary education for management of their Type II diabetes will help these patients have more stable blood glucose levels, as compared to patients with Type II diabetic patients that do not receive dietary education for management of their diabetes. (This is what I anticipate the literature/studies on this topic will show, and therefore it is my hypothesis).
5. I selected this topic because:                                                                                                                                           I have noted that many patients with Type II diabetes lack basic dietary education necessary to manage their Type II diabetes diet, which in turn can contribute to poorly managed blood glucose levels in these patients. This lack of education seems to lead to a lot of Type II diabetic related health problems for these patients.  For example, I have cared for newly diagnosed Type II diabetic patients who have no knowledge of dietary recommendations for Type II diabetic patients.  I think many patients lack critical knowledge that is necessary for them to manage their Type II diabetes properly. If patients receive dietary education to help them manage their Type II diabetes, this should help them to keep their Type II diabetes under better control, which should result in more stable blood glucose values overall.
6. To search the empirical literature in the library, three key words I would begin my search with are are “educ*” and “diabet*”  and “glucose” ( two key phrases I would start with are “patient educ*”, and “diabet* manag*”     (note the * at the end of my words, and phrases – educ* will search for educate, education, educating, and diabet* will search for diabetes and diabetic, and manag* will search for manage, managing, management, and so on.  I will almost certainly end up using additional key words and phrases to further focus my search, such as “Type II”, “chronic”, “nurs*”,  “health problems”, “diabet* complications” and so on. However, I will determine these when I actually go to conduct my search. For this discussion, you are to identify the search words you believe would be best to start searching with. Do not conduct your search yet – that’s coming in a future module!

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If you were to provide a response to my posting, you might give me feedback about how my research problem and research question are written and whether they are consistent and clearly stated. Does my research question as stated, directly address the problem I have identified? If not, how might I restate it? Is my problem too broad, too narrow? What suggestions do you have for improvements? Don’t simply tell me this is a great idea and you wish me well — you are to provide critical feedback here to help me improve. Is my question specific enough to really do a good literature search? How might I improve my it? Do you agree that my hypothesis as stated is a directional hypothesis? Do you have other suggestions for key words or phrases that might help me with my search? ……These are just a few examples of things to consider and respond to when you read the postings by your peers. Avoid yes or no answers to the above questions; provide solid, valuable suggestions to each other!