Formulating the Research Question, Problem Statement, Research Purpose
In the Week 1 discussion forum you had an opportunity to present a potential problem and an innovative solution specific to your role specialization. In addition, you have reviewed the literature to identify qualitative and quantitative research articles and submitted annotated bibliographies to provide evidence supporting the problem.
Considering the feedback provided to you by the faculty member it is now time to prepare your problem statement, research purpose, and research question.
First share your refined problem and proposed solution (given your review of literature this may have changed depending on the evidence you were able to provide). Next, follow the steps to help define your research question.
- Craft the problem statement and research purpose.
- Design your research question aimed at solving (a part of) the problem and include the following components which will focus the literature review.
PICOT Question:
Patient, Population or Problem
- What are the characteristics of the patient or population?
- What is the condition or disease you are interested in?
Intervention or exposure
- What do you want to do with this patient (e.g. treat, diagnose, observe)?
Comparison
- What is the alternative to the intervention (e.g. placebo, different drug, surgery)?
Outcome
- What are the relevant outcomes (e.g. morbidity, death, complications)?
- Ensure that the research question is answerable, feasible and clinically relevant
