Part 1
For the first part of your research project for the course, you will start to identify the topic you will research in the literature. The difference between a research problem and an Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) problem (which we will discuss in more depth later in the module) is that a research problem typically helps define a study or experiment that will be undertaken, while an EBP question often has an answer already, we just need to identify it. It is important, however, to have an understanding of the process that is involved in developing a research question. It’s also important to discuss the problem and purpose of the study – after all, we need to understand why what we’re researching matters! When working as a bachelors prepared nurse you will be asked to be on committees and may even take another job in a quality/process improvement. Within this role you will need to be able to identify new solutions to clinical problems within the health setting. In order to do this you will go to the published literature and identify quality literature and see if the results found in that literature would apply to your setting and population.

Problem Statement: The first thing you will do is identify your problem statement. That is, what problem do you want to address. You might discuss the high cost, mortality, and morbidity associated with Type I diabetes in children, for example. This lets us know why it is important that we research this issue further. Identifying the problem and population is very important. Albert Einstein said “if I had 100 days to solve a problem, I would take 99 to define the problem”.

Purpose statement: The next step is to identify the purpose statement. That is, you will identify the aim of your student. So, you might say “the purpose of this study is to determine if weekly, intensive parental education sessions decrease the