The final capstone project is a culmination of the written research-based assignments completed throughout the course. Each written assignment contributes to the final Evidenced-Based Proposal paper. This is the first written assignment.

Think about what you have learned with regard to the five critical steps of evidence-based practice. In a formal paper of 500-750 words, address the following:

Part 1: Defining the Problem

1. Identify and describe one topic that may resolve a patient-care-quality problem or issue.
2. Draft a possible problem statement.
3. Describe a problem. Explain why it is a problem, and why it is significant to your discipline. Use the literature you gathered as support for why this is a problem in relation to your practice. The problem should focus on the resolution of an issue significant to improving patient care.
4. Draft a purpose statement in relation to your problem statement that states what you hope to accomplish if you implemented this project.

Part 2: Defining a Searchable, Answerable Question

From what you wrote about your problem and purpose, develop searchable questions using the PICOT format that will be the basis for your implementation plan. Word count is not relative in this section.  Include evidence-based resources.

General Requirements:

Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

You are required to submit this assignment to Turnitin. Please refer to the directions in the Student Success Center.

ADDITIONAL DETAILS 

Defining a Searchable, Answerable Question

Introduction

When you’re trying to find something, it’s easy to ask a question and hope that the answer will appear. But if you don’t have an idea of what you’re looking for, this technique can be frustrating. So let me share some tips for finding answers to searchable questions:

Ask yourself what you want the answer to be.

Ask yourself what you want the answer to be.

• What do I want?

• What’s my goal?

Ask yourself whether the question is a good one.

There are a few things to keep in mind when answering a question. First, make sure that you’re asking the right question. If your user is trying to find out whether or not they should buy online, then don’t ask them if they’d like to hear the latest news about their favorite superhero movie. Instead, try something more targeted: “Would you like me to send an email with instructions on how we can create an account?”

Second, be concise and specific when answering your users’ questions—you don’t want them feeling frustrated after reading through pages upon pages of answers (which can happen). The best way I’ve found for doing this is asking questions that require one-word answers (e.g., “yes,” “no,” “absolutely”) and avoiding jargon as much as possible; otherwise someone may think we’re being snobby or pretentious just because our company has fancy titles like “Search Engine Optimization” instead of saying things like “The answer was no.”

Ask yourself whether the answer has already been gathered.

• Use a search engine.

• Ask friends and colleagues.

• Look in books, magazines or online resources that relate to your topic. You can also use libraries and other resources to help you find the answer you’re looking for!

Ask yourself whether the question is useful and meaningful.

Once you’ve identified a question that is useful and meaningful, it’s time to ask yourself two more questions:

• Is this the right question?

• Will people actually use this information?

Ask yourself how important it is to your mission or purpose.

How important is it to you that your research question be answerable?

The purpose of a searchable, answerable question is to give people who are researching something specific information about that topic. You don’t have to be in the business world to see this benefit: for example, if you’re writing about a hobby or pastime and want your readers’ best tips on how they can do better themselves—or just find out more about what other people think about those things—then asking them all kinds of questions will help your readers find answers quickly and easily.

On the other hand, if you’re writing an article on history or literature as part of a larger project (and not specifically looking for facts), then having multiple ways of finding information would probably be more helpful than having one set method; in fact, having some sort of tool where users could enter keywords into their own searches would probably make sense here too!

Know what you’re looking for and why before you start your research or question quest.

• Know what you’re looking for and why before you start your research or question quest.

• If you don’t know what you’re looking for, it will be difficult to find it.

• If you don’t know why you’re looking for it, then often times the answers won’t make sense and might not even be correct.

Conclusion

We hope these tips help you think more critically about the questions you ask. The only way to learn as much as we do is by asking questions, so we hope that this article has given you a better understanding of how best to ask them and what kind of answers you can expect. If nothing else, remember that there are many different types of research—from straightforward interviews to focus groups—and each one can yield useful information for your business or project. And if all else fails: just keep on trying!