Applying Research Skills

In your professional life you will need to find credible evidence to support your decisions and your plans of action. You will want to keep abreast of best practices to help your organization adapt to the ever-changing health care environment. Being adept at research will help you find the information you need. For this assessment, you will select and research a current health care problem or issue faced by a health care organization.
Demonstration of Proficiency
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:

• Competency 1: Apply information literacy and library research skills to obtain scholarly information in the field of health care. 
  • Identify academic peer-reviewed journal articles relevant to a health care problem or issue and describe the criteria used for the literature search.
• Competency 2: Apply scholarly information through critical thinking to solve problems in the field of health care. 
  • Assess the credibility and relevance of information sources.
  • Summarize what was learned from developing an annotated bibliography.
  • Analyze academic peer-reviewed journal articles using the annotated bibliography organizational format.
• Competency 4: Communicate in a manner that is scholarly, professional, and respectful of the diversity, dignity, and integrity of others, and that is consistent with expectations for health care professionals. 
  • Summarize a health care problem or issue and describe a personal interest in it and experience with it.
  • Write clearly and logically, with correct use of spelling, grammar, punctuation, and mechanics.
  • Write following APA style for in-text citations, quotes, and references.
• Instructions
  Note: The requirements outlined below correspond to the grading criteria in the scoring guide. At a minimum, be sure to address each point. In addition, you are encouraged to review the performance level descriptions for each criterion to see how your work will be assessed.
  For this assessment, you will research best practices related to a current health care problem. Your selected problem or issue will be utilized again in Assessment 3. To explore your chosen topic, you should use the first two steps of the Socratic Problem-Solving Approach to aid your critical thinking.

1. View the Assessment Topic Areas | Transcript media piece and select one of the health care problems or issues in the media piece to research. Write a brief overview of the selected topic. In your overview: 
   1. Describe the health care problem or issue.
   2. Describe your interest in the topic.
   3. Describe any professional experience you have with this topic.
2. Conduct a search for scholarly or academic peer-reviewed literature related to the topic and describe the criteria you used to search for articles, including the names of the databases you used. 
   1. You will want to access the applicable Undergraduate Library Research Guide related to your degree (found at the NHS Learner Success Lab) for tips to help you in your search.
   2. Use keywords related to the health care problem or issue you are researching to select relevant articles.
3. Assess the credibility of the information sources you find. 
   1. Determine if the source is from an academic peer-reviewed journal.
   2. Determine if the publication is current.
   3. Determine if information in the academic peer-reviewed journal article is still relevant.
4. Select four current scholarly or academic peer-reviewed journal articles published during the past three to five years that relate to your topic.
5. Explain the relevance of the information sources. 
   1. Describe how the health care problem or issue is addressed in each source.
   2. Discuss what kind of contribution each source provides on your selected topic.
6. Analyze the scholarly literature or academic peer-reviewed journal articles using the annotated bibliography organizational format. 
   1. The purpose of an annotated bibliography is to document a list of references along with key information about each one. The detail about the reference is the annotation. Developing this annotated bibliography will create a foundation of knowledge about the selected topic.
   2. List the full reference for the source in APA format (author, date, title, publisher, et cetera) and use APA format for the annotated bibliography. 
   3. Make sure the references are listed in alphabetical order, are double-spaced, and use hanging indents.
   4. Follow the reference with the annotation. 
7. In your annotation: 
   1. Identify the purpose of the article.
   2. Summarize the source: 
      • What are the main arguments?
      • What topics are covered?
   3. Include the conclusions and findings of the article.
   4. Write your annotation in a paragraph form. The annotation should be approximately 150 words (1 to 3 paragraphs) in length.
8. In a separate paragraph or two at the end of the paper, summarize what you learned from your research. 
   1. List the main points you learned from your research.
   2. Summarize the main contributions of the sources you chose and how they enhanced your knowledge about the topic.
9. Example Assessment: You may use the following to give you an idea of what a Proficient or higher rating on the scoring guide would look like:

• Assessment 2 Example [PDF].
• Additional Requirements

1. Length: At least 3–5 typed, double-spaced pages, not including the title page and reference page.
2. Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 point.
3. APA Template: Use the APA template linked in the resources. Use the APA Style Paper Template [DOCX] as the paper format and the APA Style Paper Tutorial [DOCX] for guidance.
4. Written communication: Write clearly and logically, with correct use of spelling, grammar, punctuation, and mechanics.
5. Content: Provide a title page and reference page following APA style.
6. References: Use at least four scholarly or academic peer-reviewed journal articles.
7. APA format: Follow current APA guidelines for in-text citation of outside sources in the body of your paper and also on the reference page.
8. Note: Review the Applying Research Skills Scoring Guide for the grading criteria applied to this assessment.
   If you would like assistance in organizing your assessment, or if you simply have a question about your assessment, please do not hesitate to ask faculty or the teaching assistants in the NHS Learner Success Labfor guidance and suggestions.