Applying Research Skills

In your professional life, you will need to find credible evidence to support your decisions and plans of action. You will want to keep abreast of best practices to help your organization adapt to the ever-changing healthcare environment. Being adept at research helps you find the information you need. This assessment gives you practice with that skill by having you research a healthcare problem or issue faced by current healthcare organizations.

You will select a current healthcare problem or issue from the provided options for this assessment. Research your topic, and develop a written assessment, which includes an annotated bibliography to document your resources.

Reminder: You will use your selected problem or issue again in upcoming assessments. The purpose of this assessment is to ensure you know how to research topics and find credible references to use in your assessments. Part of the assessment is an annotated bibliography. The purpose of an annotated bibliography is to document a list of research references, along with key information about each; the detail about the reference is the annotation. Developing this annotated bibliography will create a foundation of knowledge about your chosen problem or issue.

Conduct research in the Capella library to find a total of three scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles in relation to a selected healthcare problem or issue presented in the

resource. You must select your healthcare-related issue or problem from the topic areas presented in this resource.

Important Note: Review the for assistance. Be sure to review journal articles published within the past three to five years.

Write a 3 page paper in which you include the following:

Topic Identification

Select one of the healthcare problems or issues presented in the

resource. Write a brief overview of the healthcare problem or issue. In your overview:

• Summarize the healthcare problem or issue, including describing its professional relevance.
• Describe your interest in the problem or issue.
• Describe any professional experience you have with this topic.

Discussion of Research

Discuss your research and selection process for each of the three journal articles you have chosen to include in your annotated bibliography.

• Describe your process of applying library research skills to identify the journal articles relevant to the healthcare problem or issue you are researching.
• Identify the keywords you used to select the articles.
• Describe the criteria you used to select the resources, including the names of the databases you used.
• What was the process like to locate relevant articles?
• Assess the credibility of the information sources.
• Determine whether each resource is from an academic, peer-reviewed journal.
• Determine whether the publication is current (published within the last 35 years).
• Determine whether information in the academic peer-reviewed journal article is still relevant.
• Assess the relevance of the information sources.
• Explain how the healthcare problem or issue is addressed in each source.
• Discuss what kind of contribution each resource provides.

Annotated Bibliography

Summarize each of the three current academic, peer-reviewed journal articles you chose, using the annotated bibliography organizational format. 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. In your annotated bibliography:

• List each full reference in APA format, followed immediately by its annotation.
• Present your three current, annotated references in alphabetical order, according to the reference citation.
• Double-space each reference and format it with a hanging indent.
• Provide the full APA reference citation, including the author, date, title, publisher or publication, and any additional information required by APA style.
• Write the annotation (summary) for each citation in paragraph form, using approximately 150 words (or 13 paragraphs) for each citation. Make sure to cite the article in your summary. Include the following components for each annotation:
• Identify the purpose of the article.
• Summarize the article.
• Include the conclusions and findings of the article.

Summary

In a separate paragraph or two at the end of the paper, summarize what you learned from the process of developing the annotated bibliography.

Your academic writing is expected to conform to the following requirements:

• Writing: Produce text with minimal grammar, usage, spelling, and mechanical errors.
• Sources: Integrate into text appropriate use of current scholarly sources, evidence, and citation style. Use the guidelines provided. Cite the reference in its summary.
• Formatting: Include a title page and reference page, Times New Roman, 12 point.
• Length: Complete no more than 35 typed, double-spaced pages, in addition to the title page and reference page.
• References: Although you are citing your three scholarly or academic peer-reviewed journal articles within the Annotated Bibliography section of this paper, be sure to also list your citations on a reference page at the end of your paper, along with any other resources you may have included.

Example assessment: You may use the to give you an idea of what a Proficient or higher rating on the scoring guide would look like.

Submit your paper as an attached Microsoft Word document.