Topic 2 DQ 1 Once you have selected a topic for your capstone project, you will need to examine research articles to explore viable solutions. The GCU Library has various resources to support students during this process. Based on the first letter of your first name, you are assigned the following GCU Library resource: A-F: GCU Library Nursing and Health Sciences Research Guide G-L: GCU Library: Find Journal Articles M-S: GCU Library: What Are Empirical/Research Articles? T-Z: GCU Library: Capstone and Evidence-Based Projects Please note: each of these links can be found in the topic Resources. Describe the resource assigned to you including two examples of how this resource will support your successful completion of the capstone project.

Expert Answer and Explanation

The resource from the GCU Library defines empirical research as studies that report outcomes based on the observations or experiments carried out by the author(s). Empirical research can either be qualitative or quantitative, where, qualitative articles present the data collected and analyzed in a non-numerical or contextual format, while quantitative articles are those whose methodology and data presentation are in numerical format (Grand Canyon University Library, n.d.). When evaluating empirical research, one needs to first read the abstract to identify whether the information in the article is relevant to their area of research.

There are various ways in which empirical research can help with a capstone project, one of them being to help gather evidence on the viability of the project. Empirical research is essential in implementing evidence-based projects in that it gives or affirms credibility to the suggested interventions (Lamé et al., 2020). Empirical research can also be used in gap identification, where common problems that occur in a particular setting are used as targets for change implementation.

Empirical research can also be relevant when it comes to evaluating the interventions after implementation. Endings from empirical research can be used as a benchmark to evaluate whether the capstone’s project implementation was successful or not. Therefore, empirical studies are a crucial element when planning, implementing, and evaluating capstone projects.

References

Grand Canyon University Library (n.d.). What are empirical/research articles?. https://libguides.gcu.edu/Nursing/research

Lamé, G., Crowe, S., & Barclay, M. (2020). “What’s the evidence?”-Towards more empirical evaluations of the impact of OR interventions in healthcare. Health Systems, 11(1), 59–67. https://doi.org/10.1080/20476965.2020.1857663