Designing Clinical Research Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 8500 words

Designing Clinical Research - Assignment Example As it is indicated these journal entries are records of ongoing events, and in as far as my journal is concerned, this will not only reflect the account of my activities, these will also include my emotions and beliefs, records of my personal interactions, my interpretations of information and academic reading, and I hope my beliefs on these topics will be reflected in these journal entries. Conceptually, if there would have been no problems or questions, there would have been no need for research. This means for every research there would be an inquiry, which is an attempt to confirm existing knowledge or seek new knowledge grounded on the old one. Seeking knowledge in different forms is human nature. Of course there will always be some people who will accept any information without question. However, some will ask questions to express disbelief, show discontent, corroborate information, or to seek new knowledge. This is only possible if people question the existing, not satisfied with the existing. Polit and Beck (2007) referred research to be a systematic inquiry. This means if one desires to question something systematically, he has also responsibility to frame a disciplined method to corroborate or refute information or findings. If existing knowledge on any subject is found to be inadequate or inaccurate, then a properly designed research question is the only way to access, derive, develop, refine, expand, or establish new knowledge (Polit and Beck 2007). It has been stated that this question would hint to the research problem, and in this way research questions actually sets the stage of the research. Thus the specific questions regarding unexplored area of study is important in that these designate the areas that a researcher plans to systematically investigate further through a disciplined process and method. This indicates research questions are notations of inquiry to explore the research problem. Research questions would also specify the purpose of the study addressing the problem further. These statements conform to the reading from the first chapter of our text and relevant discussions on how to conceive a research problem. In fact while reflecting on this, I found that actually conceptualizing research questions can give us directions of research. In that sense, the scientific, healthcare, or medical research that I had come across can lead to many new research questions, since all research articles I came across have limitations, and there are many unanswered questions in all studies. Although many studies come to an acceptable conclusion, I think almost all studies indicate further research based on the remaining research questions or new questions based on that research. Thus I feel all research accounts despite adding new dimensions of knowledge pose new research questions which can be the beginning of a new research and hence now avenues of advancing knowledge, and this may in itself, be quite exciting. Hulley et al (2007) recognize precisely this distinction between the "anatomy" and the "physiology" of research. The anatomical part of research (for the authors) includes all of the technical aspects of research that are