Part 1: Reviewing the literature and identifying evidence-based practice In this first part of the assignment, you will begin to explore what so many of us need to do in the workplace: understand a...

Part 1: Reviewing the literature and identifying evidence-based practice
In this first part of the assignment, you will begin to explore what so many of us need to do in the workplace: understand a problem, find out what might work best as a solution, and consider whether the solution (that has – according to the research - typically worked for others) will be easy or difficult to implement.
Scenario: You have been appointed the research manager within an organisation relevant to your field of study/interest. You’ve essentially been asked to a) identify a problem the organisation needs to deal with and document what evidence-based information has been found (i.e. through peer- reviewed journals/reports) relevant to best-practice and c) report what enablers and barriers might be involved that make implementing best-practice easy or difficult by the organisation.
In this scenario, the ‘organisation’ could be a not-for-profit group, a clinical setting, a government department, a committee within your local council – for example – so don’t feel restricted. Use the assignment to engage with a problem/solution relevant to your interests. Get the sense of what it is to become your own detective as an actual researcher, getting to the bottom of a problem, learning what works and what can be done about it, as well as understanding why it might be easy or difficult translating theory into practice. The encouragement is to make this assignment useful, relevant and interesting for your own benefit.

Part 2 – Ethics
In the second part of the assignment, you will begin to explore what is involved when considering ethics and ethical implications as part of a research project. When working on research projects, successful ethics applications naturally play a large part in not only gaining approval for the project, but also anticipating and trouble-shooting any problems that might arise when conducting the study. It’s also a really helpful way to work out the appropriate research protocol, so getting it ‘right’ is critical.
Scenario: The boss really likes the work you have done in Part 1 – and now wants you to conduct focus groups with the relevant people/groups to discuss your best-practice recommendation – and get their ideas on what they think of your recommendation to see if it should be adopted. They also want to publish the findings. Therefore, you have been asked to help complete an ethics application.
As the ethics advisor, you will need to a) review your recommendation in Part 1 and identify key ethical implications associated with recruiting focus groups to discuss it, based on associated/similar studies (i.e. possibly similar organisations and/or
problems/recommendations), and b) relate these implications to the relevant items in the ethics
application form so that the ethics application can be successfully completed.