1. Identify the Research Problem: The first step is to identify a problem or area of interest within nursing practice. This could be anything from patient safety to the effectiveness of a new intervention.
2. Review Literature: Conduct a thorough literature review to understand what has already been discovered about your topic. This helps in identifying gaps in knowledge that your research could fill.
3. Formulate the Hypothesis: Based on your literature review and understanding of the problem, develop a clear and concise hypothesis. It should be testable and include both an independent variable (the cause) and a dependent variable (the effect).
