Research is a critical element of public health services delivery. It is often used to examine the relationships between cost, quality, and access with the goal of improving population health, clinical, and organizational practices and informing public health care policies. It is essential that you as a public health care professional develop an understanding of the purpose and value of health care research.

To prepare for this assignment, think about some of the important issues in public health and health care today. Consider the topics you have been exposed to through previous courses in your program of study and any news items that have caught your attention lately. How can and how should research be used to inform the public of these issues?

Next, review peer-reviewed journals that provide credible information on a particular topic in public health.

Identify a public health topic of interest and articles that relate to this topic to begin your final research paper.

With your one selected topic, and with information from your resources in mind (peer-reviewed, scholarly articles), think about the purpose and value of this particular research. Answer the questions below.

1) What is your research topic (provide details and background about the topic)?

2) Why did you select this topic?

3) What is your research question?

4) Identify ethical issues that could occur in your research study, consider how you will avoid them.

5) Discuss how ethical standards will protect any human subjects who participate in your research study and include information from the Belmont Report that supports your thoughts (remember, this is a hypothetical research study that you will not conduct).

This assignment should be written in a minimum of four pages (not counting the title and references pages). Please adhere to APA Style when creating citations and references for this assignment.