1. Posing Well-Built, Answerable, Practice Questions
Stephanie Baus
Tulane University

2. Copes Questions Client-Oriented Practical Evidence-Search
Gibbs, L. E. (2003). Evidence-based practice for the helping professions: A practical guide with integrated multimedia. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.

3. Four Features of a Well-Built Question and Types of Questions
Across: Four Elements in a Well-Formulated Question
Down: Five Question Types
Client Type and Problem
How would I describe a group of clients of similar type?
What You Might Do
Apply a treatment, act to prevent a problem, survey or interview clients, measure to assess a problem, screen to assess risk
Alternate Course of Action
What is the main alternative other than in the box to the left, if any?
What You Want to Accomplish
Outcome of treatment or prevention, accurate description of client, valid measure, accurate risk assessment.
Effectiveness Question Example:
If disoriented aged persons who reside in a nursing home
are given reality orientation therapy
or validation therapy
which will result in better orientation to time, place, and person?
Prevention Question Example:
If sexually active high school students at high risk for pregnancy
are exposed to Baby-Think-It-Over
or to lecture material on proper use of birth control
will the former have fewer pregnancies during an academic year?

4. Description Question (Quantitative) Example:
If family members of patients with chronic mental illness, who attend a hospital support group
are given a short client satisfaction questionnaire
___________
which will the family members list as their areas of greatest and least satisfaction?
Descriptive Question (Qualitative) Example:
If elderly persons who experience a stroke
are interviewed in depth
what is the experience for them like emotionally and practically?
Assessment Question Example:
If aged residents of a nursing home who may be depressed or have dementia
are administered depression screening tests
or a short mental status examination
which measure will be the briefest, most inexpensive, valid and reliable screening test to discriminate between depression and dementia?
Risk/Prognosis Example:
If crisis line callers to a battered women’s shelter
are administered a risk assessment scale by telephone
or are assessed by practical judgment unaided by a risk assessment scale
Will the risk assessment scale have higher reliability and predictive validity?
This format from Gibbs (2003) follows Sackett, D. L., Richardson, W. S., Rosenberg, W. & Haynes, R. B. (1997) Evidence-based medicine: How to practice and teach EBM. New York: Churchill Livingstone.

5. Examples of COPES Questions Generated by Social Work Students:
Katherine Moody’s question: If a 45 year old alcoholic woman attends weekly AA meetings or receives individual therapy once a week, will the former result in lower incidence of relapse?
Amy Simmon’s question: If mothers of newborn babies who have been given up for adoption are surveyed, what will be their levels of depression?
Michelle Guidry’s question: Among children who are overweight, what are some of the social problems they may encounter?
Niquette Kearney’s question: For mothers of children who die of cancer, what is the emotional experience of grieving like for them?

6. Research Question Copes Question
Identifies specific sample
Describes type of client and problem
Identifies particular instance of intervention, including what, where, when, how
May describe particular type(s) of interventions or ask about “best intervention”
Identifies specific measurement instruments
Describes intended outcomes, not measures

7. what is the best intervention
Formulating Effectiveness/Prevention Questions: a) Comparing an intervention to no intervention b) Comparing two interventions c) What is the best intervention?
Examples
Client/Problem
Action
Alternate
Outcome
Mary Christensen’s question:
If young women in less developed countries
are given empowerment classes
or no classes
are the former more likely to continue their education?
Stephanie Warren’s question:
Among clients aged 18 to 25 with eating disorders
will inpatient therapy
or outpatient therapy
be most effective in reducing symptoms of anorexia or bulimia?
Lindsey Wiley’s question:
For adolescents who have witnessed violence
what is the best intervention
to increase coping skills?

8. Formulating Descriptive (Quantitative) Questions: a) Summarizing characteristics (how much, how any, what percentage, what is the average?) b) Asking about relationships between variables.
Examples
Client/Problem
Action
Alternate
Outcome
Megan
Brummer’s question:
[If] people living with HIV/AIDS
[are surveyed]
what percentage seek alternative medical therapies?
Heather
German’s question:
[If] children who have been adopted before or after the age of five
[are assessed]
will there be any differences in adjustment problems based on age of adoption?

9. Formulating Descriptive (Qualitative) Questions: a) Require narrative responses b) Suggest in-depth explorations, little known phenomena (how would they describe, what is the process, how do they experience?
Examples
Client/Problem
Action
Alternate
Outcome
Linsey
Wiley’s question:
[If] female children whose mothers have died due to violence
[are interviewed in depth]
what are there experiences during puberty?
Matthew
Knapp’s
question:
[If] “out” lesbians over age 60
how would they describe their perceptions of their visibility within the gay community?

10. what is the best risk assessment tool?
Formulating Assessment/Risk Questions: a) Comparing an assessment instrument/procedure to no assessment b) Comparing two assessment instruments/procedures c) What is the best assessment instrument/procedure?
Examples
Client/Problem
Action
Alternate
Outcome
Betsy McDougal Gibbs’ question (Gibbs, 2003, p. 215):
For preschool children in a medium-sized community
will a parent report language screening questionnaire
[as opposed to no questionnaire]
effectively distinguish between children who need pre-school language services and those who do not?
Gibbs, 2003, p. 212:
For aged persons living in a nursing home who many be at risk for falling
will the Timed Up & Go Test
or the STRATIFY test
Best predict which elderly persons will fall?
Katherine Moody’s
question:
Among children survivors of sexual assault
what is the best risk assessment tool?
used to predict childhood depression?

11. Practice Examples From: Gibbs, L. E. (2003)
Practice Examples From: Gibbs, L. E. (2003). Evidence-based practice for the helping professions: A practical guide with integrated multimedia. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole, pp
Patient’s Satisfaction with their Discharge from a Hospital’s Telemetry/Medical/Oncology Unit
Question: How satisfied are patients with the way they were discharged?
Question Type: Descriptive
COPES Question: If elderly patients discharged from a hospital are surveyed, which aspects of their discharge did they find most satisfactory or unsatisfactory?

12. A Crisis Situation Concerning a Mental Health Client
Question: How can I better evaluate suicide potential?
Question Type: Risk Assessment
COPES Question: Among adolescents who have threatened suicide, which measure has the greatest reliability and predictive validity for assessing suicide risk?

13. Potential for Violence in a School
Question: Will the Second Step Violence Prevention Curriculum really prevent violence in later grades?
Question Type: Prevention
COPES Question: Among grade school children at risk for violent behavior, will the Second Step Violence Prevention Curriculum, as opposed to no intervention, decrease later violent behavior in school?

14. Practice Exercise Describe a practice situation:
Ask a practice question:
Formulate a COPES question:
Client/problem Action Alternative Outcome
Identify question type: