Physical Health Care in People with Schizophrenia - Essay Example

"Physical Health Care in People with Schizophrenia" is a perfect example of a paper on care. Howard and Gamble (2011: p106) set out to investigate the practice and views of registered mental health nurses in care management and physical health assessment, specifically for adults with serious mental illness in an acute inpatient setting. The authors used a descriptive survey design with auditing of case notes and self-report questionnaires for their investigation. Descriptive survey research design mainly involved the selected participants answering questionnaires administered in form of questionnaires, which was a good fit for the research purpose because it ensures higher levels of generalizability in representing a large population (Rea & Parker, 2014: p41). Moreover, this method ensured good statistical significance due to its high representativeness, especially because it allowed for the use of multiple variables in analyzing the results, such as participant views on their role in care management and physical health assessment, level of confidence, and their training and education (Howard & Gamble, 2011: p107). In addition, this method also allowed for minimal observer subjectivity by ensuring that all participants had a standardized stimulus, in turn eliminating the bias of the researchers and increasing the reliability of the results.

            Hardy and Thomas (2012: p289), on the other hand, set out to investigate best practices in catering to people with mental illnesses and their physical care needs. The research method used to accomplish this aim was a meta-analysis research design, in which the researchers drew from published literature and contemporary policy papers. A meta-analysis is designed for the systematic assessment and summarization of results from different studies, specifically to understand the research problem through the use of synoptic reasoning. This method was effective for the study because it was effective for determining gaps that need to be filled in the present literature. Most importantly, this method allowed for the clarification of program or policy actions that are justifiable based on analyzing research findings from several studies (Bordens & Abbot, 2011: p32), thus allowing for the identification of best practices. Moreover, the researchers used the meta-analysis method because it allowed them to generate hypotheses, as well as highlight research issues and problems that require studying in the future, which they use to make recommendations. However, this method may have been quite time-consuming for the researchers, especially given that the sample size of the literature used in the study.

            Finally, Robson and Haddad (2012: p74) sought to develop and validate a measure of the attitudes of nursing staff towards physical health care for mentally ill patients. In this case, the method used for developing the measurement tool was the use of focus groups and postal questionnaires. The use of focus groups was advantageous for this study because it allowed the researchers to collect detailed information on the nurses’ opinions, feelings, and perceptions. In addition, the use of focus groups also provided the researchers with the opportunity to seek further clarification on specific answers, enriching the data, and strengthening the instrument under construction. However, the researchers may have faced several challenges in using this method, especially in relation to some participants feeling intimidated or under pressure to agree with the other nurses’ dominant views. With regards to the use of questionnaires, the researchers were able to cover more people and increase the size of the study’s sample, while also reducing the effect of researcher bias and improving honesty (Leedy & Ormrod, 2013: p29). However, the researchers were not able to readily observe the respondents’ body language, reducing their ability to enrich the data and the instrument under construction.  

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