Qualitative Design - Research Proposal Example

Qualitative Research Design Student Name: Student Number: Introduction Management of chronic conditions can be quite challenging task to caregivers and patient’s relatives. This document is a qualitative research proposal dealing with the topic of management of chronic condition. It illustrates various paradigms within the nursing concept. It includes the methodological phenomena that will be used in the overall analysis or research process. (Alreck, 1985) The proposal begins with the statement of the research problem and the methodological approach that will be used so as to carry out the research on the sought after research question already stated. It also illustrates the importance of the research and how it will impact various stakeholders. Further, a justification and critique of the methodological approach chosen for the research is put forth for better understanding; followed by a discussion on the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of the methodology that would guide the overall research study. The methodological perspective chosen for this paper is ‘An assessment or management of Chronic Condition’ where the chronic conditions have been identified to be HIV AIDS. The client group to be focussed in this paper are ‘Women with low levels of income within a society’. There are various sexually transmitted diseases that are quite prevalent in the twenty first century. HIV AIDS continues to be an eyesore in the society. This is both in developing nations. Although, it is a disease that affects all despite their income levels, the majorly hit populations are low income level groups basically due to the lack of awareness towards the resources available to prevent these or otherwise the lack of arrangement for such resources. This paper looks at three research paradigms. They include ethnography paradigm, interpretive paradigm and finally the action research paradigm. This paper therefore looks at the experience of suffering from chronic HIV AIDS. Other aspects dealt with in this paper include social cultural paradigms associated with management of HIV AIDS disease in the infected people. This is mainly in relation to the way the society deals with the affected people among them. This paper deals with the marginalized group of low income people especially women, in the society. (Bridgit, 2005) They are a marginalised set of people due to various factors that affect them. This includes lack of financial resources to visit healthcare centres. Most of low income people tend to live in rural areas where they cannot easily access educational resources such as books, pamphlets and brochures that deal with management of HIV AIDS pandemic. Research Question/problem & methodological approach to be used The research statement to be targeted in this research proposal is: ‘An analysis of the social and cultural implications which led to the chronic condition of HIV AIDS being at a critical state among the women with low income’. In this statement low income will be classified as the income of the family being at or below the poverty line. As far as the methodology to be applied in this regard, Interpretive paradigm (Ethnography) would be the most appropriate one to discuss the socio-cultural implications of the management of a chronic condition. Management of chronic conditions can be quite a hectic task. This is more so among HIV patients in marginalized communities. There are so many HIV patients among the Aboriginal people who live in Australia. This is especially among the people living in most remote areas of Australia. They are grouped as low income people with very little or no education. These people still hold onto traditional healing methods where they highly use herbs and crude methods of treating the sick among them. They are susceptible to many ailments that attack HIV AIDS patients. (Bridgit, 2006). The problem lies in the fact that the Aboriginal people continue to share treatment equipment without the knowledge of the risk of spreading HIV AIDS to the whole population among their folks. The worries in this scenario is that the pandemic might end up wiping out all this human race who seem to be oblivious of their traditional healing practices even in managing chronic HIV AIDS. This research will put to rest the worries of having all Aboriginal people wiped out by the AIDS pandemic. The lack of this research may end up causing irreparable harm to Aboriginal low income people as they succumb to the HIV AIDS pandemic. (Denscombe, 2003). Research Significance to Health Related Practice This research is a very essential research. The management of this chronic condition has become a necessity owing to the severity that HIV AIDS weakens individual’s immune system. This leads to cases where HIV patients are susceptible to many other ailments. Some of these infections are parasitic, fungal, viral and still others are bacterial. Most of the diseases tend to manifest more in populations where people do not get adequate treatment. It will enable the government to put in place proper measures to ensure that HIV AIDS is managed among low income Aboriginal people in the nation. The research will be used to educate the Aboriginals and will be an eye opener on practices that may be enhancing the spread of HIV AIDS. Health practitioners will greatly benefit from this research because they will be in position to know the extent to which low income Aboriginals are affected by HIV AIDS. This will help them to put in place relevant strategies as far as managing this chronic disease in among this marginalized group of people is concerned. This includes coming up with better health home care for patients suffering from chronic HIV AIDS among low income Aboriginal people in Australia. (Burgess, 1989) Justification for the application of proposed Methodology The foremost thing to be mentioned is that ‘Ethnographic interpretive paradigm’ specifically describes culture and the social way of life from the native point of view which is exactly the aim of our research statement. This methodology would enable us to reach to the roots of the alleged chronic condition and build a fundamental understanding based on which several radical changes or modifications may be identified, brought about or proposed. It is best suited in this context more so because of it refers both to a process of research (original fieldwork and the reorganisation and editing of materials for presentation) and the presentation of the research itself. The outcome is more of learning oriented than a mere study of the client group which is another advantage. Specifically, in this research, the aim is to describe a particular behaviour and describe the reason behind and the circumstances involved which led to the development of the behaviour which ultimately results in the chronic condition. Theoretical underpinning of Ethnography This paper deals with the chronic disease of HIV AIDS among low income people in Australia. As illustrated earlier HIV patients are usually susceptible to many other ailments such as tuberculosis, herpes simplex and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma among others. Low income people are even affected the more due to lack of healthcare centres around them and poor diets that are deemed to be quite imperative in the well being of HIV patients. (Pound, 1995) It is quite imperative that that all the phenomenological paradigms in this scenario are critically analysed so as to ascertain all the experiences of management of HIV AIDS among marginalized communities. This will play a great role in avoiding the overall presumptions and biases of the individual researcher. (Kerridge, 2006) In coming up with relevant information on this subject, primary research among low income marginalized HIV AIDS patients will help accrue all the relevant data. This includes direct experience among the target group of this research. This will help in accrual of pure phenomena necessary for the conclusions to be drawn accordingly. The stated problem statement will be analysed through an overall evaluation of patients suffering from chronic HIV ailment. This is because this group of people is clearly categorized under the phenomenological research. Real experiences of the target group of people will be thoroughly analysed and relevant conclusions drawn. This will be thoroughly descriptive research that will describe the phenomenon of managing chronic HIV AIDS among low income people and families. It is quite imperative to note that theoretical assumptions of the researcher will not hold water in this research but rather the real experience of respondents who are patients suffering from chronic HIV AIDS. This phenomenological research will allow the gathering of relevant information from patients that are suffering from chronic HIV AIDS. (Luciano, 2006) This includes analysis of the social cultural parameters among the target group of people. In this case, the problem statement in perspective pertains to the social cultural factors that are negatively affecting the management of patients suffering from chronic HIV AIDS. Each and every society usually has cultural values and beliefs which the group of people therein strongly holds onto. For instance, the Aboriginal people in remote areas strongly believe that it is quite wrong to visit healthcare centres. They believe that expectant mothers have to give birth at home and the sick among them are treated by traditional medicine men. (Marshall, 1996) The medicine men use crude tools and equipment which are shared among many people without proper sterilization. This tends to increase the susceptibility of the people to the spread of HIV AIDS. Ethnographic research seeks to ascertain the socio-cultural perspectives of a specific preposition. This is where the overall plethora of observations and learning accrued from ethnicity illustrates the affiliation in the target group of people. This shows the role culture in instigating the low income Aboriginal people to shun away from external homecare givers who are not part and parcel of their family members. Through ethnographic research, various contextual frameworks that pertain to cultural influence on prevalence or spread of HIV AIDS among Aboriginal people will be thoroughly explained. This includes the role played by ideologies, beliefs, and cultural values in practices that enhance spread of HIV AIDS among the target group of this research. (Pattison, 2004) This will seek to analyse all the cultural practices among Aboriginal people in the remote areas starting from birth to handling of the dead. This will help in unearthing many social cultural factors that have been playing a negative role in management of patients suffering from HIV AIDS in this group of people. Data collection methods Diverse data collecting methods would be employed for this research. Main aim would be to conduct a primary research and collect first hand data through interviews, questionnaires and subtle observation. The client group of this qualitative research would be the low income women (mostly aboriginal) suffering from chronic HIV AIDS. Inclusion of the traditional doctors among the Aboriginal people would also be used as respondents during data collection. Interviews will be incorporated among data collection methodologies. Research assistants will have questions well prepared before hand. This method will be used because it allows the researcher to get clarification from the respondents concerning their feedback. The respondents can clearly elaborate on what they mean by their answers. (Denzin, 2005) Also, questionnaires will be used to collect relevant data for this research. The questionnaire papers will not be left with the respondents. They will be carried by research assistants and filled by the research assistants in the presence of the respondents. This is because of the prevalence of illiteracy levels among the target group of people. (Dooley, 2001) Sampling and recruitment strategies Random sampling method will be used to identify respondents for interviews. This type of sampling is quite rigorous and well defined. It will allow a good representation of the target population hence leading to valid generalisations. This method will be highly used to choose respondents since the research characteristics are well distributed among the target population. This also includes parameters such as attitudes believes and values that are normally distributed. Another sampling strategy that will be used in this research is judgement sampling technique. This is also known as purposeful sampling. It is quite essential that ethics be considered even during the sampling process. In this case, all respondents should only be chosen with their informed consent. This means that research assistants will have to confirm before hand from the respondents on their willingness and availability to give required information. In order to avoid decline from targeted people, the village elders will be used by first selling the idea to them. This is in relation to explaining to them the essence of the research and how it will benefit them. (John, 1996) Data management The data collected in this research will be handled with a lot of care. All the information recorded by research assistants will be forwarded to their leader who will keep it safely in a well safeguarded place. This will help protect the records and data from any emergencies such as fire, natural disasters etc. (Rossi, 1983) The materials will then be handed over to the researcher after every two weeks. The information will be handled with a lot of confidentiality. The researcher will be responsible for all management of the data collection process. He will also be in charge of retaining all the data from the target population. There will be an orderly system of organising the collected data which the researcher will communicate to all administrative personnel and the research assistants. The data will be kept safely by the researcher until the final report is successfully accomplished. Hard copies as long as soft copies of collected data will be well kept safely for future reference. (Glaser, 1968) Data analysis After the data is collected, it has to be analysed and conclusions drawn. This is also a very imperative step of the research process. In this research, after all relevant data is collected through previously illustrated means, it will be coded. Coding is a mechanism or technique that is used to organise the data collected from field research. This helps to easily interpret the data in methods that are quantitative in nature. In this case, the researcher will read all the collected information and carry out overall demarcation of the segments. Each segment will then given a word or code with which all the information in the segment will be identified. (Quinn, 2006) After coding, a summary will be carried out in relation to the prevalence of the words or codes and the overall relationships among them. Computer programs will also be incorporated in making the coding exercise much easier. The criticism of coding is the fact that it tends to change qualitative research into quantitative paradigms. Miller, G. (1997) Graphs will be drawn in relation to the data collected. The graphs will be compared and contrasted and the relevant conclusions drawn. The relative standard curve method will also be used in data analysis. Through this method, the final information will be very reliable. In this method curves are used to analyse the overall effectiveness of each method. Part of the information will also be compiled into excel spreadsheets, analysed and conclusions drawn. Ethical considerations Ethics are values or principle by which a person acts basing on those principles. Ethical values are main beliefs such as duty, respect and integrity that inspire actions and attitudes of a person. Some values are unethical, ethical values do relay what is considered right and what is seen as wrong. Various factors have to be considered when carrying out this research, they include; aspects of justice, respect of the respondents and their point of view and finally beneficence. All these are very essential for the research to be successful. (Gray, 2004) One of the ethical considerations for this research is confidentiality. This research requires high level of confidentiality since some of the respondents are HIV AIDS patients and their personal information has to be held with high level of confidentiality. This is one of the ethical considerations that stakeholders such as research assistants, administrative personnel and the researcher have to adhere to. Any information that is deemed to be false or likely to jeopardize the validity of the study will be disregarded during the process of analysis. Another ethical consideration for this research is the fact that all the respondents have to be informed before hand. This will help them to be prepared and to avoid resistance. As a matter of ethical practice, no actual names will be used during the whole process of the study. To avoid the divulgence of identities, the researcher will use subject letter variables throughout the study. (Jackson, 1970) Limitations of methodology Despite the myriad advantages associated with qualitative research methodology, it also has its disadvantages. Research shows that most qualitative samples tend to be quite small as compared to the target population. This results in high probability of sampling error and in such cases biases are absolutely inevitable. There are also chances that research characteristics may not be equally distributed in the target population. This limits the validity of data collected from random samples. Qualitative methodology tends to be quite time consuming making it very hard to cover all the targeted area or population. (Patten, 2004) This method is also limited in the sense that the results of the research cannot be extended to a wider population as compared to quantitative methodology. It can also be quite challenging in cases where there is language barrier between respondents and research assistants. This can result in a case where there is distortion of information altogether. Sometimes questionnaires administered can fail to be filled or even submitted back by the respondents. (Crabtree, 1992) Conclusion This research relates to the management of chronic condition HIV AIDS. It specifically relates to the management of HIV AIDS among Aboriginal people living in the remote areas of Australia. Qualitative research methodology will be used. This is because the data needed in this research is quite descriptive in nature. This research is quite significant since it help stakeholders to put in place measures that will help in overall management of HIV AIDS among this marginal group. Methods of collecting data that will be used include; questionnaires, interviews, observation, focus groups and secondary sources. Data analysis will then be carried out by use of coding, graphical methods and computerised techniques. Ethical considerations will be upheld such as confidentiality, beneficence and informed consent. All these aspects will play a great role in accrual of relevant data. Read More