Role of a Good Quality of Nursing - Essay Example

Running head: Qualitative Research Qualitative Research – The good quality of nursing reduces the intensity of psychological illness and increases patient’s satisfaction [Writer’s Name] [Institution’s Name] Qualitative Research The good quality of nursing reduces the intensity of psychological illness and increases patient’s satisfaction Introduction Healthcare is one of the most basic and important parts of our society. At some point our lives it affects everyone regardless of their age, gender, social status, living conditions etcetera. Since it is such a routine part of our lives most don’t consider any kind of research to be done on the topic, let alone delve into the qualitative aspect. Any context that influences our lives i.e. what we want to be ‘like’ coupled with how we wish to ‘appear’ can be undertaken in Qualitative research methods. Nursing is bound to affect each of us as people at some point of our lives or the other. Whenever a patient ends up getting admitted into a hospital it is a very frightening time for them because the environment is generally depressing and gloomy. If their caretakers i.e. doctors and nurses are also detached and stoic then they feel ill at ease and may actually fall into depression. Patients who already have a history of psychological problems need to be handled in a different way and this kind of behaviour can prove detrimental to their health. The point of focusing this study on nurses is that a nurse has more contact with the patient than the doctor does and hence plays a more active role on his psychological well being and vice versa; ergo if the nurse’s attitude is positive then the psychological illness that holds a patient may diminish. If the patient feels like he is not being taken care of properly then this will cause him further anxiety and make him ill at ease. If the nurses seem to be efficient and cheerful in their job then the patient will feel as though he is properly being taken care of, ergo he will be more relaxed and satisfied with the situation he is in. Since qualitative research is mostly taken to be like a social inquiry, the primary focal point of which is the way most interpret and make sense of their experiences in connection to the world they live in, it is perfect to analyze our topic. As per Atkinson et al. (2001) it is an ‘umbrella term’, and a number of different approaches exist within the wider framework of this type of research. This report seeks to construct a social inquiry based on these principles for nursing and the psychological wellbeing of the patients in connection to it. The qualitative approach is used to look into the human side of things with a rational perspective. It is unlike quantitative research which has a more scientific approach. That is not to say that qualitative approaches are not scientific; indeed they are also taken as a technical study. Although such methods maybe scientific, but they have their own definitive philosophical foundations that fit well with the qualitative worldview and methods that stay true to these beliefs and values. Instead of focusing on the statistical or mechanically mathematical side of the story, a qualitative view will give a real-world interpretation of any research topic, but is just as rigorous as any other scientific method of research. Multiplicity, simultaneity, perceptivity, polyvocality, multiple realities and individual cultural social construction of reality, are all characteristics of a qualitative research design (Munhall 2006). In a way this kind of research intertwines two worlds, which also presents another set of complications that will be discussed further on. In general there are a number of different factors that need to be taken into consider with qualitative research and we will look through them one by one. Questions Our topic at hand is that good nursing will eventuality lead to a diminutive trend in psychological illnesses and lead to a higher level of patient satisfaction. In order to find out whether this is true or not the questions need to consider what all the individuals involved are feeling about their situation. The questions need to focus on the meaning of the answers themselves (Polit & Beck 2004). What should a patient be feeling in the situation that they are in? What is a normal reaction and what is an abnormal reaction? How does the reaction of the subject influence the result of the research and what implications do their answers have on the overall hypothesis. Literature review The help of a literature review will also be taken to compare the argument of this paper against the study done by Wilkes et al., (2008) titled ‘Positive attitude in cancer: The nurse’s perspective,’ which is a qualitative research on the difference the nurses positive attitude made on the overall welfare and psychological uplifting of cancer patients. The abstract states that there were eight volunteer female nurses chosen for the study. The report gave up three conclusions: patients accepted their disease; there was a fighting spirit within them and an overall positive outlook on the situation. Similarly, it will be seen that if the quality of nursing is good then the patients will experience a much lower intensity of psychological illness and will increases the patient’s overall satisfaction. Methodology Qualitative research is undertaken through a variety of methods. Our particular topic deals with the state of minds of both the nurses and the patients i.e. it is the attitude of the nurses that causes an effect on the wellbeing of the patients. Often the main question that a researcher needs to find answers to is nothing more than what a person experienced at certain events. The best way to answer this question is to find what from the person firsthand what he feels. Here the researcher will have to ask both the nurses and the patients their views of the entire situation. In order to interpret or come up with any conclusions to his research he first needs to develop a list of questions to ask his subjects. All aspects of the methodological technique of the grounded theory need to take place at the same time. The researcher will not observe and collect datum, organize it and then analyse it; he must perform all these tasks all together. There is a continuous comparative process where every piece of information needs to be put up against everything else to form some kind of association or comparison. Phenomenology This technique will be used to study the aspects of human values, culture and relationships in order to be better understand the human perspective of the situation regardless of the statistical data, any theories, assumptions or inferences that have been concluded in the past. The method can be taken as both a research tool and a kind of philosophy. There is no set singular reality that is to be look upon in this method, but each individual is given space to form their own reality and their own perception of the situation that they are in. In fact, even the researcher’s reality is subject to his experiences and those too can come through while collecting and analysing the given data (Tomey & Alligood 2006). Through this method we can try and uncover the experiences of the subjects i.e. the patients and the nurses in terms of the effect the nurses have on the depression levels and psychological health of the patients. In the works, ‘Nursing models for practice’ we are told to consider four different facets of whatever a human being goes through. A phenomenology researcher should look at the spatiality of his subject i.e. the environment that the subject exists in. In this case it will be the hospital premises; he also needs to look at the relationships that his subject has in his life for e.g. family and friend, in the case of nursing research he needs to look at how the subjects are reacting to each other and what their bond is like; the amount of time that goes by during the research is also of utmost importance, long term and short term results are always different, where short term maybe sporadic but long term will give some kind of pattern; last but not the least he needs to look at the corporeality of his subjects (Pearson et al. 1996). The entire point of taking all of these factors into account is the very fact that for each individual his perception of events and his take of these things will be significantly different than another person. While a nurse may think she is cheerful and happy around a patient, a patient may perceive her as intrusive and annoying. It’s all about how a person looks at things and this should be taken into account. What may please a man in the company of his family might displease him in their absence; a human’s perspective is like a human’s life i.e. ever evolving and ever changing. Sampling After coming up with the questionnaire then the samples for that questionnaire must be identified. People who are eager to become a part of the research are needed at this point to come forward so that their experiences can be documented. Their emotions and feelings are to be investigated through these questions. This form of data collection can take place through different methods. The researcher can go and observe his subjects in action first hand. He can also prepare interviews that engage the people he is talking to in an interactive way. The patients/nurses can also be videotaped in their surroundings and then analyzed at a later point. The people participating in the study could also keep written accounts of their experiences in the duration of the time that they are attached with the research (Saldana 2003) The researcher will normally begin work as soon as he has the first batch of data available in hand. His first analysis of the people involved in the study will form the basis of his later data collection. The informants in all sessions need to be fully engaged in the questions that are being presented to them. The data that is collected will then be presented in a phenomenological way. The conclusion that the researcher gets to based on this data analysis will be his theoretical statement based on the research queries. The end result findings need to correspond with the overall data hence direct examples and evidence from the collected datum will be necessary and will be needed to justify the overall result (Morse & Field 1998). Grounded theory This is more a systematic method of qualitative research than a philosophy. Polit and Beck inform, “Grounded theory tries to account for actions in a substantive area from the perspective of those involved. Grounded theory researchers seek to understand the actions by focusing on the main concern or problems that the individual’s behaviour is designed to resolve. The manner in which people resolve this main concern is called the core variable” (Polit & Beck 2008:230). The core variables have different types and one such variable is the basic social process (BSP). The theory usually follows an inductive tone and tries to resolve the BSP through people’s reactions to it. Its roots lie in the symbolic interaction theory and it has much in common with phenomenology. The symbolic interaction theory looks at how reality is defined according to different people and how they shape their beliefs according to the reality they construct around them. Language, religion, food, clothing etcetera, pretty much anything that people can place some kind of symbolic value on can be used to create their perceptions. These symbols then become the cornerstones of all their interactions and the way they behave. These symbols vary for each individual because their perception of reality varies a great deal. You can however group together certain individuals who share symbols i.e. two ethnic Tamil Indians (Taylor & Anderson 2005). So basically baseball fans, people who are into black magic, supporters of Obama etcetera can all be placed into neat little categories and grouped together because their responses to different stimuli would more or less come as the same, theoretically. By using this theory a group can be analysed in terms of the effects a nurse’s attitude has on them. For example one group could be given a nurse with an upbeat and positive attitude and the other could be given a nurse with a stoic and lifeless attitude. These groups would have the experience of their nurses in common and hence their datum would reflect this fact overall. The result of the two could then be compared to see which one fares better to prove or disprove the hypothesis of this proposal. Data collection As it was for the phenomenology side of things, data can once again be taken in through direct interviews and observations or it can be recorded in journals by the subjects involved. The only difference is that this data will be in a constant process of being analysed. The sample that is to be used here needs to fall between 30-50 people who need to be thoroughly interviewed regarding the research question. At the end of the study the researcher will most likely end up with an enormous amount of notes, transcripts, taped conversations both in audio and video form etcetera. The data will be further categorized and then classified into sections. There will of course be problems with the datum as there is always the potential for subjects lying or shying away from telling the truth. Researchers can also be, “guided in their thinking by earlier results in a manner restrictive to their theorizing. They should try to avoid this pitfall by regularly analysing their own research and thinking processes with respect to the potential effect of being knowledgeable about prior literature.” (Neergaard & Ulhoi 2007) Outcome Morse, Penrod and Hupcey (2001) outlined a process called the qualitative outcome analysis, which is basically a modus operandi which assists in the direct translation of grounded theory to practice through the development and evaluation of data. Evidence has to support all the research that is being presented by the report and the theory needs to correspond with the data collected. In the end the report is merely a narrative symposium of the entire research and its findings. Ethical considerations The last few decades have seen an increase in the number of qualitative researches based on the health sector. These reports and their findings end up in many a medical journal and have a considerable impact on people who follow suck items. The healthcare industry itself is not a small one and cannot be dismissed at a glance. There is now an emerging debate over the ethical aspects of such research. Qualitative research comes under more scrutiny when it comes to the ethical contexts of the studies. There are the issues of consent from the subjects, their confidentiality and at times anonymity; privacy is a key problem. The main idea behind qualitative research is to gain an insight into the human experience of any issue. Any human experience, especially one related to a health issue, requires the researcher access to personal and sensitive information from his subjects. He is trying to collect data on a number of things and a person’s innermost feelings are one of them. Such methods may cause distress and anxiety in the patients that are being probed for answers. Since each individual’s perception of reality is different, there is no way of knowing what might trigger a panic attack in one person that would otherwise seem normal to someone else (Wheeler & Holloway 2002). At times a researcher is too set in his idea of what his findings will conclude and forgets the wellbeing of his subjects in trying to reach that conclusion. This may lead to exploitation and general feeling of distrust and emotional damage can also take place. If such a situation presents itself the researcher isn’t just compromising his subjects, he is also compromising his results because of the altered state of mind of the participants. The power imbalance that is created cannot be resolved easily. If the researcher also happens to be a medical professional then he/she can assert undue pressure on the subjects and may end up asking questions that have nothing to do with the research and are altogether too personal (Hadjistavropoulos & Smythe 2001). The information that is put forward by any of the individuals that are participating in any study is extremely private. The entire aspect of this kind of study is to collect and record large amounts of data regarding people’s personal opinion and their personal lives. If that information is not handled with care and kept away from prying eyes then those people will feel violated. If they are somehow identified on the basis of the information they give then they maybe judged or prejudiced against or they just might feel violated. In any case such things need to be avoided at all costs. If the subjects that are in the research do not trust their interviewer then it is possible that his future in the field is very bleak. The priority should be to handle the profiles and information with utmost care and to make sure that that information stays safe. Importance in the Health and Human services sector If it can be proven through this study that even a slight change can come in a patient’s attitude because of the behaviour of a nurse, and that slight change has to be considered a vital one. Generally hospitals tend to scare people and most that have a considerable disease feel great anxiety, stress and often go spiralling down into depression. In the event that they don’t think they are receiving adequate care then this anxiety and depression become much worse. A patient needs to feel comfortable in the environment that he is in, in order to improve his/her health. The psychological impact of one’s surrounding is great. If the patient believes that the nurse is not paying enough attention to him and he is not being taken care of properly then that will affect him in a greatly adverse way. The health sector needs to take note of this factor through the findings based on this paper and see for themselves the effect a nurse can have on a patient. References Alan Pearson, Barbara Vaughan, Mary FitzGerald (1996). Nursing models for practice: Elsevier Health Sciences. Ann Marriner-Tomey, Martha Raile Alligood (2006). Nursing theorists and their work: Elsevier Health Sciences. Atkinson, P., Coffey, A. & Delamont, S. (2001) A debate about our canon. Qualitative research, 1 (1) 5-21. Denise F. Polit, Cheryl Tatano Beck (2004). Nursing research: principles and methods: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Denise F. Polit, Cheryl Tatano Beck (2008). Nursing research: generating and assessing evidence for nursing practice, Nursing Research: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Hadjistavropoulos, T., & Smythe, W. (2001). Elements of Risk in Qualitative Research. Ethics & Behavior, 11(2), 163-174. Helle Neergaard, John P. Ulhoi (2007). Handbook of qualitative research methods in entrepreneurship: Edward Elgar Publishing. Hupcey, J., Penrod, J., Morse, J., & Mitcham, C. (2001). An exploration and advancement of the concept of trust. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 36(2), 282-293. Immy Holloway, Stephanie Wheeler (2002). Qualitative research in nursing: Wiley-Blackwell Janice M. Morse, Peggy Anne Field (1998). Nursing Research: The Application of Qualitative Approaches: Nelson Thornes. Margaret L. Andersen, Howard Francis Taylor (2005). Sociology: understanding a diverse society: Cengage Learning. Munhall, Patricia L., (2006) Nursing research: a qualitative perspective: Jones & Bartlett Publishers. O'Baugh, J., Wilkes, L., Luke, S., & George, A. (2008). Positive attitude in cancer: The nurse's perspective. International Journal of Nursing Practice, 14(2), 109-114. Saldana, Johnny (2003). Longitudinal qualitative research: analyzing change through time: Rowman Altamira. Read More