How Organ Donation Is Affected by Individual Donor Consent and Family-Based Refusal - Research Proposal Example

A Research on How Organ Donation is affected by Individual Donor Consent and Family-based Refusal? Student’s Name Institution A. Research Background Research indicates that there continues to be a significant gap that exists between organ transplantation and potential deceased donors within the United Kingdom as a whole. This attributed to the fact that organ donation is still a voluntary phenomenon amongst the people, which means that without their consent; NHS does not have the permission to extract any meaningful body parts thereby resulting to more deaths in the organs transplant waiting list. To counter this unfortunate event, potential donors across the country are requested to express their willingness and capacity to donate their functional working body parts by way of registering with the NHS Organ Donor Register while also ensure to sign organ donor card. In essence, these potential donors are also encouraged to discuss their donation willingness with their next-of-kin given that numerous studies indicate a refusal of donation from the relatives. Statistically, it is ascertained that more than 500 families have at one time or another refused to donate their organs of their next of kin regardless of their next of kin awareness on the deceased’s well-known consent on the same. Some governments like welsh have ensured to formulate the Human Transplantation Act 2013 to legalise the use of soft presumed consent for purposes of mitigating possible familial dynamics that emanate from informed consent. There has also been extensive UK-based campaign like the gift-of-life to promote awareness on organ donation. For this case, the research problem lies in finding out the best way possible that could foster the awareness of organ donation and its importance to the entire UK society. Notably, the research gap for this study rests in ascertaining why most people remain sceptical about organ donation despite showing their willingness during campaigns. Research Question: ‘In what ways is organ transplantation affected by aspects related to individual potential donor consent and familial refusals?’ B. Rationale for Research Strategy Research indicates that a workable and easy-to-formulate research design is indeed helpful given that it fosters a smooth transition of numerous research operations hence allowing for research to be efficient and effective; an aspect that results to maximum information gathering with minimal level of expenditure of efforts, time and cash resources (Kothari, 2004). In consequence, a research strategy seeks to ensure that is prior planning of the different set of techniques that would be used for the purpose of collecting relevant set of data as well as the technique that should be adopted in their immediate analysis. It is worth to note and understand that the entire preparation process for an appropriate research design should be executed with notable care since possible errors that might be present in it can result to inadequate project accomplishments (Kothari, 2004). Of particular interest to note, effective research strategy has definite bearing on the aspect of reliability of the end outcome and due to that, it confirms a firm foundation of the entire edifice of underlying research work. For this study, the most appropriate research design would be an exploratory research framework that is also known as formative research studies. This research design is deemed to be more appropriate in finding out the extent of mixed reactions from both potential donors and next-of-kin unwillingness to allow the extraction of organs (Kothari, 2004). It is important to note that exploratory research design focuses on the formulation of problems for more precise investigations. The investigation in this case rests with finding out three aspects; first, why even after agreeing to donate organs, the families of deceased donors going ahead to refuse possible extraction process. Secondly, it seeks to find out why even after showing the willingness and capacity to donate organs in the event of their death, potential donors still refuse to have their names in the NHS register for organ transplantation. In fact, such campaigns as the gift-of-life have been successful in their quest to have more of the population to register with organ transplantation agencies but still refuse to engage in the same whenever they time for registration nears. Third, the research further seeks to identify the measure of willingness of potential donors to allow extraction of body parts to be used for transplantation. This issue surrounds such aspects like the mode of cultural and social perception towards the entire activity. An exploratory research strategy will be of great significance to this study since it seeks to foster a smooth platform for gathering ideas and insights. In this regard, the research strategy should be flexible in a way that would allow for the provision of numerous opportunities needed for considering different aspects of the research problem under study. It is crucial for a research design to possess inbuilt flexibility since it allows for proper definition of the research problem at hand; and, also ensures a smooth transformation into a research problem that exhibits definite and precise meaning. Exploratory research strategy for our case is necessary because it avails three most applicable ways of going about the entire study at hand. First, it allows for the option of survey related to the concerned literature at hand. This technique allows for possible scrutiny, evaluation and adoption of hypothesis that had been stated earlier by researchers (Dilley, 2000). In the case of organ transplantation study, the researchers have hypothesised that the transplant technology is mostly shunned because it certainly arouses even deeper feelings of ambivalence especially amongst the lay population. Under this technique, the hypothesis is set to be reviewed extensively and their immediate usefulness considered as a basis for even further research process. In addition, the already laid out bibliographical survey of studies can be adopted in this case for purpose of deciphering the entire research problem formulated initially (Dilley, 2000). Necessary attempts can be made to ensure the application of numerous concepts and theories that are developed within the different research context and within the area for which the research is supposed to take precedence. Second, the technique allows for experience survey model that seeks to conduct immediate surveys for people that have had practical experience with the issue at hand. For this case, this people will both next-of-kin who refuse extraction of body parts despite consent from the deceased potential donor as well as the individual donors that have shown the willingness to engage in organ donation in the course of campaigns but fail to have their name registered with NHS. Experience survey is an appropriate model for this study because it allows for competent selection of respondents that can effectively contribute new ideas and insights related to their refusals to transplant technology and, also as a way of accommodating a significant level of experiences from different respondents (Dilley, 2000). Interestingly enough, the model would foster the researcher to interview only the preselected respondents whereby they are allowed to come up with an interview schedule for systematic questioning of informants. It is required that he interview conducted under the framework of this model be flexible enough in the sense that respondents are allowed to raise any potential issues and queries that the investigator might have not thought of prior. It is thus ascertained that the exploratory research design is evidently applicable for the study at hand since it fosters the gathering of information in this insight-stimulating case especially since it is directly related to individuals that are in transition of one state to another as well as finding out the reactions from people of different beliefs in relation to organ transplantation. C. Data Collection Procedure It is important to note that for every research problem, the aspect of data collection is considered to be the most important part since it allows for gathering of pertinent information related to the case at hand. For the case at hand, the most necessary data collection instrument to be administered would be interviews. An individual interview technique that greatly involves a face-to-face process with the respondent will be conducted. It is important to note that face-to-face interviews with a certain sample of respondents is deemed to be effective since it allows for the investigator to get up close and personal with the respondent while still being able to maintain an eye contact on their immediate body language. Considering the fact that the study seeks to ascertain the degree of perception of both a potential donor and their next-of-kin, personalised individuals would help to assess whether or not the respondents feel uncomfortable with certain aspects of organ transplantation process. Given that the research strategy focuses on evaluating a small number of people or rather sample population for this study then the personalised interview technique would be the most suitable model. Notably, in tandem with what the study seeks to achieve; finding out the aspects that affects organ transplantation in relation to potential donor consent and familial-based refusals, the interview would integrate both closed and open-ended questionnaires in the course of the interviewing process. Open-ended questionnaires are administered to elicit a free-form of answer from the respondent. On the other hand, close-ended interviews are only administered with the purpose of getting a yes/no answer. However, the interview would mostly adopt open-ended questions since they facilitate the investigator to find out more about organ transplant perception than what they anticipate; respondents will be allowed to share different perceptions and also show behaviours that could not be previously ascertained. In addition to this, the research design would adopt observation as a data collection process. The method allows the investigator to assess and collect information while halting interview model. Integration of both the interview and observation would allow the researchers to gather additional information that relates to people’s attitude on the issue of organ transplant. In regards to data collection process, the research strategy lies in conducting them in simultaneous pattern so that the respondents, who for this case are potential organ donors and next-of-kin registered with NHS, will be requested to provide their respective views relating to transplant technology. The researcher would ask the questions while still observing the respondent to ascertain their attitude and perception towards the issue topic at hand. Prior to administering the face-to-face interview process; the research strategy will first conduct a phone interview on the list of potential donors as well as their next-of-kin on whether they would be comfortable to provide information related to the entire topic at hand. This will be done prior to the face-to-face interview in order to come up with a definite sample population needed for data collection purpose. D. Reflection It is important to mention that the study would adopt an exploratory research survey design that will easily integrate interview and observation data collection techniques. Interviews will be beneficial to this form of study because of a myriad number of reasons. First, given that the study seeks to minimise the aspect of costs and wastage of time, integration of a structured set of questions with open-ended ones would result to the possibility of reaching a significant number of the sample population, which for this case is set to 200( 100 potential organ donors and 100- next-of-kin listed within the NHS database). In consequence, it is able to offer a representative sample where questions and solutions provided can be extrapolated and modelled to fit with the entire population under study. Considering the fact that the study seeks to find the definite level of reactions, the use of interview questions that are both open and close-ended would make it easier for the respondents to answer thereby allowing a rather clear and concise perspective that would result to getting even more elaborated opinions on organ transplant phenomenon. Under this strategy, the researcher is likely to enjoy autonomy as most of the questions posed are personal in nature. It can further said that the notion of using mostly unstructured questions in the interview rest with the fact that it is more flexible and adaptive as it solely focuses on the respondents way of answering the questions posed. Personally, I feel that the use of interviews in this form of research study lies with the fact that it possesses a rather deeper validation aspect and also enhances originality aspect since the researcher/investigator would focus on probing through the respondent in order to get some valued form of remarks as well as informational data and how they feel about the entire topic of organ donation as a whole. On the contrary, however; the research strategy is set to experience a number of limitations. For instance, I personally understand that even a good researcher will find it difficult to adopt extensive structured questions as they create an extensive set of quantitative data that would consume more time especially in evaluating and finding exact meanings of yes/no answers. To overcome this, I intend to include open-ended questions in the course as much as possible in order to ascertain that detailed information is collected. Ethical issues that might emanate from this study mainly involve keeping the personal information of the respondents in confidence. I understand that most of them would not want to have their information published anywhere else even within this study report and thus, in order to tackle this issue; I will have them sign a confidentiality document where the anonymity will be guaranteed. I also don’t intend share their privacy with any other third-party to eliminate possible conflict of interest. As a researcher, I will be involved in the interviews where I will administer the questions to the respondents myself while putting answers given down on paper or PC. To eliminate possible bias, I intend to frame questions that would only result to predetermined answers. References List Dilley, P. 2000. "Conducting Successful Interviews: Tips for Intrepid Research", Theory into Practice, vol.39, no.3, pp. 131-137 Kothari, C.R. 2004. Research Methodology: Methods and Techniques. New Age Publishers, New Delhi, 2nd Ed. ISBN (13): 978-81-224-2488-1 Appendix: Questions: 1. Do you support the aspect of organ donation in its entirety: Yes/No 2. Have you ever been asked to donate your organs at one time or another? Yes/No 3. Has any of your family asked you to be his/her next-of-kin in matters related to organ donation? Yes/No 4. In what ways has organ donation affected your perception of life and help towards others in the society? 5. Why do you think people refuse to offer their organs for future transplantation? What are the factors behind their refusals? 6. What are your views on the government trying to legalise automatic organ donation without getting consent from deceased’s next-of-kin? Do you support this system? If not, kindly elaborate on why you don’t? 7. Do you feel that when families of potential donors are compensated financially then they will be willing to offer consent to the organ donation process? Read More