This assignment is based on research methods and how they are employed in health care settings. It also explains the reasons for research and examples of different ways people have used it.

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Research Assignment        Task 1                

Introduction

This assignment is based on research methods and how they are employed in health care settings. It also explains the reasons for research and examples of different ways people have used it. I will discuss different types of research and how they affect the research that they will collect.

Qualitative and Quantitative

Qualitative methods are increasingly being used in health services research. Qualitative research looks at how to study people and their organisations in their natural settings. Qualitative researchers tend to look at problems and questions rather than produce and test hypotheses. Qualitative research describes in words rather than numbers and draws from a range of methods. It is particularly useful in areas where there is little pre-existing knowledge, where it is difficult or inappropriate to produce a hypothesis and where issues are complex and require in-depth exploration.

Quantitative research looks more towards the study of people and their organisations in their natural and social settings as they believe that there I no difference between the natural and social world. Quantative researchers tend to produce and test hypothesis rather than look at problems and questions. They tend to describe their work statistically in the representation of numbers. These researchers would tend to argue that their technique is more scientific, reliable and open to checking by other researchers.

(Lecturer notes 2002)

Primary and secondary data

The data used in a statistical survey, can be either primary data or secondary data.

Primary data is data that has been found by you and so you know were it came from and that it has never been used. Primary data costs more to produce and conduct. It has to be collected from a source. The source can be (A) personal investigator (B) a team of investigators or (C) questionnaires.

  1. Personal investigator is when you collect the information and data yourself and so you know it is reliable. You can do this by conducting interviews. The disadvantage of a personal investigator is that it takes time and money to produce the results.
  2. Team of investigators is mainly like the personal investigator but you work in a team. If you do this then it could be faster and easier and you may be able to collect more results in the same amount of time that you would conduct doing it on your own.
  3. A questionnaire can be done by approaching people on the street or sending out questionnaires through post. This is called a pilot survey. A questionnaire is quick and cheap but can also have its disadvantages, as people may not complete the forms and return them if they are posted or the information that they may have written may be false or have the wrong idea.
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In difference with secondary data to primary:

  • If anything is wrong with the data you will know if you produced it and so the results are reliable, whereas if somebody else produced it then there may have been problems that you don’t know about that may have affected the results of the data and so this means that the results may not be reliable
  • The data may not be totally suitable for its purpose

Secondary data is data that has already been found and used. Others may have used this information. Secondary data is more ...

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