Qualitative Research Designs in Nursing
Introduction
A qualitatively designed research study is often used by scientific researchers in the study of human habits and behaviors as well as related phenomena. This research design makes use of smaller sample sizes to carry out its research. On the hand, phenomenology defines subjective experiences and their study. Phenomenology relies on the use of qualitative research designs. It involves carrying out empirical observations which are then documented and analyzed. The resultant analytical results are then used in making inferences and testing the postulated hypotheses of the study.
An analysis of the research (‘Lived Experiences of the Time Preceding Burnout’)
The researchon -Lived Experiences of the Time Preceding Burnout’-applied a qualitative research design that sampled eight patients suffering from burn out. The hypothesis postulated was consistent with what would be expected hypothetically. This was due to the fact that a person’s life and stress level is influenced by the life s/he leads before the onset of extreme cases of stress (‘Qualitative Research’, 2010). Therefore, a positive correlation was anticipated between the occurrence of a burn-out situation and stressful life that may have preceded the burn-out. (Fabergerg, 2005).Despite the fact that the anticipated inference was drawn, I felt the results were not convincing. This was because partly the research design may not have been effective for this particular research. The research design as outlined under the methodology statement may be unable to give statistically convincing results because of the inherent weaknesses that the design bears.
Weaknesses in the design used in implementing the research
Any research in the medical field is meant to draw a general conclusion/inference that would be representative of the whole population. Therefore, any conclusion reached should give a hypothetical situation that is applicable to the whole population. The observable fault in this research involved the sampling of a small group of patients from the population and using them without qualifying the sample’s capacity to truly represent the general population. This non-probability sampling would result to a sampling bias and consequently sampling errors.The sampling method used would not give a clear picture of the general population. This was because of the lack of considerations about the factor of homogeneity amongst the subjects as well as heterogeneity in the wider population (Som, 1996). This is because the environment of the sampled interviewees-that could have played a role in their pre-burn-out lives-was most probably similar. As a result, this could give erroneous results because the sample used may not have been a true representative that could offer a substantial statistical inference. As a result, it may be necessary to re-design the experiment in order to give credibility to the results that may be achieved and the inference that will be made from the results. The objective of this research was to establish the correlation between lived experiences in the pre-burn-out stage and the occurrence of burn-out in an individual (Fabergerg, 2005).
The research design used makes use of a less homogenous, single and small sample. However, it happens that the causative agents of burn-out related to pre-burn-out times could vary in any population based on factors such as environment, gender and age. Therefore, the inference drawn from these results may only be applicable or relevant narrow section of the population to which the sampling was applied. Thus, it would be difficult to draw a statistical inference that could be universally acceptable and applicable or at least plausible for a greater number of occurrences. The use of a qualitative cross-sectional study would have better served the purpose and aim of this research. According to Shuttleworth (2009) the method applies a wider scope of sampling conducted along the strata of a population. This achieves the element of heterogeneity because the samples are applied across differing ages, gender, ethnicities as well as social background set ups. The method draws many samples that are heterogeneous, but; still manages to retain its qualitative nature because the sample sizes are maintained at a small size of sample size. This research design provides a large number of samples that can be analyzed for other multivariate influential factors that may influence burn-out’s occurrence. This research model provides a better design for preliminary research that will identify specific population groups or exposure type that influences burn-out’s occurrence. Then thereafter, other methods such as longitudinal qualitative research design can be applied to make an in-depth research on the identified groups.
Conclusion
The application of this method would have made the results more credible because the wider sampling done gives the data collected a representative element of the general population. This is a factor that was lacking in the first method that was applied in the research. This is due to the fact that the wider the sample the more likely it is to be a true representative of the general population (Shuttleworth, 2009). This sampling method also takes care of other variants that may influence the results and inferences because the wide sampling creates heterogeneity that includes differing environments, gender, age and ethnicity.
References
Fabergerg, M. E. (2005). Lived Experiences of the Time Preceding Burnout. Journal of Advanced Nursing, volume 49, issue 1, pp 59–67.
‘Qualitative Research’, (2010). Carspecken’s five-stage critical qualitative research method: An application to nursing research. Retrieved January 22, 2010, from http://qhr.sagepub.com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/cgi/reprint/16/1/151
Shuttleworth, M. (2009). Research Design: Cross-sectional Study. Retrieved from, http://www.experiment-resources.com/cross-sectional-study.html, viewed on 2ndJune 2010.
Som, K. R. (1996). Practical Sampling Techniques, second edition. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
Is this your assignment or some part of it?
We can do it for you! Click to Order!
