Data Collection and Recruitment Essay Paper

1) Provide three example questions, one for each category that can be defined as a structured, semi-structured, and unstructured interview question. Provide a short justification for each choice.
2) What are some issues you are likely to encounter with a study that focuses on childhood disease and illness? For example, what ethical and legal issues must you consider, and how can you cope with such issues as retention?
3) Describe three techniques, methods, or recommendations you can use to promote retention in a study.

Data Collection and Recruitment

Part 1.

An interview is a primary data collection process that can be conducted in either of three approaches. The first approach is structured interview questions. They make use of questions that require planning and creation in advance with all the interviewees being asked the same set of questions in the same order. This makes it easier to compare the results, allowing for the interviewees and their responses to be evaluated in a fair and objective many. Also, it allows for legally defensible evaluations as the same set of questions is used. For instance, a structured interview can be presented as: “Do you think that nursing services provided in the clinic are poor, average, good or excellent?” This example is a closed-ended structured question since it is phrased in a manner that elicits a limited range of responses with the interviewees answers defined in advance to either one of the four pre-coded responses. Other than a closed-ended structured question, interviewees can be subjected to open-ended structured questions. For example: “Do you know how to administer the medication?” This is an open-ended question that helps with capturing as much information as possible (Leavy, 2014).

The second approach is semi-structured interview questions. They make use of few predetermined questions interspersed with spontaneously generated questions. They combine structured and unstructured questions with the intention of capturing the advantages that each type offers. Data Collection and Recruitment Essay Paper  They allow for the interviewees to be compared objectively while offering opportunities for emerging topics to be extemporaneously explored. For instance, an interviewer would ask: “I’d like to hear how the changes in the clinic billing system have affected you?” The interviewee could answer: “They are a pain, complicating the whole process. I would prefer using the old billing system.” The interviewer would then ask a follow up question: “In what way has the new billing system been a pain?” These set of semi-structured questions and response show that the interviewer focuses on a topic area. The open-ended nature of the questions defines the topic area while offering opportunities for more in-depth discussions. Also, prompts and cues are used to encourage further consideration of the question with the interviewer free to probe the interviewee to elaborate on the initial response or follow up a line of inquiry introduced by the previous question (Leavy, 2014).

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The third approach is unstructured interview questions. They make use of questions that are not prepared in advance. Instead, the interviewer in a free-flowing conversation spontaneously presents the questions with the different interviewees subjected to different questions. It adopts a personalized approach to understand the dramatically different experiences of the interviewees. The intention is to have a honest and natural interviews that appears casual and places the interviewees at ease. This makes it easier to compare the answers and evaluate the interviewees objectively and equally since each one is asked a different set of questions. For instance, an interviewer could ask: “I’d like to hear your views on affordable care act?” Subsequent questions would then be based on the responses from the interviewee. This approach allows the interviewer to explore a specific topic without preconceived expectations as to how to proceed with the interview (Leavy, 2014).    Data Collection and Recruitment Essay Paper

Part 2.

Any research focusing on children as subjects/participants presents some ethical and legal issues. There are six ethical and legal issues of concern. Firstly, the principle of nonmaleficence that requires the researcher to avoid exposing the children participants to harmful experiences that are adopted from extrapolations from experiences with adult subjects or adopted without evidence. Secondly, the principle of beneficence that requires the researcher to apply evidence-based care generated from research specific to children. Thirdly, the principle of distributive justice that requires the researcher to make high quality care available to all populations of children, including vulnerable populations. Fourthly, respect for persons that includes respect for autonomous decision-making. This requires that researchers attend to the elements of informed consent, with a focus on capacity to understand the research information, voluntariness and adequate information. Responsibility for participation consent by children without the capacity to provide informed consent is vested in their guardians and participants who are assumed to always act in the child’s best interest. Still, it is important to note that even if the parents/guardians provide consent for participants, children retain the right to withdraw the consent during the course of the research. That is because they may develop the ability to consent as the study proceeds and they become aware of the different aspects of the research study. Besides that, it is important to note that children’s experiences and illness could hinder their capacity to make consent decisions, especially when the information is overwhelming in volume or too complex. In addition, familial/parental pressure could curb a child’s voluntariness (O’Reilly et al., 2013).

Fifthly, conflict of interest and coercion could be an ethical concern. It is rooted in financial, academic and personal gains. These are descriptions of the researcher and are not an indication of intent or character. The researcher must avoid conflicts of interest since they could undermine the research confidence. Additionally, any unavoidable conflict of interest should be disclosed to allow the participants to make judgments about potential bias inherent in the research situation. Also, the researcher should ensure that fiduciary responsibility about the child’s well-being comes first and foremost regardless of the effects on the research. Moreover, therapeutic interventions must be distinguished from purely research interventions with care taken to only adopt practices found to be valid. Furthermore, caution must be taken with respect to providing reasonable and fair compensation for participation in the research as such rewards could be coercive to the children. Finally, provision of research results could present a concern. Presentation of research results is a legal obligation for researchers. However, including sensitive research information in documented health records presents a challenge, especially if the research participants are unable to interpret the information. This concern can be addressed by considering the impact of the results, who should receive the results, and need for re-consent for future research (O’Reilly et al., 2013).

Part 3.

Retention in a research study is important for ensuring overall scientific merit and success of the research. There are four strategies that can be applied to promote retention. The first strategy is to present a welcoming environment that makes the participants’ experiences as enjoyable and smooth as possible. Welcoming and respectful researches with an accepting and nonjudgmental attitude is important for this strategy. In addition, the participants should be engaged in locations that offer privacy so that they can honestly express themselves while being assured of their privacy and confidentiality. The second strategy is to establish a confidential and efficient system for tracking the participants to help with locating them when required. This involves asking the participants to indicate their addresses and contact information as well as when best to contact them for the research purposes. Alternative contact persons can also be identified to help with locating the research participants if the primary contact information is invalid (Begun et al., 2018). The third strategy is to educate the research participants on their role in the research. This includes informing the participants about the different components of the research and its protocol. In addition, there is a need to highlight the significance of research follow to evaluate their experiences as a critical step in evaluating the intervention. This step also helps with addressing the anticipated barriers to participation, to include childcare, vacations, work schedules and transportation. The final strategy is providing incentives for participation, which act as motivation. The incentives are presented as reimbursement for efforts and expenses incurred from the research participation (Begun et al., 2018).

References

Begun, A., Berger, L. & Otto-Salaj, L. (2018). Participant recruitment and retention in intervention and evaluation research. Oxford University Press.

Leavy, P. (2014). The Oxford handbook of qualitative research. Oxford University Press.

O’Reilly, M., Dogra, N. & Ronzoni, P. (2013). Research with children: theory and practice. SAGE.  Data Collection and Recruitment Essay Paper