Adapting To A Life Of Medically Unexplained Symptoms Discussion Paper

Research Method And Sample Size

Template: Assessment 1(a) – Critical analysis of nominated literature

Please note: this assessment is NOT to be answered using essay format. The following questions provide a template for your assessment submission. Please refer to the Marking Criteria and Standards on page 11-19.

1. Background of the study
2. A brief description of the issue the study focuses on.

The aim of the research is to describe and interpret experiences of adapting to a life of MUS as explained through chosen participants who were interviewed inmate health-care settings.  Adapting To A Life Of Medically Unexplained Symptoms Discussion Paper

1. What is the significance of the study?

The study’s main goal is pointed towards creating awareness on how patients with MUS learn to cope with it and make an effort to find meaning in their health and in life situations either through him/ her or through the help of a healthcare professional. It also helps the patients living with MUS find plausible explanations for their suffering. It also helps the health professionals in the health sector in addressing the healthcare needs of the patients suffering from MUS (Kozlowska, English, Savage &Chudleigh, 2012).

2. Research design overview
3. What was the goal of the study?

The main goal of the research was describing and interpreting what the patients experienced while adapting to survive with MUS as explained by the paricipants in the main health-care environment where the patients were interviewed and their response captured by an audio recorder.

1. What research design was used?

The research method used during the study was the empirical study which involved interviewing a set of patients suffering from MUS

1. Was it appropriate? Why/ why not?

Yes, because this research design gives the researcher a one on one encounter during collection of data from interviewer as the interviewee picks both the venue and date for the interview hence improves the accuracy of the research, it also encourages the interviewee to be comfortable and therefore honest and this increases the credibility of their answers and response it is also random hence not biased to specific group of the patients (Schroder et al. (2013).

3. Sampling
   
4. Who participated in the study?

The participants who are used in the study were ten patients suffering from MUS aged between twenty-four to sixty-one years of age.

1. What criterion was used in the inclusion and exclusion of the sample?

The criteria used in inclusion involved the following: 18-64 years of age; minimum of eight visits to a doctor or nurse at the health care center in the course of a year. In this case, no distinctive psychiatric or organic reasons for the regular contact; not less than50%of reported symptoms medically unexplained.

1. What is the importance of identifying the criteria prior to recruitment?

The significance of identifying the criteria before enrolment is to ensure consistency (at least every age group is represented) as dictated by internationally recognized classification and therefore increases the credibility of the interview.

1. What sampling technique was employed in this study?

Data Collection And Analysis

A phenomenological-hermeneutic method was employed during the study. It involved narrative interviews which were performed on the chosen ten patients with MUS between 24 and 61 years of age.The data was analyzed in the following steps: the first was naive reading, then structural analysis, and finally comprehensive understanding.

1. Was it appropriate for the research method?

Yes, it was suitable for the research method since it ensured representation of at least all groups in patients suffering from MUS

1. How was the sample size determined?

The sample size was determined through screening of incoming telephone calls from patients to the health care center. A member of the research team later contacted the patients that were suitable to determine if they were prepared to participate.

1. Was it appropriate? Why/why not?

Yes, it was appropriate this is because it is only through this that you are able to get patients who are truly suffering from MUS and gain their trust, most of the patients had an experience with unsuccessfully trying to address their symptoms to a healthcare professional (Nelson, Baldwin And Taylor, 2012).

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4. Collection of data
5. How a collection of data done?

Data collection was done by use of physical interviews where the participants who were also the patients handpicked for the research opted and it was audio-recorded through of a digital device which was later transcribed precisely by a qualified secretarial check (Burton, Weller, Marsden,Worth & Sharpe, 2012)

1. Was the method of data collection appropriate in relation to the study question and the research design?

Yes, the method used for data gathering was suitable in relation to this study question since it provided a face to face scenario between the interviewer and the interviewee hence boosted the credibility of the data gathered (Konnopka et al. 2012).

1. Define the concept of rigor.

The concept of rigor refers to whether the appropriate research tools and data collection method that was used was appropriate and suitable for the study (Konnopka, Heider, Wild, Szecsenyi & Schaefert, 2013).

1. Discuss two measures taken/not taken to ensure rigor.

The participants were told to choose where they would like their interviews held and what time they would like to be interviewed this made the interviewee comfortable hence ready and prepared for the interview. The interviews were audio recorded to capture almost the entire interview for future reference. The research team that selected the participants had no previous connection with the participants. The researcher who collected facts was not implicated in any professional documentation of the patient Jean (Soler, Okkes, 2012). The analysis of data was carried out in consideration of formerly used, methodical, and controlled method. Further, the tools that were used to conduct the research were designed in such a way to meet the discernible pattern of the research. The tools maximized a series of methodological questions as they were able to identify and satisfy the phenomenon that interested the researcher (Rijswijk, Dulmen, Baumgarten, Lucassen, & van Weel, 2013). The tools used in the data collection were able to generate all the details needed to address the research questions. Finally, Checks were put in place to ensure the models and research patterns were not surplus to requirements (Meyer, Obling, 2012). 

5. Analysis of data
6. Identify and explain the technique used to examine data

Findings And Applicability

The strategy used to examine the data in this research was done in the next three steps namely: The naïve reading, structural analysis, and complete understanding. In the raw reading, the participants were asked to first read severally to ensure they grasped the context of the text (Schroder et al. 2013). In conducting structural exmination, a precise distance was kept to facilitate validation or the disapproval of naïve understanding. Adapting To A Life Of Medically Unexplained Symptoms Discussion Paper  Comprehensive understanding is where an agreement between the results from the structural analysis and the naïve understanding is reached and it begins when reflection leading to the consideration of naïve understanding and structural analysis results, an analysis was conducted until a consensus was realised amid the simple understanding and the in-depth analysis (Burton, Weller, Marsden, Worth & Sharpe, 2012).

1. Was the analysis appropriate? Why/why not?

Yes, this is because in this study both the interpretation of the patients and the scientific study were of great significance to helping patients (Gopang, Nebhwani, Khatri & Marri, 2017).

1. What were the findings?

The findings suggested that narratives about learning to live with the condition MUS by the participants involved what they learned and how they got the knowledge. These narratives included their actions, reflections, and experiences from the first day they experienced the symptoms.  The patients learning was understood as a procedure that concerned a reflection on their earlier life, the current, and the future (Meyer & Obling, 2012).

1. Can the study findings be applicable in different settings? Why/why not?

Yes, the research findings can be applicable in another environment like the healthcare setting where the healthcare professions can be able to teach patients how to diagnose themselves and how to live with MUS alongside other diseases that can be self-diagnosed (Rehfeld et al. 2013). 

6. Utilization of evidence
7. Can you recommend the findings from this study be implemented in the clinical field? Why/why not?

Yes, I could recommend that findings from this research be tried in a clinical setup. This is because it  guides the healthcare professions on how to interpret their patients’  personal and psychological symptoms through conventional care activity and even end up helping the patients interpret their MUS symptoms this is because, in an attempt of the patients suffering from MUS explaining themselves to the healthcare professionals, the healthcare professionals are capable of facilitating  the process of interpreting by including  the patients suffering from MUS and engaging them in a dialogue (English, Savage & Chudleigh, 2012).

References

Burton, C., Weller, D., Marsden, W., Worth, A., & Sharpe, M. (2012). A primary care Symptoms Clinic for patients with medically unexplained symptoms: pilot randomised trial. BMJ open, 2(1), e000513.

Fjorback, L. O., Arendt, M., Ornbol, E., Walach, H., Rehfeld, E., Schroder, A., et al. (2013). Mindfulness therapy for somatization disorder and functional somatic syndromes: Randomized trial with one-year follow-up. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 74(1), 3140. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2012. 09.006.

Fjorback, L. O., Carstensen, T., Arendt, M., Ornbol, E., Walach, H., Rehfeld, E., et al. (2013). Mindfulness therapy for somatization disorder and functional somatic syndromes: Analysis of economic consequences alongside a randomized trial. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 74(1), 4148. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2012.09.010.

Gopang, M. A., Nebhwani, M., Khatri, A., & Marri, H. B. (2017). An assessment of occupational health and safety measures and performance of SMEs: An empirical investigation. Safety Science, 93, 127-133.

Hartman, T. C., van Rijswijk, E., van Dulmen, S., van Weel-Baumgarten, E., Lucassen, P. L., & van Weel, C. (2013). How patients and family physicians communicate about persistent medically unexplained symptoms. A qualitative study of video-recorded consultations. Patient education and counseling, 90(3), 354-360.

Jean Karl Soler, Inge Okkes; Reasons for encounter and symptom diagnoses: a superior description of patients’ problems in contrast to medically unexplained symptoms (MUS). Fam Pract 2012; 29 (3): 272-282. doi: 10.1093/fampra/cmr101

Konnopka, A., Kaufmann, C., König, H. H., Heider, D., Wild, B., Szecsenyi, J., … &Schaefert, R. (2013). Association of costs with somatic symptom severity in patients with medically unexplained symptoms. Journal of psychosomatic research, 75(4), 370-375.

Konnopka A, Schaefert R, Heinrich S, Kaufmann C, Luppa M, Herzog W, König H, -H, Economics of Medically Unexplained Symptoms: A Systematic Review of the Literature. PsychotherPsychosom 2012;81:265-275.

Kozlowska, K., English, M., Savage, B., &Chudleigh, C. (2012). Multimodal rehabilitation: a mind-body, family-based intervention for children and adolescents impaired by medically unexplained symptoms. Part 1: the program. The American Journal of Family Therapy, 40(5), 399-419.

?Meyer, N., &Obling, A. R. (2012). The negotiation of the sick role: general practitioners’ classification of patients with medically unexplained symptoms Mik. Sociology of health & illness, 34(7), 1025-1038.

NELSON, S., BALDWIN, N. and TAYLOR, J. (2012), Mental health problems and medically unexplained physical symptoms in adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse: an integrative literature review. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health  Adapting To A Life Of Medically Unexplained Symptoms Discussion Paper