Exploring Patient Safety In Primary Healthcare: Research Design And Findings

Background

1. Briefly describe the issue of the study is focused?

The level of safety among the healthcare providing primary health service has been one of the prime causes of concern. According to the research done by Shekelle et al., (2013), the medical errors that is caused due to lack of proper infrastructure in the primary health care is one of the main cause for the compromised of safety among the patients of the primary healthcare. In the recent times, the workers in the primary healthcare are given special training, which ensures that they are able to adopt all the safety measures for the treatment of patients. The safety of the patients involves all forms of professional approach that ultimately aims to fulfill the needs of the patients.

Wang et al., (2014), believes that the level of safety within the primary healthcare center depends on the situation that is faced by the healthcare centers. Nevertheless, it is the duty of the primary healthcare center to ensure that the safety levels of the patients are not compromised under any situation.

1. What is the significance of the Study?

The current research work explores the ways of improving patient safety within the primary healthcare system. With the help of the data and information that is obtained from the qualitative data collection methods, it is possible to analyze the current situation based on the level of safety that is provided to the primary care patients.

1. What is the aim of the research?

The purpose of a research design is to provide the overall strategy and protocol of the different steps that is aimed to provide suitable result of the research. The issue that is raised is also resolved with the help of the steps that are involved in the research design. The methods of data collection and analysis are also decided with the help of the research design methods (Creswell, 2013).

In this case, the aim of the research design is to collect significant and reliable information that is used to access the situation of the patient safety within the primary health care unit.

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1. What research design was used?

The exploratory form of research design is applied in the case, where the investigators do not have clear idea and information about the topic of the research and thereby this form of research is aimed to collect the proper amount of data. In this forms research design the investigators mainly depends on the secondary form of data, which is obtained from the literature review that is relevant to the topic of the research (Lewis, 2015).

Research Design

In case of descriptive form of research, the investigators aim to study and depict the behavior of the group of participants, which forms the sample size of the research. In this case, the researchers use observational techniques to collect data from the group of participants. The survey and interview is also used in this case to collect data.

1. Was it appropriate? Why/why not?

In the investigation work of identifying the safety methods that are adopted in the primary healthcare center, the descriptive form of research design is being used and it is the duty of the researchers to collect relevant data directly from the stakeholders of the primary health care centre (Holloway & Galvin, 2016). In this case, with the help of the descriptive forms of research, it is possible for the researcher to collect both primary and secondary forms of data that is needed to fulfill the purpose of the research. On the other hand if the researchers choose the descriptive forms of research, it is would not have been possible to collect raw and primary information directly from the patient of the hospital or the primary health care center.

The researchers have to use proper method of sampling, which will help them to collect relevant information from the desired sample groups.

1. Who were the study participants?

There are several methods that are used by the investigators to make the desired sample size and also collect data using proper methods of data collection. In case of random sampling, the sample size is selected using random techniques. In this case, the investigators use unbiased forms of technique to select the candidates within the sample size and also it is possible to collect data from a wide range of audience. In this case, there is no exclusion or inclusion criterion that is being used by the researchers. On the other hand, in case of the non probability method of sampling, it is possible to select a particular fixed size of the sample as the data is being collected.

1. What are the inclusion and exclusion criteria?  

The primary health care centers that are located in the remote and rural areas are included, while the health centers that are located in the urban areas are excluded. The people, who are admitted with critical cases, are included within the sample size, while the patients, who have minor health issues, are excluded from the sample size. With the help of the inclusion and exclusion criteria, it is possible for the researchers to ensure that they collect only relevant data related to the research topic.

1. Why is it Important of the criteria identified before recruitment d) What sampling technique was employed in this study?

Data Collection

With help of appropriate methods of sampling it is possible for the researchers to select the suitable target population for collecting the relevant data that is needed for the evaluating methods of patient safety in the primary healthcare centers (Mayer et al., 2014).

1. How was the Sampling size is determined?

In this case, the investigators have chosen 10 primary health care centers from the rural and remote areas in all over Australia, where there have been maximum cases of patient safety breaches. From each of the primary health care centers, the investigators have chosen 50 patients from all age categories. The total number of men and women in the sample is almost the same. The researchers also have used proper inclusion and exclusion criteria to ensure that only the data that is relevant to the research topic is used in the research work.

1. Was it appropriate? Why/Why not?

This method of sampling along with the inclusion and exclusion technique, it is possible to collect data that is relevant to the descriptive research design, where both the primary and secondary forms of data are required (Holloway & Galvin, 2016).

1. How was the data collected?

In this case, the researchers collected the data mainly using the primary data collection methods. In the primary forms of data, information is mainly collected from directly from the sample size using the interviews and surveys. This form of data collection will ensure that the data that is collected is from the latest and updated source (Palinkas et al., 2015).

1. Was the data collection method appropriate for the study question and the research design? Why/Why not?

The primary data is collected directly from the chosen sample, which includes the patients of the primary health care center; it is possible for the researcher to get the idea about the safety level that is encountered by the patients (Dudeck et al., 2013). It will also help to follow the protocol of the descriptive forms of research designs, where the data is collected from survey and interviews.

1. Define the rigor concept

The rigor is an important part the qualitative research that enables the data that is being collected to be analyzed in proper manner. It is essential for a research to have high level of rigor that will help to increase the level of trustworthiness of the research work. The rigor also refers to the research philosophy that is used in the data collection method.

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

In this case, to ensure the rigor of the data that is collected, the researcher has made sure that the data that is collected has been done using authentic methods. The researchers have also ensured that the data has been collected from with the participation of people of all age categories (Sujan et al., 2015).

1. a)Identify and describe the method of data analysis. b) Was it appropriate? Why/Why not?

Sampling

With the help of proper data analysis methods, it is possible to evaluate the findings of the research (Bazeley & Jackson, 2013). In the initial stage the data that is collected is converted in the transcript and then it is entered in the NVivo10, which is one of the widely used qualitative data analysis software. With help of this software program it is possible to statically analyze the collected data (Miles et al., 2013).

1. c) What were the Findings?

From the analysis of the ata, it has been found that nearly 55% of the patients of the entire primary healthcare center are not satisfied with the safety level that is being offered.

d)Can  the study findings be used in othersettings? Why/Why not?

The findings of this research work can also be applied to judge the quality of health service that is being provided in all the primary health care centers of the rural places in Australia.

1. Would you recommend the findings of this study be implemented in clinical practice? Why/why not?

The findings of the research work can be applied in case of the accessing the quality of the health service. The safety level of the hospitals also helps to determine the medical errors that occur due to the negligence of the healthcare workers. With reduced number of medical errors, it is possible to improve the quality of health care that is being provided by the healthcare center.

Reference

Bazeley, P., & Jackson, K. (Eds.). (2013). Qualitative data analysis with NVivo. Sage Publications Limited.

Creswell, J. W. (2013). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage publications.

Dudeck, M. A., Weiner, L. M., Allen-Bridson, K., Malpiedi, P. J., Peterson, K. D., Pollock, D. A., … & Edwards, J. R. (2013). National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) report, data summary for 2012, Device-associated module. American journal of infection control, 41(12), 1148.

Holloway, I., & Galvin, K. (2016). Qualitative research in nursing and healthcare. John Wiley & Sons.

Lewis, Sarah. “Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches.” Health promotion practice (2015): 1524839915580941.

Mayer, P., Parkerton, T. F., Adams, R. G., Cargill, J. G., Gan, J., Gouin, T., … & You, J. (2014). Passive sampling methods for contaminated sediments: Scientific rationale supporting use of freely dissolved concentrations. Integrated environmental assessment and management, 10(2), 197-209.

Miles, M. B., Huberman, A. M., & Saldana, J. (2013). Qualitative data analysis. Sage.

Palinkas, L. A., Horwitz, S. M., Green, C. A., Wisdom, J. P., Duan, N., & Hoagwood, K. (2015). Purposeful sampling for qualitative data collection and analysis in mixed method implementation research. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 42(5), 533-544.

Shekelle, P. G., Wachter, R. M., Pronovost, P. J., Schoelles, K., McDonald, K. M., Dy, S. M., … & Larkin, J. W. (2013). Making health care safer II: an updated critical analysis of the evidence for patient safety practices. Evidence report/technology assessment, (211), 1-945.

Sujan, M., Spurgeon, P., Cooke, M., Weale, A., Debenham, P., & Cross, S. (2015). The development of safety cases for healthcare services: Practical experiences, opportunities and challenges. Reliability Engineering & System Safety, 140, 200-207.

Wang, Y., Eldridge, N., Metersky, M. L., Verzier, N. R., Meehan, T. P., Pandolfi, M. M., … & Sonnenfeld, N. (2014). National trends in patient safety for four common conditions, 2005–2011. New England Journal of Medicine, 370(4), 341-351.  Exploring Patient Safety In Primary Healthcare Example Paper