Qualitative Social Health Research Study Critique (Research Paper Sample)

Qualitative Social Health Research Study Critique Student's Name University Affiliation Qualitative Social Health Research Study Critique, Qualitative social health research study critique is a fundamental study in determining whether the results of a study should be incorporated into nursing practices. A research critique is a critical appraisal on the strengths and weaknesses of a study. In critiquing a research study each section of the study should be systematically assessed for its strengths and weaknesses. Nurses in all specialty areas are anticipated to base their clinical application on the evidences they obtain from research. Evidence based practices enable nurses to administer the highest quality of care to their patients (Coughlan, Ryan and Cronin, 2013). Qualitative critique research expresses an interest in the understanding of the social environment from the associates' point of view and maintains the setting where issues occur having meaning. Qualitative research seeks a meaning and an understanding described best in narrative form. It usually involves exploration in depth of a topic or issue putting emphasis to gathering information from masses implicated by the issue. Critique research helps in determining the worth of the research in their field of work. It will enable nurses identify strengths and weaknesses in their research done and form judgments concerning the overall quality and applicability of it. It will help them determine the best practices that can be employed which is the key component in nursing practice. Critique will also lead the students raise questions concerning reliability and validity (Coughlan, Ryan and Cronin, 2013). There are two types of critiquing research conducted (Hurley, Denegar and Hertel, 2011). These are quantitative research and qualitative research. In quantitative research nurses should ensure that there is statistical test to critique and the reliability and validity of different instruments used in collection of data are evaluated in these criteria. Under quantitative research, nurses also ensure that they are using current practice in their performance which is determined by ensuring they conduct research. In quantitative research, the research approaches tend to be of more checklists as compared to qualitative which is more discussions and theoretical. Quantitative research can be constructed under different research designs. Designs refer as to how a research study is undertaken which are dependent on research designs. These designs include true-experimental, quasi-experimental and non-experimental. This is because, different designs affect data collection and data analysis to some extent and also they affect the phase of how study is conducted. The researcher also needs to consider the data collection methods while conducting quantitative research. Quantitative research incorporates the use of any number or strategy of data collection (Speziale & Carpenter, 2011). For instance, the researcher can incorporate the use of questionnaires, attitude scales and also observational tools. Quantitative research mostly utilizes the use of questionnaires which consists mainly of closed questions with choices of fixed answers. After the researcher ensuring that they have selected the appropriate research design and also the data collection methods, they now have to select the appropriate instruments for the research. The main aim of the instrument is to ensure that the final question is linked to the researchers question and that it will be able to gather the accurate information that will help achieve that final goal of the researcher. The instruments need to be demonstrated by the researcher (Speziale & Carpenter, 2011). In quantitative research, there are several factors that affect the outcome of the research. According to Speziale and Carpenter (2011) the sample size which can be explained as the extent to which a particular sample reflect the population. In order to select a sample that will represent the targeted population and also that will help in identifying the findings, the researcher should ensure that they select a probability sample. The size of the sample also matters, for instance, a small sample is likely to be at a risk of being overly representative of a small subgroup within a targeted population. An example is where, if the sample for a general group of nurses is noticed that a great number of respondents were children, then it would appear that children were over represented in the selected sample thereby creating an error in sampling. The risk of sampling error decreases with the use of large samples. While selecting a sample, the researcher should clearly know who the target population is and the criteria that were used to include or exclude the participants. Another factor that affects quantitative research is ethical considerations which include autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence and justice (Speziale & Carpenter, 2011). Autonomy implies that, an individual has the free right to decide whether they should participate in a research study or not without coercion. They should also have full knowledge as to what is being investigated. Non-maleficence implies that there should be an intention of harming the participants whether physically or psychologically. Beneficence refers to whether the research is beneficial to the participants and the society. Justice ensures that all the participants are treated equally without favoring any group receiving beneficial treatment with regard to their position in society, for instance (Today, 2014). In qualitative research, the researchers are expected to link their researches to a specific research tradition. Researcher matches which traditions best matches the study they are conducting. This helps the researcher to make a judgment on the appropriateness of the design, sampling, data collection and also analysis. We can also say that qualitative research is an assortment of several strategies that have both commonalities and differences. It does not regard truth as objective, but as subjective reality that is experienced differently by each individual. Qualitative researchers believe a phenomenon is and can be quarantined into various variables that can be studied independently (Beck, 2013). One form of qualitative research is the ethnography (Beck, 2013) which is a well-known research in anthropology. It concentrates on history and culture of a group or society of people. The main goal of research is to narrate the entire story of the group of people's daily lives and also identify the cultural meaning and beliefs they attach to activities, events, behavior, rituals, and lifestyle. They also study the patterns of a group. In the area of health care, ethnography is the strategic research approach that focuses on a particular human problem and aspects of the society that impact the specific problem. The appropriate techniques of data collection and analysis for this method include participant's observation, unstructured interviews, studying documents and also photographs. Another form of qualitative research is phenomenology which focusses on understanding what it is like to have certain experiences. It seeks to give an understanding of the phenomenon of a lived life in relation to emotions like depression, loneliness, effect to a relationship, to being part of an organization/group. The main assumption to this method is that, there is an essence to shared experience. This method comes from social science and requires researcher to inter themselves into an individual's life and world and use themselves to interpret their experience. The appropriate means for data collection and analysis for this method include; in-depth interviews, written anecdotes, philosophy, art and poetry. Experiences encountered provide the direction of the study (Beck, 2013) Grounded theory is also another approach of qualitative research whereby it focuses on task of theory construction and verification (Beck, 2013). This method is essential for generating a theory. It seeks to identify main social processes within a given social situations. It's essential in field of nursing because it studies interactions as they occur naturally. The researcher is required to identify a main variable that tends to explain what is happening and further develops a surfacing theory. The main data collection and analysis techniques employed in this method are taped interviews, participation and also observation. Participatory action research is also another form of qualitative research, which involves individual or group researching own personal beings, social-cultural settings and also their experiences. They reflect on their shared realities, values, collective meanings, needs and their goals. Knowledge is generated in the process also power is reacquired through prudent actions that empower, nurture and liberate groups or persons. Researcher is required to work in partnership with participants throughout the research process (Beck, 2013). Good critique employs the use of a framework (Beck, 2013). The first step ...