Data Analysis (Research Paper Sample)

Data Analysis
October 2013
Research methodology
The research methodology used in order to find a way of providing more trained community health workers (CHWs) included a number of research methods. Two of the major methods applied are the quantitative and qualitative research methods. The problem being addressed by the research is the shortage of trained health workers, especially in countries that depend on community health workers to offer healthcare services. Most countries are unable to provide the required education to sustain the health labor force. Using the quantitative and qualitative research methods, one will be able to assess the extent to which the community health workers help with health issues. Their quality of work and the impact they have will also be able to be addressed. To attain this, instruments like interviews, questionnaires, quality assessment, transcript analysis and surveys will be used. Through interviews, it will be possible to get firsthand information both from the community health workers and the public. The public will include some of the patients who have received health services from the CHWs, as well as from the healthcare administrators. Questionnaires will be used to gather information from healthcare experts and also from the patients, in order to understand the quality of the workers (Kawulich, 2013).
On the other hand, surveys and quality assessments will help find out the most affected regions where there are not enough community health workers. It will also help in identifying the workers who have not received adequate enough education to help them deal effectively with health matters. The quality of the services offered by the health workers from different parts of the world will be assessed (Appendix A). Therefore, the research will offer a basis of determining where there needs to be more education, as well as where more workers are needed. The type of data to be collected will include the number of health workers in a certain health center. This will include those who are fully trained and those who are not. It will also be appropriate to gather the number of patients who report in a certain hospital or a health center. This will help in assessing the number of health workers needed. Government records will also be checked in order to obtain the correct statistics of the number of health workers employed for example per year. This process will enable the research to yield more reliable research data thus providing more adequately trained healthcare workers.
Rationale for choosing analysis
Ethnographic analysis involves the analysis of data collected from people who come from different demographic regions. This is what makes it suitable to analyze the data collected from different people interviewed from different parts of the world. The research proposal is about community health workers and their role in health matters, considering that there is a shortage of these trained healthcare workers. It also looks at how more trained healthcare workers could be utilized in the health centers across the world. Countries have been unable to provide the required education to sustain the health labor force. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), community health workers have a great impact to the health outcomes. These CHWs not only offer assistance to the professionally trained healthcare workers, but also help to meet the healthcare needs of residents in underserved districts throughout the world. Thus the technique described above will be able to analyze the first hand information acquired from interviews with the CHWs. The type of data will be in the form of answers from the workers, with the main question being whether they are able to perform the same duties a trained health worker would perform.
There is the narrative analysis that will also be used in analyzing qualitative data. Narrative analysis is very appropriate in this type of research because it encompasses social aspects. The interviews conducted and quality assessments will be analyzed using this technique. The technique will be able to derive information from interviewees and help assess what their views are about the community health workers. For example, when the health workers are interviewed, it will be easy to know what their role is and what relevant education will be offered (Gopalan, Mohanty, & Das, 2012). On the quantitative data, graphical analysis will be used. This method will help analyze the trend of community health workers in the world. Percentages will be derived and be able to identify areas that require the largest number of health workers according to population.
The analysis chosen will consist of both the qualitative and quantitative analysis methods. The most important factor that was considered about these two types of analysis was the fact that despite having different forms, they did not lack the necessary compatible perspectives used on corpus data. The basic goal of a qualitative analysis is to focus on its completeness, and its description that then appears (Bhutta, Lassi, Pariyo, & Huicho, 2010).
There is usually no attempt made to allocate frequencies to the features of linguistics that are usually associated with the data, while the rare phenomenon usually receives approximately an equal amount of attention. Any linguistic ambiguities, that are usually inherent in the human language, are usually recognized in this analysis. The main disadvantage usually evident with this approach is the fact that their findings cannot, in most cases, be extended to larger populations, while having the same certainty of degree found in the quantitative analyses. This is due to the fact that the research findings are usually not put to the test, which does not allow for their statistical importance and variances to be taught (Gopalan et al., 2012).
Techniques for analyzing the data
Data analysis is very important in any kind of research. It involves the process of transforming, cleaning, and inspecting the already collected data. The aim of analyzing data is to discover useful information from the research conducted. There are several data analysis techniques available, but one has to choose the appropriate technique for any particular research study. In this type of research, the data analysis used is graphical technique, ethnographic and narrative data analysis. Graphical techniques will be appropriate for the quantitative data, while ethnographic and narrative analysis will be appropriate for the qualitative data (Kawulich, 2013).
Quantitative research analysis deals with the aspect of classifying features, counting them, and even constructing more models that are statistically complex in order to be able to explain everything that is observed. After obtaining the findings and generalizing them into bigger populations, a direct comparison is usually made between the corpora in a very valid and significant sampling technique. Quantitative analysis therefore offers an opportunity from genuine reflections based on the language use and the occurrences.
Interpretation of analysis results
Once all of the results have been collected and analyzed, the researcher will be able to respond to the variables collected. Through the quantitative analysis, the numeric data collected will be used to arrive at the required information (Bhutta et al., 2010). Such information may include the possibility to train more community health workers, or whether they are enough depending on the region. After all the required procedures of structuring the data, coding the data, creating a link to the data contexts, and finally refining it to be understood by the various groups of people, the following themes can be formed as a consequence of both the qualitative and the quantitative analyses of data. Despite all the present evidence that has been written together with the information received from the interviewed respondents, the major problem would likely be the lack of available skilled and trained healthcare employees that could implement the interventions aimed at helping the population’s setting (Javanparast et al., 2012).
Based on the quantitative data gathered, when the data variables were received, the researcher will respond to the variables that were collected. Through the quantitative analysis, the numeric data collected will be used to arrive at the required information (Bhutta et al., 2010). The interpretation of these data variables should therefore be a major factor to the responsible stakeholders. The type of analysis used, in most cases, is usually dependent on the research design, the type of the variables used, and the distribution data.
Significant findings
After the research and the analysis of the data, it can be concluded that the shortage in the skilled medical personnel is associated with the population that is deemed poor in the society. To reach this group, most governments use community health workers who sometimes are not skilled. The number of patients visiting certain health centers is normally large, and this forces the need to recruit more community health workers, even if they are not fully qualified. Another concern is the productivity of the workers. The CHWs’ productivity could be influenced by many other interrelated inputs that include the act of motivation, the capacity, and the material and organizational support available. The working conditions are some of the factors that are vital in the process of creating better conditions that can improve efficiencies, and effectively produce good work, reduce the turnover and attrition, and boost the workers’ morale (Jaskiewicz & Tulenko, 2012). Therefore, if such issues are addressed, and more trained healthcare workers are provided, the health sector will be in a better position.
Current research conducted identifi...