CRITICAL R
· FURTHER_ NOTE ON ASSIGNMENT 3
Is research challenging? YES! research can be even challenging for the experienced researchers, as it requires a lot of time, reflection, thinking and adjustment. Is it worth the challenge? YES, as it helps us to improve our personal and professional practices, to update our knowledge based on the most evidence-based literature, and to be more confident.
Considering the limited time we have, do NOT overwhelm yourself by approaching different topics, try to choose a topic you are passionate about, find a narrative to focus and provide a reasonable justification of the poor practice and how it can be resolved. You can of course build on what you have done in this unit to improve your work for a bigger contribution as you progress.
Identification of poor practice - Please provide about one paragraph or so from assignment one, describing/defining the poor practice. At the end of the paragraph, you can mention that how the poor practice can be improved/resolved by your adjusted research question. NO rephrasing is required if you use some parts of assignment one.
Research question & PICO (qualitative versus quantitative) - Please be specific about the way/s poor practice is resolved or improved. This can be an intervention/measure (which can be mainly quantitative in terms of design). However, if you are focusing on experiences of a specific population to improve the poor practice, then, it will be qualitative. So, overall, my suggestion is to make the way you will improve the poor practice clearer, and then adjust your PICO accordingly. Please be advised that your research question can also include both quantitative and qualitative designs as well.
Multiple interventions or solutions for resolving the poor practice - You can use multiple solutions/interventions to resolve the poor practice if you can manage the argument and the word count.
Put yourself in the shoes of the involved partners, such as patients/consumers, family members, professionals, and managers/ladders to see how the solution suggested can improve the poor practice. Consider this work as part of your mission to do some positive changes hopefully in your practice.
How to explain the three dimensions of evidence-based practice? As the current study is mainly focusing on peer-reviewed, evidence-based research, it is normal to provide most of the information around this dimension of evidence-based practice. However, please make sure to provide some argument also on patient's values, and professional expertise. Overall, often the peer-reviewed, evidence-based research you find may contain a good amount of information also on the other two dimensions (patient's values, and professional expertise). All the 3 dimensions of the EBP need to be covered, however, you can be flexible regarding the word count for each section. You can use a table/figure as applicable (as an image), to explain the three components of the evidence-based practice.
Patients' values - The consideration of patients' values can be different based on the topic chosen. Patients' values can be mainly around patient-centred care, as well as personalised care approaches. This assists in inclusion of patients in decision making process about their recovery journey. Some of the variables to consider can be socio-demographic factors, such as social and cultural factors - this can include age, gender, education, living environment, personality (introverted/extroverted), race/ethnicity, religion, spirituality, diet preferences, and health literacy. To discover patients' values and preferences, having multiple sessions are required to explore patients' preferences. In addition, the inclusion of family members in the care provision, and the decision-making process are important, particularly in some specific areas which requires further care, such as mental illness, and dementia that we require more cooperation from family members/carers. Hence, as professionals, and healthcare leaders it is important to consider personalised approaches to recovery and not one size fits all approaches.
Example form literature on patients' values - Patient-centred care (PCC) is an emerging primary approach to health care, highlighting the partnerships between patients and professionals, understanding, and considering patients’ preferences and values to provide a personalised care. This will enhance the flexibility, beyond the traditional paternalistic approach. This will improve patient satisfaction, and a more effective care.
Delaney, L. J. (2018). Patient-centred care as an approach to improving health care in Australia. Collegian, 25(1), 119-123.
Professional experiences/expertise - As professionals, it is important to highlight that recovery is not only the physical health, and it needs to be looked at from other perspectives... it is OK to discuss your own experiences/expertise regarding the topic, without references/citations. However, if you find something from literature about the experiences of other professionals around the same topic, citation and references are required. Also, you can be flexible regarding using a combination of first or third person writing, as applicable, however, as highlighted, most of the writing needs to be third person...
Example from literature on professional experience - The perception/judgment of the healthcare professionals about the patients impact the quality of services they provide. For example, deservingness judgments in health professionals' views of patients with stigmatized conditions (e.g., drug dependence), impact high-or low-quality care to a patient with a condition related to prolonged use of alcohol or heroin.
Skinner, N., Feather, N. T., Freeman, T., & Roche, A. (2007). Stigma and discrimination in health‐care provision to drug users: The role of values, affect, and deservingness judgments. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 37(1), 163-186.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.0021-9029.2007.00154.x
Emerging topics on poor practices, with limited evidence - Emerging topics show the importance of the gap about the issue, which is very good, and you can discuss this as well in your argument - this is a finding by itself. However, it may make it a bit difficult to find enough relevant information for the critical argument, that how the poor practice can be improved . Considering a minimum of 3 papers required, I feel this can be manageable.
Various designs - Although it will be an ideal situation to include various papers with different designs to look at the issue from different perspectives, you can include studies from the same design (no marking will be deducted). We understand that for some specific topics, especially emerging topics, there may be limited studies, particularly systematic reviews.
Language differences across industry and academia – As you might have noticed there are language differences across academic and industry, which may make it challenging to consider a consistent approach. I highly recommend that before starting your searching, make sure that you have access to the right keywords/expressions. You can double check with librarians to make sure you have the right keywords for accessing the right papers.
References - Please feel free to use the same references as assignment one, as applicable and add further . you can focus on the 3 most quality papers to have a critical argument about finding the poor practice and improving it.