Original Research 10 Strategic Points Draft

Once you have copied each point into the table (be sure to keep my bubble comments – if you copy and paste directly they should stay automatically), then you can start making your edits. Before making any changes, please turn on the Track Changes (in the review tab of word). Don’t delete any of my comments. This enables me to see what you have changed and how you have addressed my comments.

The main thing you need to work on is aligning your points to a qualitative topic. Right now, they are mostly written with quantitative wording, but a qualitative topic does seem to fit best right now. I provided guidance throughout on how you can do this.

-Dr. S

Original Research 10 Strategic Points Draft

Edwin G Berrios

RES 825

Grand Canyon University

10 Strategic Points Comment by Michelle Sandoval: Edwin, before making any edits, please move this to the template linked in the assignment. The table is at the bottom of the template (after the examples). https://dc.gcu.edu/dissertation/dissertation-templates/10_strategic_points_template

1. Broad Topic Area

Telemedicine is an effective technique of addressing PTSD among war veterans. Comment by Michelle Sandoval: Approaching meets expectations this is a statement – if you already know this then the study wouldn’t be needed. This goes to my point of your actual topic. With a qualitative topic you are not going to look at effectiveness. You might look at perceptions of telemedicine, or experiences.

2. Literature Review Comment by Michelle Sandoval: Approaching meets expectations - see comments throughout this point.

a. Background of the problem

i. Although effective psychotherapies for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD) exist, a large number of war veterans are unable to access them due to high costs (Koven, 2018)

ii. Telemedicine is a low-cost option of providing PTSD services (Morland et al., 2013)

iii. It is important to determine the effectiveness of telemedicine in improving healthcare quality Comment by Michelle Sandoval: this should be cited as well.

b. Theoretical foundation

i. Metrics for valuing health consequences (Neumann et al., 2016) Comment by Michelle Sandoval: These don’t appear to be a theory or model. Please name the theory and/or model (s) underpinning your study.

ii. Healthcare optimization with multiple budget constraints (Neumann et al., 2016)

c. Review of literature topics with key themes

i. Healthcare interventions should be based on the objectives to be maximized and constraints to be considered (Van Baal, Morton, & Severens, 2018).

ii. The effectiveness of healthcare interventions should measure quality of life versus healthcare outcomes (Gray & Wilkinson, 2016).

iii. Telemedicine has been proposed as a cost-effective technique of providing mental health treatment (Barnett & Huskamp, 2019).

iv. Telemedicine has been viewed as a tool that promotes access to mental health treatment (Morland, Greene, & Sloan, 2017). Comment by Michelle Sandoval: These fit more with the background. Themes in the literature are areas of research supporting your topic overall.

d. Summary

i. Background: There is a need to integrate telemedicine in addressing mental health among war veterans. Comment by Michelle Sandoval: According to who? This should be supported by at least one reference.

ii. Gap/Problem: Demonstrate relationship between telemedicine and quality metrics in administering mental health services to war veterans with PTSD.

iii. The way to ensure effectiveness of mental health services among war veterans is to integrate telemedicine

iv. Final thoughts Comment by Michelle Sandoval: ?

3. Problem Statement

It is unknown the effectiveness of telemedicine in administering mental health services to war veterans with PTSD. Comment by Michelle Sandoval: Approaching meets expectations This is a good start but needs to be revised. First, you are proposing a qualitative methodology, but this problem is quantitative in nature. If you want to go the qualitative route, your problem would need to also be qualitative. It could be “It is not known how telemedicine is perceived by war veterans with PTSD” or “how war veterans with PTSD describe their experiences with using telemedicine versus in-facility consultations” If you are going to take a quantitative route, that might be more difficult. You would need to be able to identify your variables and operationalize them in a way that can be measured and analyzed in relation to your problem and RQs. Since you are stating your study is qualitative, I am going to give feedback with qualitative perspective.

4. Research Questions

a. Sample

War veterans diagnosed with PTSD Comment by Michelle Sandoval: Approaching meets expectations This is your population. Your sample will be taken from the population – for example 10 war veterans with PTSD who receive care at a mental health clinic in LA.

b. Needed sample size

At least 10

c. Location

Los Angeles County, in a mental health facility providing mental healthcare services to war veterans.

5. Research questions

a. R1: Is telemedicine more affordable compared to in-facility consultations? Comment by Michelle Sandoval: Approaching meets expectations These need to be qualitative questions – both are quantitative in nature. Qualitative questions are open ended. For example, one might be “how do war veterans with PTSD describe their experiences with using telemedicine vs. in-facility consultations?” You could also ask for the perceptions of providers. This would be two sources of data – patients and providers. One thing you have to keep in mind is you would need access to talk to patients, which may or may not be feasible. This is where theory comes into play. What theory is underpinning your study? Are you looking at patient outcomes, satisfaction, quality of life, etc.?

b. R2: Does telemedicine provide better healthcare outcomes compared to in-facility consultations?

6. Phenomena

The phenomena to be understood include cost-effectiveness and quality outcomes incurred based on the implementation of telemedicine at a mental healthcare facility. Comment by Michelle Sandoval: Approaching meets expectations This phenomenon needs to also be qualitative. Align it to your problem statement once you have revised.

7. Methodology & Design

a. Best approach for the research

Qualitative methodology will be administered. The design is a study at a single mental health facility Comment by Michelle Sandoval: Does not meet expectations: This is not a design. The design within qualitative would be descriptive, case study, phenomenology, narrative, etc. Right now, a descriptive design may fit – do some reading on this design and see what you think.

b. Size can get permission to access Comment by Michelle Sandoval: Take all this out for now and just include the methodology and design in the table.

The interview will be administered to 10 mental health practitioners at the facility

c. Availability of data collection tools and resources

The data collection tools will include questionnaires

d. Time and resources to conduct the study

It will take approximately 14 days to administer the study.

8. Purpose Statement

The purpose of the qualitative study is to examine the effectiveness of telemedicine in addressing mental health treatment among war veterans diagnosed with PTSD. Comment by Michelle Sandoval: Approaching meets expectations Once your problem is updated, please revise the purpose to match/align. Also include the design and location in the statement.

9. Data Collection Approach Comment by Michelle Sandoval: Approaching meets expectations For this point, just state what your sources of data will be. Interviews with practitioners is a really good source. If you go with descriptive design, you need one more source. You could interview the patients (perhaps this is too complicated). You could also ask if the patients can fill out a satisfaction survey so you don’t have to interview them.

Interviews will be conducted among mental healthcare practitioners working at a mental health facility.

a. Researchers will get an overview of the telemedicine intervention provided to administer mental health services to war veterans diagnosed with PTSD.

b. Researcher will inform mental health practitioners of the aim and objective of the study

c. Researcher will seek informed consent from the mental health practitioners on their willingness to take part in the study

d. Investigator will interview mental health practitioners

10. Data Analysis Approach Comment by Michelle Sandoval: Does not meet expectations: This is almost word-for-word from the examples. For the purpose of this assignment, please state the type of analysis you will conduct on the specific data you are planning to collect. What analysis uses themes and codes? Name it.

a. Data will be organized for the study

b. Descriptive statistics will be applied to summarize data

c. Coding will be applied to generate themes to address research questions

d. A visual presentation of the results will be prepared

References

Barnett, M. L., & Huskamp, H. A. (2019). Telemedicine for Mental Health in the United States: Making Progress, Still a Long Way to Go. Psychiatric Services, appi-ps.

Gray, A. M., & Wilkinson, T. (2016). Economic evaluation of healthcare interventions: old and new directions. Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 32(1), 102-121.

Koven, S. (2018). Veteran Treatments: PTSD Interventions. In Healthcare (Vol. 6, No. 3, p. 94). Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute.

Morland, L. A., Greene, C. J., & Sloan, D. M. (2017). Telehealth and eHealth interventions for posttraumatic stress disorder. Current opinion in psychology, 14, 102-108.

Morland, L. A., Raab, M., Mackintosh, M. A., Rosen, C. S., Dismuke, C. E., Greene, C. J., & Frueh, B. C. (2013). Telemedicine: A cost-reducing means of delivering psychotherapy to rural combat veterans with PTSD. Telemedicine and e-Health, 19(10), 754-759.

Neumann, P. J., Sanders, G. D., Russell, L. B., Siegel, J. E., & Ganiats, T. G. (Eds.). (2016). Cost-effectiveness in health and medicine. Oxford University Press.

Van Baal, P., Morton, A., & Severens, J. L. (2018). Health care input constraints and cost effectiveness analysis decision rules. Social Science & Medicine, 200, 59-64.