Quantitative Research Questions and Methods Assessment 3

Quantitative Research Questions and Methods Assessment 3
Quantitative Research Questions and Methods Assessment 3
Assessment 3 Instructions: Quantitative Research Questions and Methods
For this assessment you will craft a quantitative research question based on the hospital-acquired condition you selected for the Research Problem and Purpose Statements, as well as examine quantitative methodologies and data collection strategies that would enable you to answer your research question.
There is no length requirement for this assessment. Most submissions that fully address all scoring guide criteria will be 2 to 5 pages in length.
Introduction
Note: The assessments in this course build upon each other. Therefore, you are strongly encouraged to complete them in the order in which they are presented.
The quantitative method is the original scientific method. Quantitative research methods can be subdivided by various designs that researchers use to answer their research questions. In fact, the wording of the research question must match the methodology and may contain the words that indicate the design. Quantitative research identifies what happened, but not why it happened. It identifies causation or relationships.
The relationships in a quantitative research study are similar to those used for a qualitative design. There is still a relationship between the theory, problem, purpose and, now, the research questions, hypotheses, and design. This week, you will continue to expand your understanding of this framework by analyzing and evaluating research questions and hypotheses in quantitative studies. You will also learn about various quantitative research designs that researchers use to answer their research questions.
In addition, you will continue to analyze the interrelated elements of a research study, making the connection among theory, problem, and purpose, and research questions, hypotheses, and design.
Demonstration of Proficiency
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:
Competency 1: Explain the different types of health care research methodologies.
Identify relevant quantitative methodologies that will support answering a research question. Describe quantitative data collection tools or strategies that are appropriate for answering a research question.
Explain the importance of methodologically relevant data collection to a research plan as a whole.
Competency 2: Develop a research question based on a hospital-acquired condition.
Formulate a quantitative research question and associated hypothesis.
Competency 4: Communicate in a manner that is scholarly, professional, and respectful of the diversity, dignity, and integrity of others and is consistent with the expectations of health care professionals..
Communicate in a manner that is scholarly, professional, and respectful of the diversity, dignity, and integrity of others and is consistent with expectations for health care professionals.
Instructions
For this assessment it is suggested that you build upon the work that you did in the Research Problem and Purpose Statements assessment.
The assessment has two distinct parts:
Part 1: Quantitative Research Question
Relevant Scoring Guide Criteria:
Formulate a quantitative research question and associated hypothesis.
Communicate in a manner that is scholarly, professional, and respectful of the diversity, dignity, and integrity of others and is consistent with expectations for health care professionals.
For this section, you will formulate a research question that is appropriate for a research project that will use quantitative methodologies.
Remember the HAC that you used in your Research Problem and Purpose Statements assessment. Additionally, your research question should align to the problem and purpose statements that you developed at that time.
Keep in mind that a well-written research question should be a single statement.
When examining or creating quantitative research questions, the following checklist may be useful.
Quantitative Research Question Checklist
Does the purpose statement fit logically with the problem statement? Are there similar words, or does it seem to address a different topic?
Based on the problem statement, do the research questions align with the method and design of the study? Do questions seek to describe responses to the variables described in the study?
Do the questions include words like compare, correlate, or other words that indicate a quantitative study? Do the questions include identification of the independent and dependent variables?
Does the hypothesis fit with the research questions?
Do the questions and hypothesis identify the participants for the research study? Do the questions and hypothesis specify the participants and the research site?
Part 2: Quantitative Methods and Data Collection
Relevant Scoring Guide Criteria:
Identify relevant quantitative methodologies that will support answering a research question. Describe quantitative data collection tools or strategies that are appropriate for answering a research question.
Explain the importance of methodologically relevant data collection to a research plan as a whole. Communicate in a manner that is scholarly, professional, and respectful of the diversity, dignity, and integrity of others and is consistent with expectations for health care professionals.
For this section, you will draw upon your readings about quantitative methods and data collection to first identify specific quantitative methodologies that will enable you to answer your research questions. You will also discuss specific quantitative data collection tools or strategies that are appropriate for this purpose. Questions to consider when looking for strategies and tools include:
What is your research question specifically trying to answer?
How does the specific HAC impact the types of tools and strategies that would work best?
How does the health care setting that the research project will be occurring in impact the types of tools and strategies that would work best?
Lastly, this section should include a review of why it is important to a potential research plan as a whole to ensure that your data collection plan is relevant to your chosen methodology.
This section should be 2 to 5 pages in length, depending on the level of detail required to fully present your methodologies and data collection tools and strategies.
Additional Submission Requirements
Structure: Include a title page, table of contents, and reference page.
Length: There is not length requirement for this assessment. Most submissions that fully address all scoring guide criteria will be 2 to 5 pages in length.
References: Cite at least five current scholarly or professional resources.
Format: Use APA style for references and citations.
You may wish to refer to the following APA resources to help with your structure, formatting, and style: APA Style and Format.
APA Paper Template. APA Paper Tutorial.
Font: Times New Roman font, 12 point, double-spaced for narrative portions only.
SCORING GUIDE
Use the scoring guide to understand how your assessment will be evaluated.
VIEW SCORING GUIDE  
Assessment 3: Quantitative Research Question and Methods for the Study of HAPI Heather Burns Sample Paper
Capella University
BHA-FXP4010: Intro to Healthcare Research June 2020
Quantitative Research Question
Quantitative Research Methods & Questions for the Study of HAPI
Quantitative Research Question
What percentage of hospital-acquired pressure injuries (HAPI) are preventable by following simple preventative action plans? This study will test, through quantitative research, the hypothesis, if the simple procedures are not followed consistently then HAPI will significantly increase because of the inadequacy of the current preventative actions. By discussing the diagnostic problems, reviewing the data in regards to long term effects on the quality of life for those with HAPI the research will allow for a better understanding of how current action plans are flawed. In studying the actions that have led to these injuries the data will assist in identifying and explaining the researched evidence. By noting the failures of the preventative action plans, more efficient and effective policies and procedures may be developed to reduce the rate and eventual occurrences of HAPI. According to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) such injuries as HAPI are a serious problem that is preventable. (Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, n.d.)
By identifying a problem that affects a broad scope of skilled healthcare centers including long term care facilities also known as nursing homes, and hospitals these pressure ulcers or bedsores are a common complication that afflicts non-ambulatory patients. Studies performed by the National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel (NPUAP) note that ulcers commonly develop in hospitals and long term care (LTC) facilities. Hospital development ranges from 0.4% to 38% and LTC from 2.2% to 23.9%. There is also ample evidence that the majority of this HAPI form relatively early in the admissions process for some as soon as the first two weeks, (Lynder & Ayello, 2008). With many of these hospital costs not being covered, in 2008 Medicare stopped reimbursing hospitals for certain hospital-acquired outcomes. These changes would deny payment when a patient suffers from an injury or infection that occurred during the hospital stay and was not present when the patient was admitted. (Cropp, Coles, Diamond, & Duong, 2019). By preventing these injuries it will save not only the patient’s life but also financial revenue of the organizations. The quantitative research strategies performed will provide a review of how effective pressure ulcer prevention (PUP) programs are, allowing for a more efficient plan development that will work towards prevention, reduction, and eventual elimination of these injuries (Shepherd,Wipke-Tevis, & Alexander, 2015).
Quantitative Methods and Data Collection
Quantitative research aims to break down information by generating numerical data and any other information collected to transform it into a measurable form such as statistics. Data that can be analyzed and quantified may include attitudes, opinions, or behaviors, and other defined variables and generalizes results to establish results. (Mcleod, 2019). By utilizing the research data that is obtained through an evidentiary process, such as surveys and questionnaires the sociodemographic and clinical variables will be better documented for review to better understand the causation and failures of the current PUP programs. The quantitative research performed will work to explain what is occurring as compared to the qualitative research which explains why something happened (Newman & Ridenour, 1998).
One of the more effective quantitative methods or research designs that can be performed for the purpose of this research paper is causal-comparative/quasi-experimental research to evaluate the pre-established cause and effect relationships that are influencing the poor documentation practices. One of the more effective ways to collect this data would be with the implementation of a questionnaire survey to better review the responses of the healthcare team members. Using data for the population study conducted by two long term care facilities in the Midwestern United states in regards to their PUP programs.. A total of thirty-nine staff members Certified Nurse Assistants, Certified Medical Technicians, Restorative Medical Technicians, Social Workers, Registered Nurses, Licensed Practical Nurses, Information Technology staff, Administrators, and Directors (Shepherd,Wipke-Tevis, & Alexander, 2015). Additionally, the evaluation of PUP programs that are implemented in six hospitals within the Veterans Health Administration system across the United States will be evaluated.
Keeping the questionnaires anonymous will assist in ensuring that the individuals filling out the forms will be honest in regards to their PUP programs. It will assist in providing data for how often the step-by-step procedures are being followed, how many healthcare employees do not believe that the PUP programs are essential, how often they perform wound care and evaluations for any potential ulcer development, how timely each task is being performed, the most common errors and barriers that can prevent timely documentation, how care procedures, and documentation are being performed. By utilizing this causal-comparative/ quasi-experimental method it will assist in gathering a larger amount of information from a larger number of participants in a short period of time, saving resources and costs. By using the healthcare professionals indicated, these candidates will be able to provide accurate data in regards to the number of HAPI that should have been prevented and it will allow for a full data analysis. The information will then be able to be evaluated and grouped so the data may then be transcribed, coded, and analyzed to present the appropriate quantitative information. The only downside of these methods is that there is no way of knowing how each individual will read into each question, which may cause their responses to be based upon their interpretations of each question. Additionally there is no way to verify how much thought was put into each response and some may forget critical information. Some participants may also worry that their responses are being monitored and will not provide honest responses for fear of any negative repercussions (Van Rijswijk & Beitz, 2015). The data collection and analysis plan will allow for the methodologies used to review the causal-comparative/quasi-experimental data to develop a better understanding of how frequently the preventable HAPI are occurring and what can be done to avoid future occurrences. This will in turn not only save lives but also save the organization a significant monetary amount. Experimental research would be difficult to perform due to the difficulty in identifying and imposing control over all other variables except one since we are not fully aware of which variables are resulting in the documentation failure. With a hypothesis already formed the descriptive research method would be less helpful, as this form of research typically does not begin with a hypothesis (Winston-Salem State University, 2018).
References
Berlowitz, D., Lukas, C. V., Parker, V., Niederhauser, A., Silver, J., Logan, C., . . . Zulkowski,

(2015, August). Preventing Pressure Ulcers in Hospitals. Retrieved June 16, 2020, from https://www.ahrq.gov/sites/default/files/publications/files/putoolkit.pdf

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (2019, October 3). Hospital-Acquired Conditions (Present on Admission Indicator). Retrieved June 16, 2020, from https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Medicare-Fee-for-Service-Payment/HospitalAcqCond
Cropp, B., Coles, J., Diamond, M., & Duong, A. (2019, July 07). Insurance Companies Pay the Price for HAIs. Retrieved June 18, 2020, from https://infectioncontrol.tips/2016/06/15/insurance-pay-for-hais/
Mcleod, S. (2019). Qualitative vs Quantitative Research: Simply Psychology. Retrieved June 17, 2020, from https://simplypsychology.org/qualitative-quantitative.html
Newman, I., & Ridenour, C. (1998). Qualitative-Quantitative Research Methodology: Exploring the Interactive Continuum. Retrieved June 17, 2020, from https://ecommons.udayton.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1121&context=eda_fac_pub
Lyder CH, Ayello EA. Pressure Ulcers: A Patient Safety Issue. In: Hughes RG, editor. Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses. Rockville (MD): Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (US); 2008 Apr. Chapter 12. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2650/
Shepherd, M. M., Wipke-Tevis, D. D., & Alexander, G. L. (2015). Analysis of qualitative interviews about the impact of information technology on pressure ulcer prevention programs: implications for the wound, ostomy and continence nurse. Journal of wound, ostomy, and continence nursing : official publication of The Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nurses Society, 42(3), 235–241 https://doi.org/10.1097/WON.0000000000000136
Van Rijswijk, L., & Beitz, J. M. (2015). Pressure ulcer prevention algorithm content validation: a mixed-methods, quantitative study. Ostomy/wound management, 61(4), 48–57.
Winston-Salem State University. (2018). Key Elements of a Research Proposal Quantitative Design..Retrieved.June.24,.2020,.from
https://www.wssu.edu/about/offices-and-departments/office-of-sponsored-programs/pre-a ward/_Files/documents/develop-quantitative.pdf
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