Introduction
Healthcare institutions need to maintain the highest level of cleanliness. Measures should be put in place to ensure that the standards of cleanliness are maintained. It is therefore important for the management of the healthcare to provide specifications to individuals concerned and ensuring that the specifications are adhered to (Coggon, Rose & Barker, 1997).
Hypothesis of the study
To specify the expected requirements for the provision of the highest level of cleanliness in a cute and community healthcare institution
Testing of the hypothesis
Members of the healthcare institution (both the staff members and the patients) will be asked about their perception on the level of cleanliness within the institution. The feedback acquired will be used to determine the weaknesses that prevalent within the institution inters of cleanliness and what needs to be done to improve o remedy the situation (Suny Downstate Medical Center, 2004).
Participants
The participants will include the staff members together with the patients within the healthcare institution. Recruitment will be carried out randomly. Staff members and patients will be selected randomly to help in attending to the study questions.
Inclusion/exclusion criteria
To be included in the criteria will be to include participants from all the departments to ensure that there is equal representation. This will lead to acquisition of the right picture of the cleanliness issues on the ground.
Methodology to be used to test the hypothesis
Questionnaires
A questionnaire refers to a research instrument that consists of a number of questions as well as other prompts with the aim of gathering information from the respondents. Questionnaires will be given to the respondents to enable them respond to the stipulated questions (ACT Health Promotion, 2005).
Interviews
This involves asking respondents questions about the subject of the study. Immediate and first hand information will be acquired. The subject of cleanliness will be dealt with accordingly due to the fact that in-depth questions will be asked and detailed answers will be provided by the respondents (British Medical Journal, 2007).
Possibility of biases
The staff members are likely to provide biased information in a bid to protect the image of the institution. The staff members may not be willing to provide detailed information regarding the level of cleanliness. It would be important to explain to them about the objectives of the study and the importance of correct information (Haukoos et. al., 2005).
Categories of Research Bias
There are different types of biases that can be described in research literature. Some of the biases which can affect the level of validity include the following.
- Selection biases: These can lead to the subjects in the sample not to represent the population of interest
- Measurement biases: This includes issues that are related on how the outcome of interest was arrived at.
- Intervention (exposure) biases: These entails the differences on how the intervention or full treatment was handled or how the parties involved were exposed to the various factors of interest (Schoenbach & Rosamond, 2000).
Steps to minimise bias
There is need to ensure that all the representative groups are included. All the departments within the healthcare institutions should be equally represented.
The representative groups should be provided with adequate information about the importance of the information they give.
Development of the health policy
The results obtained after carrying out the study can be instrumental in the formulation of recommendations, which should then be implemented. Strategies can be formulated with an aim of arriving at the best healthcare policies that support cleanliness levels within the organization.
References
ACT Health Promotion (2005). Overview. Web.
British Medical Journal (2007). Epidemiology for the Uninitiated. Web.
Coggon, D., Rose, G. , Barker, D.J.P. (1997). Epidemiology for the uninitiated, Fourth Edition, BMJ Publishing Group. Web.
Haukoos et. al. (2005). The Effect of Financial Incentives on Adherence with Outpatient Human Immunodeficiency Virus Testing Referrals from the Emergency Department. Academic Emergency Medicine. 12 (7); pg 617.
Schoenbach, V.J. and Rosamond, W. D. (2000). Understanding the fundamentals of epidemiology? An evolving text. Web.
Suny Downstate Medical Center (2004). Guide to Research Methods. Web.