As a term, health and social care represent a variety of activities that UK-based providers of healthcare and social services offer to improve the population’s well-being. Research in the abovementioned field is inextricably connected to making the right philosophical, methodological, and resource allocation decisions. This paper explores the peculiarities of ontology, epistemology, research methods, study planning processes, and data analysis assimilation in relation to social care and health.
Prompt 1: Epistemology, Ontology, and Health and Social Care Research Applications
The very concept of research is inseparable from the understanding of the branches of philosophy that deal with reality and the relationships that surround knowledge. This requirement applies to investigations in the field of health and social care or any other area of interest. Ontology, in the context of applied health sciences, is defined as the principles of perceiving reality and knowledge or “the nature of reality” (Brearley & Walshe, 2020, p. 1). Various ontological positions and stances, including idealism, materialism, and realism, can inform research (Brearley & Walshe, 2020). Epistemology refers to principles that identify the possible types of knowledge and procedures for ensuring knowledge’s legitimacy, as well as the inquirer’s relationship to the object under study (Brearley & Walshe, 2020). Due to establishing the researcher’s perception of reality, the two concepts permeate approaches to scientific inquiries used in different types of research. Thus, both ontology and epistemology have implications for research applications pertaining to social care and health.
The relationship between the philosophical terms’ meanings and health and social care research applications is that research proposals should exemplify specific attitudes to reality and knowledge generation to be successful and gather regulatory bodies’ support. The NHS Health Research Authority (NHS HRA, 2018a) emphasises the role of social care and health research in improving the selection of treatment and care policies to promote the most effective health restoration measures. The effectiveness component implies that consistent research applications should propose endeavours that would promote generalisable and replicable research findings that will remain the same regardless of the researcher involved in the interpretation of results.
The requirements and expectations above are well-aligned with the positivist research paradigm and its ontological and epistemological components, implying that successful research applications should exemplify this perspective on reality. As for ontology, positivism holds that there is one objective reality that can be studied (Brearley & Walshe, 2020). The corresponding epistemological perspective is that the generation of true knowledge is possible when the investigator and the object are separate and do not influence each other (Brearley & Walshe, 2020). These ways of structuring attitudes to reality are consistent with experimental methods and hypothesis testing techniques that can be the standard of health research to inform evidence-based practice. It is reasonable to expect research applications to represent these specific stances. Research proposals based on positivist epistemology and ontology propose inquiries into reality capable of producing findings that would be true for everyone. In contrast, applications based on constructivist ontological and epistemological perspectives would likely promote imprecise and too narrowly-focused findings that would not be necessarily safe to use in healthcare improvement. Therefore, studies based on applications that assume that reality is observed rather than constructed individually will be more suitable.
Prompt 2: Various Research Methods’ Advantages and Disadvantages
Research pertaining to diverse health and social care contexts, including long-term, primary, inpatient, or home/community care, involves a range of methods, each of which has its unique advantages and disadvantages. Qualitative research might be implemented in all contexts where complex interactions take place (NHS HRA, 2018b). Its benefits include the depth with which clients’ or providers’ experiences are explored and the opportunity to identify further topics for investigation and study attitudes rather than simple facts (Hamilton & Finley, 2019). At the same time, qualitative methodologies involve little replicability, often lack generalisability and transferability, and can be effort- and time-consuming, which explains the prevalence of smaller sample sizes (Hamilton & Finley, 2019). Experimental quantitative research in non-laboratory environments can be applied in pharmaceutical development contexts and possesses diverse inference-related advantages, such as controllability, replicability, specificity of conclusions, and insights into cause-effect relationships. Its imperfections are the time-consuming nature, ethical considerations in variable manipulation in the case of underresearched treatments and drugs, extraneous variables’ impacts on results, and challenges when tracking participants’ unquantifiable responses. Thus, quantitative and qualitative methodologies widely vary in width and depth, with the former having more predictive power.
Observational and correlational studies also deserve discussion to make the right methodological choices. Naturalistic observation or observational research applies to health and social care contexts with direct client-provider interactions and enables researchers to observe phenomena’s natural occurrence (NHS HRA, 2018b). This method’s advantages are flexibility and suitability for research objects that cannot be explored in laboratory settings (Hamilton & Finley, 2019). Nevertheless, this form of research is time-consuming and involves barriers to confidentiality and minimal controllability as the researcher is not supposed to manipulate the environment. Correlational analysis, which might be used to confirm the link between two factors in healthcare settings, exemplifies a non-experimental method that can generate ideas for subsequent research and outcome improvement (NHS HRA, 2018b). Regarding the advantages, data collection typically occurs in natural settings, implying the results’ applicability to real-life situations and not just thoroughly controlled settings. However, despite indicating the fact of relationships, correlational studies in health and social care contexts cannot shed light on the reasons for such connections. Therefore, these methods promote the exploration of variables’ basic nature and relationships.
Prompt 3: Planning a Study in Health and Social Care
Preliminary planning plays an integral part in social care and health studies as it enables the researcher to make sure that all involved resources will be used purposefully. Planning a study in health and social care requires the researcher to clearly identify the study’s goals, the population of interest, and the treatment, outcome, or care process to be explored. The NHS HRA (n.d.) advises researchers to conduct reviews of recent scientific literature to formulate research questions that address the existing gaps and can be of practical value to the field. With a clear purpose and research questions in mind, the researcher is to identify a suitable methodology. Seeking assistance from the NIHR Research Design Service to proceed with this part of the planning process is possible (NHS HRA, n.d.). Takeaways gathered during this stage will inform the next aspects of planning.
Knowing what does and does not constitute research is another aspect of planning studies. The NHS HRA (n.d.) does not specify one universal approach to planning research in the field, but it strongly recommends establishing whether the proposed study is actual research as part of planning. With a clear idea for investigation in mind, the researcher can use the regulatory body’s decision-making tool to establish the idea’s status. The tool contains questions regarding the use of randomisation in group formation and treatment/care allocation and the anticipated transferability/generalisability of findings (NHS HRA, n.d.). Answers stating that none of the elements will be present lead to the result that the proposal would not be considered research, implying that the researcher is expected to implement changes to it.
After determining the object and methods, it is crucial to proceed with the teamwork and collaboration-related parts of the planning process. With reference to the UK Policy Framework for Health and Social Care Research, the team should assign agencies and individuals to fulfil five mandatory roles (NHS HRA, n.d.). To start with, one sponsor or, sometimes, co-sponsors should be selected to take on the responsibility for providing resources and reporting the project. Next, it is necessary to assign the sponsor’s legal representative and the chief investigator (CI) to act as the lead researcher in the planned project. More than that, the research team should identify the person to fulfil the principal investigator’s (PI) experiences, and there should be one investigator for every research site involved in the study (NHS HRA, n.d.). If the study is single-site, one person is allowed to assume both PI’s and CI’s roles (NHS HRA, n.d.). Additionally, selecting one or more data controllers depending on the planned study’s purposes and procedures is required. These basic roles support the proposal’s feasibility while ensuring that there are no unaddressed responsibilities.
Planning the work with the involved research sites and writing the study’s protocol are other steps to complete at the early stage of study planning. As per the NHS HRA (n.d.), researchers should ensure that all involved organisations can identify enough eligible participants and have the equipment and staff with relevant expertise/skills to complete the study. For both NHS and non-NHS research sites, the CI and the study’s sponsor should make sure that the sites’ local teams have access to documents and information involved in conducting the study (NHS HRA, n.d.). The aforementioned elements, including research sites, roles and participants, methodologies, purposes, and ethical considerations, including treating participant data, should be reflected in research protocols. The NHS HRA (n.d.) offers various protocol templates for quantitative drug research and qualitative investigations, and the researcher should document the future study’s details in an appropriate format. These endeavours will help finalise planning and present a clear and realistic plan of action to address the research question.
Prompt 4: Data Analysis and Assimilation in Health and Social Care
The analysis of collected data represents a crucial step in any research endeavours. The entire research field’s success depends on the degree to which barriers to comparison, such as the lack of data uniformity, are addressed. Assimilation refers to the process of combining data from dissimilar sources and ensuring the opportunity to draw comparisons between various studies or within the frame of one particular study. Various health and social care settings approach the issue of assimilation. For instance, in epidemiological research and the application of epidemiology-related statistical models, ensemble-based data assimilation techniques are used to calibrate models and improve predictions’ accuracy (Cocucci et al., 2022). The ensemble Kalman filtering algorithm can be applied to account for statistical noise and analyse epidemiological variables at different levels simultaneously (Cocucci et al., 2022). Therefore, statistical techniques support assimilation when it comes to analytical work.
Also, for the purpose of assimilation, studies conducted in health and social care contexts are assessed methodologically prior to the implementation. The NHS HRA (2022) promotes assimilation in data analysis within various settings by including the evaluation of statistical methods in ethical review processes. Specifically, the overview of studies’ “scientific and social value” involves the assessment of whether the selected methods of analysis are acceptable and conducive to answering the posed research question (NHS HRA, 2022, para. 6). To ensure each new study’s ability to add to the existing body of knowledge, the organisation requires the use of accepted scientific techniques and methods in data collection and analysis (NHS HRA, 2022). Contrary to promoting the arbitrary selection of analytical techniques, this approach to organising the research approval stage can support the integration of each individual project into the wider field of knowledge. Specifically, standardisation supports future decision-makers’ ability to effectively compare results retrieved in different projects. Therefore, by imposing limitations and offering guidance on which analytical methods can be implemented, the research authority sets certain methodological standards conducive to assimilation and systematisation in the context of analysis and inference-making.
Conclusion
On a final note, working on research projects aimed at addressing knowledge gaps in health and social care is a complex journey. Among other things, it requires the investigator to plan efforts carefully, establish collaborative relationships with clearly distributed responsibilities, and align research questions with suitable and widely accepted methodologies and analytical frameworks. Developing consistent attitudes to reality and knowledge generation to inform research applications is also conducive to success in the field.
References
Brearley, S. G., & Walshe, C. (2020). Introduction to the handbook of theory and methods in applied health research. In S. G. Brearley and C. Walshe (Eds.), Handbook of theory and methods in applied health research (pp. 1-3). Edward Elgar Publishing.
Cocucci, T. J., Pulido, M., Aparicio, J. P., Ruíz, J., Simoy, M. I., & Rosa, S. (2022). Inference in epidemiological agent-based models using ensemble-based data assimilation. Plos One, 17(3), 1-28.
Hamilton, A. B., & Finley, E. P. (2019). Qualitative methods in implementation research: An introduction. Psychiatry Research, 280, 1-8.
NHS Health Research Authority. (2018a). How we regulate health and social care research. Web.
NHS Health Research Authority. (2018b). Research methodology.
NHS Health Research Authority. (2022).Ethics review form (lead reviewer/REC member).
NHS Health Research Authority. (n.d.). Research planning.