There exists a common belief that the phenomenon of research in health care is only applicable in settings that require no immediate interaction between patients and practitioners. Thus, the processes of medical interaction and research exist separately due to the practitioners’ inability to apply extensive analysis in an immediate treatment environment. A primary issue with such an assumption deals with the fact that apart from the research proper, there exists a notion of quality improvement. The fundamental difference between these concepts concerns the fact that quality improvement is a process of constant evidence-based professional development that may be introduced immediately in terms of treatment, whereas scholarly research does not account for on-the-spot decisions and solutions (Berman et al., 2018). Thus, while research is aimed at analyzing the data with no specific intention and time constraints, quality improvement emphasized the demand for immediate quality outcomes.
When speaking of the application of research within the workplace context, it is of paramount importance to note that both qualitative and quantitative research methods are used by practitioners daily. For example, the system of electronic health records (EHR) present in a public hospital setting contribute to the collection of relevant statistical data concerning the patients’ health and socio-cultural background. Moreover, the patients are welcome to participate in a quality assessment survey, during which they have the opportunity to share their concerns and experiences of a hospital stay and interact with the medical staff. An example of qualitative research application concerns practically every intervention planning, as prior to submitting a treatment plan, practitioners are to thoroughly analyze one’s background in terms of the general health tendencies of a given population. Thus, analyzing secondary data in order to secure the most suitable patient outcome is a prime example of conducting qualitative analysis in a public hospital setting. This aspect especially concerns nurse case managers who specialize in developing long-term treatment interventions and, thus, have to consider all the existing options in the context of individuals’ health records.
Reference
Berman, L., Raval, M. V., & Goldin, A. (2018). Process improvement strategies: Designing and implementing quality improvement research.Seminars in Pediatric Surgery, 27(6), 379-385.