Research Topic Selection: Health Needs of Elderly Hurricane Victims

This research topic selection focuses on the health needs of elderly people who were victims of Hurricane Charley in 2004. The study aims to provide recommendations for the healthcare sector in administering care to the elderly during calamities. The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry supports the topic and recommends a patient-centered healthcare approach for the elderly victims of the hurricane and other disasters.

Running head: RESEARCH TOPIC SELECTION
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Research topic selection
The health needs of the elderly people who were the victims after the Hurricane Charley in
2004
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RESERCH TOPIC SELECTION
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Research topic selection
Introduction
The ability to develop a good research topic is considered an important skill in research
studies. Selecting a relevant topic to the specified area of study enables the researcher to come up
with concrete results and findings that will address the identified problems and the questions.
However, there are a number of factors to be considered when choosing the suitable topic in the
field of science and healthcare administration. Feasibility of the topic is very vital as it
determines how possible and practical the research will be conducted. Additionally, the topic
should help to address a certain problem or provide solutions to the needs of a given group in a
population. Identifying the topic that interests you will drive the motive to conduct an intensive
research thus resulting to a more reliable and accurate findings than a forced topic of study.
Topic selection
The field of science and healthcare administration is broad with many topics that can be
selected for research. However, my topic of study is the health needs of the elderly people who
were the victims after the Hurricane Charley in 2004. This topic is relevant to the field my field
of study as its recommendations would provide a guideline for the healthcare sector in
administoring care not only to the Hurricane victims but also to the victims of other calamities in
the history of the United States. Furthermore, the findings from the study can also be projected
and adopted by healthcare organizations of other countries in the world that underwent different
forms of crises such as the victims of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing in Japan. The study

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will also create awareness on the preparedness of the country to planning and responding to the
special needs of the elderly in cases of similar calamities in future.
Concisely, the research topic is supported by The American journal of Geriatric
Psychiatry on the Risk and protective factors for the psychopathology among the older vesrus the
younger victims of the Florida hurricanes (Acierno, Ruggiero, Kilpatrick, Resnick, and Galea,
2006, pp.1051-1059). In the article, the authors infers their statistical research not only to the
needs of the elderly but also the young adults who were affected by the disaster. Moreover, the
journal demonstrates the use of ANOVA inferential statistics technique by projecting the data
obtained to other disasters apart from the hurricane such as floods and earthquakes in other
countries. The research question in the article which can be adopted for this similar research
topic is what are the most prevalent post-hurricane health needs of the elderly and young adults
residents of Florida with chronic health conditions?
Furthermore, the authors obtained a 95 percent P-value of confidence level through the
use of the null and alternative hypotheses. The null hypothesis used was that the health needs of
the elderly and the young are similar while the alternative was that the needs of the elderly and
the young are not similar. However, in the findings of the study, the article explains that there
was an increased number of admissions after the disaster. The results indicate that some of the
victims hospitalized had no physical injuries especially the elderly instead had other chronic and
clinical illnesses such as personal stress, hypertension, frailness, memory impairment, and
limited mobility that make the elderly more vulnerable to the disaster thus need more medical
attention than the youth. The results also indicated that 60 percent of the hurricane deaths were
aged 65 and above. From the findings, the authors recommended that the healthcare

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organizations should dedicate the patient-centered healthcare approach to the elderly victims of
the hurricane and other disasters that facilitate a fast recovery as supported by (Johnstone and
Turale, 2014, pp.67-77).
References
Acierno, R., Ruggiero, K. J., Kilpatrick, D. G., Resnick, H. S., & Galea, S. (2006). Risk and
protective factors for psychopathology among older versus younger adults after the 2004
Florida hurricanes. The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 14(12), 1051-1059.
Johnstone, M. J., & Turale, S. (2014). Nurses' experiences of ethical preparedness for public
health emergencies and healthcare disasters: a systematic review of qualitative
evidence. Nursing & health sciences, 16(1), 67-77.