Innovation and Improvement through Action Research

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Innovation and Improvement through
Action Research
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
LO 1. Review the role of research in health and wellbeing improvement strategies......................4
P1. Discuss the role of research in defining research questions for a piece of action research
questions for a piece of action research in health and social care...............................................4
P2. Review own skills in concluding a piece of action research into health and wellbeing
improvement................................................................................................................................4
LO 2. Develop a methodological framework for action research in health and wellbeing
improvement....................................................................................................................................4
P3. Illustrate in detail appropriate research methods for investigating research questions/
hypothesis....................................................................................................................................4
Research philosophy....................................................................................................................4
Research approach.......................................................................................................................5
Research design...........................................................................................................................5
Data collection and analysis methods..........................................................................................6
LO 3. Carry out action research towards improvements in health and wellbeing...........................8
P5. Implement a piece of action research in health and wellbeing..............................................8
P6. Interpret data using appropriate data analysis techniques.....................................................9
LO 4. Examine the impact of research findings with regard to service improvement and own
professional development..............................................................................................................11
P7. Discuss the potential impact of findings from action research study on health and
wellbeing improvement.............................................................................................................11
P8. Discuss own learning in research journey identifying strategies for future development
needs in conducting ethical research into health and wellbeing improvement..........................13
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................15
References......................................................................................................................................16
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Introduction
The action research problem is an appropriate method that is hugely popular in clinical practices
that helps in developing a potential solution so that clinical practice can be improved. As stated
by Schön (2017), action research has become a famous strategy and the use of action research in
the healthcare sector increases rapidly. This research is a special form of emancipatory research
that has a long tradition inclined with the community and organizational development work.
When increasing concern associated with research evidence is not appropriate in influencing
practice development than for that case action research is acquiring credibility in those particular
cases. More precisely action research is a specific method that was first introduced in the year
1946 by Kurt Lewin. Mr. Lewin is a social scientist who is mainly concerned with the intergroup
relations so that they can get help for minority problems, particularly in the United States. The
main strength of this research is that its primary focus is in generating solutions to various
practical problems along with its ability to give power to all practitioners. However, the most
definition of action research consists with three core components that include the participatory
character of the research, its democratic urge and concurrent contribution into social science and
various social changes (Sinclair et al., 2016). More precisely, action research in the case of the
healthcare sector can be used as a research guide that helps the sector to improve all the contexts
related to healthcare. It is one of the famous research methods that is been widely used for
investigating all those professional practices along with patients experience simultaneously.
In this assignment, a detailed analysis of innovation and improvement with the help of action
research has been analyzed. Along with this a review of health and well-being improvement
strategy has been analyzed based on the components of action research. Various research
questions inclined with action research in health and social care have been discussed in this
research. Furthermore, a methodological framework associated with action research has been
developed for better understanding the health and wellbeing aspects. Appropriate data analysis
technique has been used for better data interpretation so that the impact of action research in
health and well being has been broadly described. This assignment also tries to examine the
impact of all those research findings so that improvement along with own professional
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development can be gathered. However, various strategies for future developmental needs for
acquiring ethics in case of improvement inclined with health and well being.
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LO 1. Review the role of research in health and wellbeing improvement strategies
P1. Discuss the role of research in defining research questions for a piece of action research
questions for a piece of action research in health and social care
P2. Review own skills in concluding a piece of action research into health and wellbeing
improvement
Refer to PPT
LO 2. Develop a methodological framework for action research in health and wellbeing
improvement
P3. Illustrate in detail appropriate research methods for investigating research questions/
hypothesis
The following research has been entirely directed towards the enhancement of healthcare
services, which is being done by investigating upon the role of research in the improvement of
health and wellbeing strategies. In this regard, it can be stated that the main variables to be
considered in the following research are research and healthcare strategies. In this regard, the
completion of this research would demand the researcher to develop an effective methodological
framework that can be of utmost help in determining the path of action research. In this regard,
the methodological framework designed by the researcher in this regard is as follows-
Research philosophy
As per the pinion of Fletcher (2017), the research philosophies can be briefly described into three
primary types, i.e. positivism philosophy, interpretive philosophy and realism philosophy. Due to
the action research being undertaken in order to assess the role of research in the optimization of
health and wellbeing strategies has determined to be secondary in nature, the researcher has
chosen to implement the philosophical approach of positivism. As per the opinion of Walliman
(2017), the philosophical approach of positivism can be best described as the philosophy that is
entirely supported by various scientific methodologies during its phase of foundation. The
implementation of positivism by the researcher would prevent any sort of human emotion or
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subjective information from having any influence on the research outcomes regarding the role of
research in healthcare strategies.
In short, the implementation of positivism would restrict the researcher form observing human
consciousness in an objective manner. Therefore, the immensity of inclusion of logic would help
the researcher in assessing the role of research in a precise manner. Furthermore, implementation
of positivism would also help the researcher in order to establish and evaluate hypotheses in
regard to assess the contribution of research in the optimization of strategic healthcare measures
to enhance medical service quality precisely. The hypotheses can be further investigated upon in
the data analysis in order to generate desirable outcomes form the research.
Research approach
According to the opinion of McCuskerand Gunaydi (2015), the research approaches can be
classified into two major types, i.e. inductive approach and deductive approach. The research
will be held in a secondary method, which further implies that the research would require
addressing the individual variables in a qualitative approach in order to complete the research in
a precise manner. In this regard, the researcher has selected to implement inductive reasoning in
order to commence the research in a significant manner. Through the implementation of
inductive reasoning, the researcher would be able to analyze a brief set of individual
observations in order to develop conclusions in a significant manner. Hence, the implementation
of inductive reasoning would enable the researcher to commence the research in a qualitative
manner.
As the researcher has developed a set of hypothetical statements in order to analyze the impact of
research in improving the healthcare strategies, the implementation of inductive reasoning would
enable the researcher to address the variables descriptively. As the variables of the research have
been addressed significantly, it would simplify the task of carrying the act of commencing the
research largely. On the other hand, the implementation of inductive approach would further
enable the researcher to focus specifically focus on interpreting the dynamics in a significant
manner. In addition, the researcher would be enabled to develop effective scope for further
researches in a significant manner through inductive reasoning.
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Research design
As per the opinion of Cuervo‐Cazurra et al. (2017), the research designs can be primarily
described into two fundamental categories, i.e. quantitative research and qualitative research
design. In this regard, the primary researches are best conducted through the implementation of
quantitative research designs. On the other hand, as the theme of the research has been
considered being secondary, the researcher has chosen to implement qualitative research design
in order to conduct the research significantly. As per the words of Dumayand Cai (2015), the
qualitative research designs are mainly concerned about the attributes of the specific
phenomenon data that can be further evaluated through the medium of thematic analysis
procedures. In this regard, the implementation of qualitative research design is considered being
most suitable to investigate the contribution of research in terms of maximizing the efficiencies
of health and well being strategies in the healthcare sector. Furthermore, the researcher has
significantly chosen to implement the qualitative research design in order to assess the role of
research in improving the health and well-being strategies because it would assist adding depth
band detail to the overall study. It would prevent the researcher from making judgments in the
initial phases without in-depth evaluation of the main variables of the study. As the data for the
research would be collected from individual experiences due to its secondary theme,
implementation of qualitative research design would be appropriate for the researcher.
Data collection and analysis methods
The previous sections have provided a paramount assistance in establishing an appropriate
methodological framework to commence the study in a significant manner. However, the
researcher would also require choosing an appropriate data collection and analysis technique in
order to finish the research in a significant manner. With respect to this, McCuskerand Gunaydi
(2015) had classified data collection as the procedure that involves the collective gathering of
relevant information that can be useful in order to commence analysis processes to complete a
research precisely. As per the previous information, the researcher has selected to commence the
research with the help of secondary data collection method for data congregation purposes. This
section has enabled the researcher to gather qualitative data for research purposes. This choice
has prevented the researcher from spending excessive costs for data collection purposes. It also
enables the researcher to complete the research in a less time-consuming manner. The sources of
data in this regard are academic journals, articles and previous empirical studies conducted in
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this respective field. Furthermore, the researcher would be implementing thematic analysis in
order to generate the research findings in a significant manner.
P4. Discuss ethical considerations when researching human participants 680
The research ethics are mainly based on the privacy of the participant interviewee who needs to
follow certain ethical consideration based on the research interview procedure (Bruun, 2016). In
order to conduct the variability of the strategies implemented for wellbeing and health research,
there is certain ethical consideration that needs to be maintained by the interviewee and the
interviewer as well. The respondents who are being interviewed by the researcher, needs to be
laid out the research questions beforehand and need deep explanation of the technique of the
interview procedure that needs to be implemented. The research needs to be implemented with
due consideration of the emotional aspect of the interviewee. There should be no such emotional
interrelation and sensitivity that should be related with the method of interviewing a respondent.
There are other research ethics as well that implies the research authenticity and reliability on the
part of the interviewee (Mann, 2016). The ethical considerations include the purpose of research
interview that takes place where the participants would be well informed regarding the purpose
of the interview and they would be instructed to sign a form where it is stated that they are well
informed regarding the purpose of research and that they are taking part due to their own will.
According to the Data Protection Act of 2018, there should be no leakage of information shared
with any third party agents, other than the interviewee (Pedersen et al., 2016). The genuineness
of data that is obtained from the interview would be maintained effectively. The research
objectives would be duly considered during the procedure of the interview without interrupting
or manipulating to ensure reliability of research and meet research objectives. By maintaining
these basic set of ethical considerations, the research interview can be successfully implemented
with relevant data of the research regarding the effectiveness of the strategies implemented for
health and wellbeing maintenance.
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LO 3. Carry out action research towards improvements in health and wellbeing
P5. Implement a piece of action research in health and wellbeing
Academic bases were analyzed through systemic research to find relevant studies related to the
chosen topic. PubMed, web of Science and other related databases were evaluated to gain in-
depth knowledge about the importance of Action Research in healthcare studies. The data
collected were from 2015-2018. The keywords used to match the search criteria was healthcare
clinic, medical setting, medical staff, physicians, training, education, intervention, safety, quality,
participatory action research or action research. The action research and its analysis were carried
out utilizing the existing literature reviews, some of the key points have to keep in mind(Ginter
et al., 2018).The chosen article must be applied in the hospital setting consisting of medical care
staff and adequate data of every stages of AR including identification of problems, planning and
application. All these papers are peer-reviewed journals and consist of sufficient information
regarding the AR implementation in healthcare.AR is an important method that is adopted for
bringing change in medical care settings. Many studies given in the literature is solely based on
the methodology that is available in the AR. However, only those steps are analyzed in the
research paper that has proven equal importance in healthcare studies.
The analysis of different databases revealed that more than 350 AR related articles contained
sufficient information regarding the implementation of AR in the healthcare setting. However,
proper analysis suggested that about 18 review articles could be chosen to get a clear view about
the chosen research topic. An independent analysis was conducted so that the methodological
quality of different articles can be analyzed in an enhanced manner. The approach chosen for the
final analysis revealed an amalgamation of qualitative and quantitative research analysis and the
outcomes of the collected data. As the study was thematic, therefore, the analysis of different
tools used for the research was ignored. The selected review journals mainly pointed out towards
the significance of AR in medical care setting. The common objectives selected for AR are as
follows:
 Improving knowledge of employees as well as their skills
 Enhancement for the formal methods of care
 Changes brought in the medical care practices
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 Improvement made in the quality of care (QoC)
 Enhancement of workforce satisfaction and well-being
 Efficient communication among the workforce
There were different data collection approaches that took place for about two months in different
places. Some were conducted in the USA, some took place in the United Kingdom whereas, and
some took place in Australia (Coghlan, 2019). Other reviews suggested that some survey took
place in Jordan, Switzerland, Bolivia, Spain, Netherlands and Denmark. The research paper
revealed that almost all of the studies took around 4 months to complete. The implementation of
AR was found to be carried out in differ hospitals or wards of the same hospitals. The
participants were measured to include physicians, nurses, health care providers, wardens and
many others. The studies evaluated were found to be heterogeneous related to the objectives,
implementation of AR and the findings of the report. There is no particular method of finding the
research and it is evident that each of them followed a specific path to obtain the target data. The
findings of the research followed a chronological path that is represented by themes. The
background, findings, methods and discussion are usually analyzed by the action researchers so
that they do not find any difficulty in setting up the research work. In order to analyze the data
collected from numerous reviews, four themes are set up. These themes are related to
identification of the problems, planning, application and evaluation. The thematic analysis will
provide a detailed outline of the methodology and the evaluation process. The systematic method
of implementing strategies for action research in health and wellbeing improvement include a
number of variables that include strategies maintaining a proper workplace culture and healthy
relationship among workers to promote a healthy working style in the institution. This is
essential in order to maintain a proper lifestyle among the existing workforce. Another
significant implementation is ethical strategy that should be pertaining to promoting an unbiased
environment and maintaining work ethics to avoid any mental pressure for the workers. Ethics
based health strategy is based on maintaining an autonomous right of the individuals in the
particular organization.
P6. Interpret data using appropriate data analysis techniques
Theme 1: Problematic identification, which has been obtained from the assessment.
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Involvement of this type of theme can be conveyed with the help of various stages that reflects
the scenario of a hospital and this tends to enhance the management of the hospital. The study
has been dealt with the collaboration of interview session center rounding the numbers of
candidates. The assessment has been developed with an interpretation of number of candidates
that have answered the concerned with question related to the hospital environment. In terms of
projecting the core issue based on the assessment can be comprehend with the means of
transcription that took place between the doctors and nurses. On the contrary, it has been
observed that Action Research plays an important role towards the interpretation of norms and
ethics based on the hospital workplace (Tetui et al., 2018). In this context, this can be stated that
Action research will help the study to shed light on required emphasis of the workplace
improvement and well-being of the other colleges.
Theme 2: Planning and plotting of Action Research that will improve the wellbeing in a
workplace.
This part comes up with the reflection based on the scheming of the phases that delves with the
identification of hurdles that usually takes place in the hospital environment. It has been
observed that the assessment will obtain beneficial results through the means of thematic
analysis based on the subject of the study. There is a propagation of hospital workforce issues
that has been dealt with the help of interviewing between the doctors and nurses, who have
presented their issues obtained from the hospital work place. Thus, it can be stated that the
assessment will be beneficial in terms of projecting the identified issues based on the hospital
workplace. Most importantly, it has been interpreted with the help of resourceful solutions,
which will help the study to gain the power to sustain. However, implication of Action research
will inversely put a positive impact on the level of performance in terms of obtaining the work
place of hospital with wellbeing and profitable results.
Theme 3: Involvement of Action Research that tends to improve the scenario of a workplace
The included studies were concerned about the implementation of AR in different healthcare
workgroups, workshops and educational sessions. This aims to improve the knowledge, skills
and confidence of the medical care employees. This theme reveals the importance of AR in
identifying the problems and the needs that are expressed by the respondents. The range of the
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implementation of AR varied significantly. The sites of the studies were different so the analysis
also took time to complete. In some reviews and journals, educational as well as training and
development were carried out for specific period at a particular area. In other studies, the
implementation was found to last for several months or years so that proper evaluation of the
survey was possible. On the other hand, Kristensen et al. (2015) stated that descriptions of the
action undertaken were not described in detailed and thus, needs more detailed analysis to
provide accurate finding. Thus, a more detailed evaluation is needed so that accurate protocols
can be considered for future approaches.
Theme 4: Action Research that will be evaluating the specification of the assessment
The project evaluation part is the least analyzed portion of the whole research work. AR is
witnessed to be a qualitative methodology and hence, its evaluation was fully depended on
qualitative methods. Thus, it leads to numerous data collection techniques that include collection
of notes, observations, etc (Greenhalgh et al., 2016). for better analysis of the project. This
specific setting is made without allowing any generalization of the project work. It is evident that
the articles considered for this study did not invoke any evaluation of the project work (Westra et
al., 2015). On the other hand, some studies included questionnaires and interviews. Additionally,
some included feedback sessions that were found to be significant for the research study. Most of
the studies suggested that there was a positive relation of AR with objectives of the research. AR
is found to be suitable to carry out further research on the chosen topic.
LO 4. Examine the impact of research findings with regard to service improvement and
own professional development
P7. Discuss the potential impact of findings from action research study on health and
wellbeing improvement
From the findings, it has been found out that Action Research will help in bringing changes
within the organization or the improvement of Quality of Care of patients. A more forensic
approach for distinguishing between real Action Research as well as studies merely paying lip
service to AR is adopted. The heterogeneity of the studies in terms of methodology, which have
been employed, and objectives as well as outcomes, which have been assessed has been revealed
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