Research Proposal: Ethical Practices in Autism Care in the UK

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Assignment 2- Research Proposal
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction/research statement.......................................................................................................3
Background and rationale of the research.......................................................................................3
Aim and objectives..........................................................................................................................6
Research methodology.....................................................................................................................7
Research approach.......................................................................................................................7
Research philosophy....................................................................................................................7
Research design...........................................................................................................................8
Sampling......................................................................................................................................8
Data Collection methods..............................................................................................................8
Data analysis................................................................................................................................9
Ethical consideration.......................................................................................................................9
Discussion on biases and limitations.............................................................................................10
Presentation with Gantt chart.........................................................................................................11
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................13
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Introduction/research statement
In the healthcare setting, ethics and values are widely acknowledged as it support the healthcare
professionals and practitioners to line their activities with the competing needs and requirement
of patients. In order to deliver ethical and quality of the services, healthcare practitioners’
focuses on developing the evidence-based strategies as well as interventions that is mainly used
in improving the care and services (Graf et al. 2017). However, it is not recognized whether and
to what degree ethics can be developed using the interventions. In the present scenario, Autism is
recognized as an emergent public health problem among the children of UK that require proper
attention and treatment so that it may not affect their whole life.
Children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) also face problem associated with
connecting to the other people and accepting everyday life. More explicitly, they have problems
mainly in the three areas i.e. social interactions, language and communication and behavioral
pattern. In order to treat children with such disorder it is required by practitioners and the nurses
to engage in ethical practices so that it ultimately provide to each and every children without
engaging in the discrimination or inequality practices (Long et al. 2017). The present research
proposal will focus on analyzing the impact of ethical practices in delivering Autism Care to
infant. On the other hand, study will also analyze the key ethical practices that are imparted by
healthcare professionals to provide Autism care to children so that it may not lead to severe
impact their health.
Background and rationale of the research
In order to maintain ethics at the healthcare setting it is required by professional to deliver the
right to health among their patient so that they may easily access the care and treatment without
any form of favoritism on the basis of race, age, ethnicity or any further status. Implementation
of the ethical practices has significantly supported in imparting reliable and effective care to the
Autism patients so that it may not hamper their overall development (Mazurek et al. 2019).
Autism in the present scenario is defined as a complex developmental disability that mainly
continues for the lifelong and affects the development of children. It also influence the way in
which child communicates and relate to the world around them that sometime lead to the
situation of isolation. It’s depicted as a spectrum disorder that mainly affects the children and
their development in severe and more subtle ways (Cridland et al. 2015). Therefore, it has been
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assessed that children or children with Autism will feature range of impairments that mainly
involves area of difficulties such as:
Areas of difficulties
Social interaction Autism children will be unable to express their own feelings and
emotions along with understanding the others thoughts and feelings.
Individual or children with Autism disorder would also find hard to
interact and get social among the children that results in increasing the
isolation.
Imagination On the other hand, another area of difficulty is associated with
imagination they would have trouble with engaging in the play area and
prefer to engage in repetitive actions. Therefore, it is stated that
children with Autism may not seize the conception of danger or how to
handle new situations (Magoo et al. 2015).
Communication Autism patient would also face difficulty at the time of delivering
speech or communicating with others.
Therefore, it has been stated that children with Autism may experience over-sensitivity as well as
under-sensitivity that avoid them to understand the surrounding in which they live.
With the increasing ASDs it acts as highly problematic, as the pathologies unconstructively
influence parent and family life along with increasing the level of stress and mental health
problem of Autistic children. From the past 10 years, prevalence of Autism among children in
the UK region has been increasing at the constant rate that critically needed research and support
services to overcome the consequences (Brodhead et al. 2018). The Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC) has clearly represents that there is 15 percent increase in the incidence
nationally that is 1 in 59 children from 1 in 68 in two years.
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Figure 1: Prevalence of Autism ratio
(Source: Autism Speaks, 2018)
From the above ratio, it has been analyzed that the gender gap in autism has decreased. Boys
were targeted 4 times more than girls (1 in 37 versus 1 in 151) in the year 2014; this divergence
was narrower than in 2012. As in the year 2012 boys were diagnosed 4.5 times more frequently
than the girls. This clearly depicts the identification of autism in girl child rather than the boy
child. With this finding, CDC focuses on encouraging towards reviewing the evidence that
results in the identification of autism disorder among the girls and minority groups in the UK
region (Unigwe et al. 2017). Therefore, with addressing the prevalence of Autism among
children it has been suggested that healthcare organization must impart their concern towards the
child’s development i.e. with the help of screening, diagnosis, and intervention so that it
overcomes the level of Autism among the children and children.
Through gaining the information regarding the current topic it has been also assessed that to
support the Autism patient, professionals and practitioners engage in imparting ethical practices
and treatment. Due to the particular “social” status of an autistic patient, ethics in impending
autism and its treatments and research has gained much consideration (Haneyd Cullen, 2017). It
has been also assessed that there are numerous problems to be faced by relatives of autistic
children, with charging a penalty on the quality of life of all the family members. In this case, the
practitioner faces ethical challenges regarding the diagnosis that is how families will access to
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diagnosis as well as how they will impart care treatment to the infected children. On the other
hand, it has been also identified that healthcare professionals often engage in implementing key
principles associated with maintaining ethical practices such as non-maleficence as well as
justice (Raz et al. 2018). This principle requires that no harm be caused to an individual, either
unintentionally or deliberately. Along with this, implementation of this principle also requires
healthcare providers to defend individuals or patients those who are incapable to protect
themselves. Hence, this principle results in supporting the children to overcome the fear or
negative consequences associated with the Autism Disorder.
The key rationale of study is to analyze the impact of ethical practices in Autism Care on
children in the United Kingdom as the implementation of the ethical practices will support in
delivering the quality of care to the children. On the other hand, the rationale behind undertaking
this proposal also states that in the present scenario professional services are not up to the mark
that results in delivering unethical practices to the children and their families. Therefore, to
overcome the unethical practice proposal will also recommend certain ways through which
ethical practices of healthcare professional can be easily enhanced. The psychological
intervention will be taken into consideration in the clinical management of the disorder.
Once a child is detected of autism disorder then it will be required by professional to engage in
performing optimal treatment as well as structured behavioral to overcome the level of Autism.
Apart from this, to enhance the ethical practices it will be recommended to the practitioner to
engage in the Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA). It is defined as a program that uses a one-on-
one coaching approach that will engage in reinforces the practice of various skills that would be
significant in imparting effective psychological treatment. These programs are generally
performed in a child’s home beneath the administration of a behavioral psychologist so that they
may easily overcome the behavioral changes among patients. However, implementation of ABA
programs can be very expensive that might not be widely adopted by the healthcare systems but
to overcome the rate of Autism children in the UK, it will be required by setting to implement
the program.
Aim and objectives
Aim- To analyze the impact of ethical practices in Autism Care on children in the United
Kingdom
Objectives-
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 To assess the prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) among children in the UK
 To analyze the ethical practices conducted by professionals to provide Autism Care
 To examine the impact of ethical practices of professionals on the Autism Care in the
United Kingdom
 To recommend certain ways in which ethical practices of healthcare professionals can be
easily enhanced.
Research methodology
Research approach
The key specification in the research methodology is associated with the research approach. It is
defined as a plan that clearly focuses on the broad statements that detailed the methods used by
the researcher for collecting the data and information as well as tools used for their analysis and
interpretation. For the present proposal, the selected research approach will be the inductive
approach. Inductive research approach mainly focuses on researching and drafting the aim,
objectives and research questions (Ledford and Gast, 2018). These all will be needed to
accomplish during the plan so that the solution for research aim can be easily achieved. With the
application of inductive research, approach researcher will easily gain information regarding the
ethical practices of healthcare practitioners and their impact on delivering the Autism care.
Research philosophy
Research philosophy focus over the sources that result in the development of knowledge that
generally creates the idea of knowledge from that data collected through primary as well as
secondary sources. In addition to this, it is also defined as a belief or phenomenon that clearly
showcases the ways in which data should be gathered, used and analyzed. From the analysis of
gathered information, the researcher will be able to respond to the research objectives and
generate an outcome that results in creating new knowledge (Vaioleti, 2016). Basically, there are
two types of research philosophy, i.e. interpretivism and positivism. Positivism research
philosophy mainly focuses on gathering factual information with the help of undertaking the
observation or evaluation as it is reliable. On the other hand, interpretivism philosophy is based
on the naturalistic approach as it focuses on the interpretation of gathered data on their own. For
the present research proposal selected philosophy is interpretivism as it will undertake an
analysis of practitioners’ ethical practices in the healthcare setting.
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Research design
The research design is defined as blueprint of the overall research that will focus on different
methods and activities that needed to be taken by the researcher for the collection and analysis of
the data. The research design would also integrate different components in coherent and logical
ways by significantly addressing the overall research problem. It allows the investigators to deal
with research objectives to achieve the stated aim (Kumar, 2019). There are different forms of
research design techniques such as descriptive, exploratory, casual and experimental.
Through considering the present investigation it has been proposed that descriptive research
design will be taken into the consideration as it will support the researcher in carrying out the in-
depth research regarding ethical practices imparted by professionals to the Autism children in the
UK. In addition to this, implementation of this research design will also help the researcher in
collecting a range of information from different sources by formulating the research objectives.
Sampling
Sampling is also defined as a key aspect in research methodology as it focuses on the selection of
a subset or division of individuals from the statistical population as the division will be able to
represent the whole population. From whom relevant and significant information regarding
ethical practices can be attained. Basically, there are two types of sampling i.e. probability and
non-probability sampling (Bresler and Stake, 2017). For the present research proposal selected
sampling technique is probability sampling. It is the most commonly used technique that
provides a fair and equal chance to sample to get selected into the study. For the present proposal
selected sample size will be 20 senior healthcare professionals of 4 healthcare organizations in
the UK from whom information regarding the practices of practitioners will be assessed. The
sample will be selected with undertaking the simple random sampling where 5 senior healthcare
professionals will be get selected on a random basis.
Data Collection methods
Data collection is simply defined as a process that mainly focuses on the congregation of the
information and then evaluates them to discover the answer that results in accomplishing the
research aim and objectives. It is also considered a significant part of the research methodology
because it ensures and maintains the reliability of the investigation. Along with this, selecting the
right data collection tools for the research would also minimize the level of error with making the
investigation reliable (Ledford. and Gast, 2018). There are two methods of collecting data i.e.
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primary and secondary. For the present proposal, it has been assessed that primary data
collection technique will be taken into consideration on the basis of which the researcher will
obtain first hand and fresh information. The primary data from selected sample size will be
gathered through devising the questionnaire. On the other hand, the secondary source will be also
taken into the consideration in which researcher will acquire information and data on the ethical
practices of professionals by reviewing published standards, journals as well as healthcare
related articles etc.
Data analysis
Data analysis is defined as the process that is mainly used by the researcher to analyze the
acquired data and engage in interprets the data so directly achieve the research aims and
objectives. There are two forms of data analysis techniques that are qualitative and quantitative
techniques (Flick, 2015). For the present proposal, the researcher will engage in implementing
the qualitative technique where the researcher will focus on devising the themes on the basis of
the designed questionnaire and interpret according to the result. The significance of data analysis
is that it will assist the researcher in arranging the findings from the diverse data collection
sources so that they may easily filter the required data that will support in accomplishing the
desired research aim and objective. Therefore, it is regarded as an essential methodology within
research that principally analyzes the data that will be required for the chosen topic.
Ethical consideration
Ethical considerations are significant for the research as it mainly grants the proposals that
clearly assure implementation of the ethical practices to engage in the research activities that
directly outcome in accomplishing the devised aim and objectives (Vaioleti, 2016). For the
present proposal it has been identified that researcher will focuses on respecting the dignity of
the participants and respondents who have contributed to the overall project. Thus, researcher
should be engage in prioritizing the respondents to mark their confidentiality in the study. On the
other hand, ethical consideration will also state maintenance of privacy and anonymity of
respondents so that it may not disclose the identity of Autism children to the third party (Jeste
and Schor, 2017).
In addition to this, enabling ethical consideration will also guarantee accurate reporting of the
result that has been gained from the conducted research (Mackey and Gass, 2015). There are
different guidelines of ethical consideration that will be followed by the researcher at the time of
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conducting the research that will mainly include respecting the dignity of the participants which
researcher will select through which they would acquire relevant data or information regarding
their practices which they implement to the Autism children. In addition to this, ethical
consideration will also protect the privacy of participants in order to gain the trust and conviction
regarding the practices of healthcare practitioners. Moreover, with this researcher will also avoid
consideration of the misleading or misguided information in the study so that results may not be
getting biased.
Given the importance of ethics at the time of conducting research it has been identified that
researcher will focus on implementing the ethical norms associated with honesty, objectivity,
openness as well as respect of respondents (Kumar, 2019). With the implementation of codes and
policies for research ethics researcher will strive towards stating the honesty at the time of
engaging in the scientific communications. Researcher will honestly report the data on the
Autism care and professional practices that result in taking effective data for the chosen topic. In
addition to this, implementing the ethics code and practices it would not fabricate, falsify, or
misrepresent data at the time of measuring and analyzing the data.
Discussion on biases and limitations
In regard with discussing the biases and limitation it has been assessed that researcher will not
engage in any sort biasness or prejudice at the time of circulating the questionnaire or at the time
of analyzing the results acquired from questionnaire. It has been further discussed that researcher
will also analyse the limitation of research that is researcher has only concentrate on one disorder
i.e. Autism and have not taken other disease or disorder into the consideration. Apart from this,
research will be limited to the UK region that result in acquiring limited data from the UK region
and avoid considering other states and region. In order to overcome the research limitation it will
be required by researcher to engage in selecting the wider market as well as sample size that will
support in gaining accurate and reliable information.
Inadequate availability of time will be also considered as the most important limitation
associated with present research. Further the limited availability of time will also result in
creating different kind of obstacles in terms of data collection and analysis. This limitation has
also restricted the sample size to 20 respondents. Apart from this, limited availability of literature
on ethical practices in context of Autism will also create obstacle and will act as a limitation with
the present study. Lack of time to complete the research will be also a limitation which the
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researcher will need to take care of in the best possible manner. It can be expressed that the
researcher will make sure that no form or degree of biasness will be promoted or carried out in
the research.
Presentation with Gantt chart
Activity Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9
Selection of
topic
Analyzing
different
literature
resources
Framing
objectives
Drafting
literature
review
Collecting
information
Analyzing
the data
Building
research
approach
Selecting
research
methodology
Building
questionnaire
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Analyzing
the data
obtained
Drafting
findings
Complete
remaining
chapters
Submitting
the chapters
to tutor
Draft
revision
Printing and
binding
Final
submission
Conclusion
From the above analysis of data on the chosen topic it has been identified that with the
prevalence of Autism patients (Children) in the UK practitioners are often engage in undertaking
the unethical practices that results in affecting the overall health perspective of the service users.
It has also summarized the impact of ethical practices of professionals on the Autism Care in the
United Kingdom. On the other hand, proposal has also focused on selecting the adequate
research methodologies that has mainly focused on researching and drafting the aim, objectives
and research questions. Apart from this, for the present proposal it has been identified that
researcher has focuses on respecting the dignity of the participants and respondents who have
contributed to the overall project in order to maintain the ethic at the time of conducting the
research. In addition to this, it has also recommended different activities to overcome the
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