Dementia Care: Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods

Desklib provides solved assignments and past papers to help students succeed.

RESEARCH PROJECT
Providing person-centred care for people who have dementia at conversation with carers

Table of Contents
TOPIC OF RESEARCH...................................................................................................................... 2
RESEARCH QUESTIONS.................................................................................................................. 2
PLACE OF RESEARCH......................................................................................................................2
RESEARCH IMPORTANCE............................................................................................................... 2
LITERATURE REVIEW......................................................................................................................3
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY........................................................................................................... 4
RESEARCH APPROACH............................................................................................................... 4
RELATION OF THE APPROACH WITH DATA COLLECTION...........................................................4
TIMELINE OF RESEARCH.............................................................................................................5
ACCESS FOR DATA COLLECTION.....................................................................................................6
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................7
1

TOPIC OF RESEARCH
"Providing person-centred care for people who have dementia at conversation with carers’’
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. Assess the effectiveness of the person-centred approach in caring for people with
Dementia?
2. What are the best ways to provide care to people with dementia?
3. What dementia-related skills should a healthcare provider have?
PLACE OF RESEARCH
This research will be conducted on the care providers from a different healthcare organisation
in the UK and the family and friends of the people with dementia. These people will be sent a
questionnaire with the means of e-mail and they send back their responses through the e-mail.
RESEARCH IMPORTANCE
This research discusses the role of person-centred care in helping individuals suffering from
Dementia live a happy and calm life. This research is important because it will help in
understanding how care providers can act as a companion by showing compassion and
understanding the most basic needs and demands of patients with Dementia. Often it is seen in
the care homes that all the individuals have the same tasks and requirements for each day.
They will all wake up at 8, take their breakfast at 9 and eat the same type of food and wear the
same type of dresses. The patient centred approach is just opposite to that; the carer makes
sure that the person affected with dementia is provided all the specific things required by him
on a day to day basis (Sjögren et al., 2013). Such care helps the individual live a calmer life with
less agitation and aggression. This research will help in answering the basic questions of the
research projects and identify the most important skills that are required in a carer to
effectively provide services to the person suffering from Dementia.
2

LITERATURE REVIEW
According to Stokes (2017) dementia is a condition in which a person loses its natural ability to
remember things, reason, language skills, problem-solving or self-management skills. Dementia
happens when the brain cells of a person stop working or lose connection with other brain cells.
Losing brain cells is a natural process which continues with ageing but in the patients suffering
from dementia the rate of loss is way faster than the healthy individuals.
Mitchell and Agnelli, (2015) explained that a person-centred approach to provide care to
dementia affected people focuses on the person, his needs and desires rather focusing on the
illness. A person designated to provide care to dementia affected person need to ensure the
patient is always treated with respect. The care provider can make the services more ‘person-
centred’ by giving them an opportunity to choose from different options. These options may be
given in choosing the food, jewellery, lipstick or what to watch, what to wear. These little things
mean a lot for them and the can helps them feel more control over their own life.
As per Hill et al., (2010), the basic principle of person-centred care is to treat individuals with
respect and dignity. It also includes understanding the nature, history, symptoms, of their
illness. It is important that the carer knows about the likes and dislikes, hobbies and interests of
the person with dementia so that an effective care plan can be prepared. Person-centred care
makes sure that people suffering from dementia are able to do what they love to do.
According to Surr et al. (2016), It is often a challenging task for a carer to understand the needs
of the patient or communicate with them. A carer has to take care of the needs of the person at
three levels which are Physical, Psychological and social needs. The physical needs are
associated with pain or discomfort due to some disease. A person with dementia may be feeling
depressed due to too many medications or the physical environment around him for example,
it may be dark or too hot or noisy and it may become a source of irritation for the patient. The
psychological needs may be associated with the feeling of depression due to the unfamiliarity
of the environment. The social needs are associated with the feeling of loneliness as they are
not able to feel their senses of smell, touch, smell or taste.
3

Røsvik et al., (2013) explained that a person who is provided with person-centred care may feel
happier and calmer with less agitation or aggression. The person-centred care may include
making a list of the likes and dislikes of the patient, their mental and emotional needs. For
example, a person may like to eat his lunch quite late in the afternoon, all the details of the
person need to be incorporated in the care plan so that the team of carers can take care of
these small things which are of great importance for the person suffering from dementia.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
RESEARCH APPROACH
This research will follow a mixed approach of qualitative and quantitative data. The quantitative
data generally represents the characteristics which cannot be measured by the means of
numbers. While conducting interviews and questionnaire the qualitative data include the
descriptive answers provided by the respondents, this data cannot be converted into number
but they have great importance in assessing the views of the stakeholders (Gibbs, 2018). The
quantitative data can be easily expressed in the form of numbers. The statistical analysis of
quantitative data is easier as it can be readily transformed into the pie charts and tables.
RELATION OF THE APPROACH WITH DATA COLLECTION
The data collection method which is finalised for this research is primary and secondary data
collection. As discussed above, a mixed approach of collecting the data is finalised for the
research and therefore the data collection methods will contain both these kinds of data. In the
literature review, the approach of the research is to collect data which is capable in finding the
answers or the basic research question; the data which is collected with the help of research
tools provide useful inputs to the managers so that they can form the right strategies to
prepare the research findings (Bryman, 2017). The primary research is comparatively more
reliable than the secondary data because the data collected through the primary research
methodologies is up-to-date. The respondents selected in the research are the caretakers and
4

the family members of Dementia patients and therefore it will help in assessing the research
questions effectively.
TIMELINE OF RESEARCH
S.NO. ACTIVITIES TO BE DONE TIME SCALE
1.
DECIDING THE AIM AND OBJECTIVES FOR THE
RESEARCH PROJECT AND DEFINING THE RESEARCH
QUESTIONS
1 MONTH
2. FINALISING THE RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES TO BE
USED FOR DATA COLLECTION
1 MONTHS
3. ASKING QUESTIONNAIRE FORM DIFFERENT
STAKEHOLDERS AND PREPARING A REVIEW OF THE
LITERATURE AVAILABLE
3 MONTHS
5. DATA ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION 1 MONTH
6. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 2 MONTHS
Above shown is the timeline of different activities to be done to pursue the research project.
The total time taken to complete this project is 8 months. In the first month, the research
questions are finalised and the aims and objectives for the project are set. In the next months,
the research methodology for the project will be defined. Later, in the third to the fifth month,
the questionnaire is conducted and a review of different academic literature is prepared. In the
seventh month, the data collected will be analysed by the help of different data analysis tools
and in the eighth month, the findings of the research are collected and then some
5

recommendations will be provided for improvement. The literature review is also prepared in
this research project which is a source for secondary data. In the literature review, the
magazines, journals, blogs, research papers, experiments and observation are studied and
summarised record of all the data is prepared. This is a cost-effective way to collect the data
but the data reliability is necessary to be ascertained.
ACCESS FOR DATA COLLECTION
The data collection has to be done by conducting a questionnaire which will have quantitative
data in the form of research questions and literature review which will provide qualitative data.
Both these methods of data collection are widely used in academic research due to the
reliability of data collected. The questionnaire includes forming a set of questions which are
pertinent to the research aims and objectives (McCusker and Gunaydin, 2015). The respondents
are asked these question and they can choose the answer out of given alternatives. This type of
data collection technique is used to assess the views of different stakeholders related to the
research.
6

REFERENCES
1. Bryman, A., 2017. Quantitative and qualitative research: further reflections on their
integration. In Mixing methods: Qualitative and quantitative research (pp. 57-78).
Routledge.
2. Gibbs, G.R., 2018. Analyzing qualitative data (Vol. 6). Sage.
3. Hill, L., Roberts, G., Wildgoose, J., Perkins, R. and Hahn, S., 2010. Recovery and person-
centred care in dementia: common purpose, common practice?. Advances in psychiatric
treatment, 16(4), pp.288-298.
4. McCusker, K. and Gunaydin, S., 2015. Research using qualitative, quantitative or mixed
methods and choice based on the research. Perfusion, 30(7), pp.537-542.
5. Mitchell, G. and Agnelli, J., 2015. Person-centred care for people with dementia:
Kitwood reconsidered. Nursing Standard (2014+), 30(7), p.46.
6. Røsvik, J., Brooker, D., Mjorud, M. and Kirkevold, Ø., 2013. What is person-centred care
in dementia? Clinical reviews into practice: the development of the VIPS practice model.
Reviews in clinical gerontology, 23(2), pp.155-163.
7. Sjögren, K., Lindkvist, M., Sandman, P.O., Zingmark, K. and Edvardsson, D., 2013. Person‐
centredness and its association with resident well being in dementia care units. Journal‐
of Advanced Nursing, 69(10), pp.2196-2206.
8. Stokes, G., 2017. Challenging behaviour in dementia: a person-centred approach.
Routledge.
9. Surr, C.A., Smith, S.J., Crossland, J. and Robins, J., 2016. Impact of a person-centred
dementia care training programme on hospital staff attitudes, role efficacy and
perceptions of caring for people with dementia: A repeated measures study.
International journal of nursing studies, 53, pp.144-151.
7