Essay Justifying A Research Question And Research Approach
Essay justifying a research question and research approach
Length: 3000 words
Brief description: An essay where, for a single research problem, one of two possible research questions is justified and one of two contrasting methodologies/designs is justified as the approach. The assignment aims to develop your understanding of: two contrasting research approaches to a single problem; evaluating of their strengths and limitations, and; constructing an argument that justifies one research approach over the other.
How to write this essay: write in full sentences and well-structured paragraphs; no lists or tables . A well-structured paragraph has a first sentence that introduces the point you are making, body sentences that give the 'evidence' for the point being made and a concluding sentence clarifying that point. Include an overall argument (i.e. a thesis) which is introduced in the Introduction, developed through each paragraph in the body of the essay and logically presented with a recommendation in the Conclusion. Structure the essay using the 4 headings of the 4 sections detailed below;
1. Introduction (approx. 450 words): The Introduction outlines your research topic; it should be a rewritten/refined version of the introduction in Assignment 1. Your introduction includes your quantitative research question and your qualitative question; it should end in the essay's thesis statement. The thesis statement is a single sentence that informs the reader about what you are arguing in this essay. Your thesis statement might take the form: “In this essay I argue that this research problem is best addressed with the question XXX using the XXX paradigm” (OR eg, XXX design, XXX method, XXX approach...].
2. Research justification (approx. 750 words) In this section you will justify your research by critically discussing the most relevant, most current research on your topic. you will not be presenting an individual critique of each of the relevant articles although you will draw from such a critique. Furthermore, the section is not the same as a full critical literature review because you are undertaking the discussion relative to your two different research questions. When drafting the section you should refer to your search strategy, the table of relevant research and your critique in Assignment 1.
• Argue that neither of your research questions have already been investigated in the way you intend using your systematic search (from Assignment 1).
Outline only: search strategy, databases, and number of relevant articles found -no tables please.
• Use the most relevant articles to show how your research questions relate to existing research; show how your questions are potentially useful for researching your problem.
• Include critique in discussion; consider for example, how well the existing research has addressed the combination of key terms that make up your problem statement and/or one or both of your research questions.
• Depending on your topic and the research literature, argue that one of your research questions is superior to the other. Your justification of this argument should be through critique of the existing research relative to your research problem and questions; it should not be relative to methodology.
3. Approach Justification (approx. 1350 words) The focus of this section is the critical discussion of two research approaches. Your aim is to justify that one approach is more appropriate than the other in the context of your research problem. ‘Approach' refers to the whole methodological approach (i.e. paradigm, methodology, design, methods). Justification of this final chosen approach will also help justify your chosen research question as each question is focused on either qualitative or quantitative methods.
• Separately describe the methodological framework for each question; note that at this point you are just describing, not comparing. Specify paradigm, methodology and design; it is not sufficient just to say that the methodology is ‘positivist', ‘non-positivist', ‘qualitative' or ‘quantitative'.
• Critically compare your two approaches in the context of your research problem. Discuss the two overall approaches (i.e. paradigms and methodologies) relative to your research problem and how the problem is expressed quantitatively and qualitatively in each of your two research questions. You should also compare each aspect of the research design (i.e. methods, recruitment) while referring to issues specific to your project plan.
• During your comparison, build an argument for one approach and against the other; discuss the merits of your chosen research approach versus the alternative approach. Appropriately referenced statements should be provided to support each claim for/against the whichever aspect of your methodological framework.
4. Conclusion (approx. 450 words) This section should consist of a single paragraph. You should firstly present a summary of your argument developed through your essay. Include the conclusions that you arrived at as a result of your discussions in the previous sections. Conclude with a recommended research question and research approach for your particular research problem.
Grading criteria ESSENTIAL
A. Evidence of the following:
1. INTRODUCTION, including: a) Problem statement b) Outline of problem context and background c) Definition of key terms 6 d) Research aim and question for non-positivist methodology / qualitative data e) Research aim and question for positivist methodology / quantitative data 4 f) Thesis statement.
2. RESEARCH JUSTIFICATION, including: a) Use of systematic search to justify research relative to number of articles found b) Well supported critical discussion of relevant literature clearly showing: i. how both research questions relate to other research ii. usefulness of both questions to investigate research problem .
3. APPROACH JUSTIFICATION, including: a) Clear description of methodological framework for QUALITATIVE question, specifically: i. Main non-positivist assumptions ii. Research design iii. Sampling & recruitment iv. Methods of data collection v. Methods for data analysis & interpretation
b) Clear description of methodological framework for QUANTITATIVE question, specifically: i. Main positivist assumptions ii. Research design iii. Sampling & recruitment iv. Methods of data collection v. Methods for data analysis (with statistical tests) & interpretation
c) Demonstrated understanding of: i. different paradigms, methodologies and research ii. how different methodological frameworks guide sampling, data collection and interpretation
d) Congruency between each approach and: i. specific research question ii. recruitment and sampling issues iii. data collection methods iv. methods of analysis and interpretation
e) Comparison of methodological frameworks including consideration of: i. site selection issues and access ii. relationships (gatekeeper & researcher/participant) iii. project resources iv. ethical issues v. issues of rigor, reliability and validity
f) Development of clear argument based on sound reasoning
g) Clear justification of decision-making
h) Justification of chosen approach relative to research problem
4. CONCLUSION, including: a) Summary of argument b) Recommendation B. Evidence of presentation skills • Clarity and brevity of expression • logical planning and sequence • no repetition • tables used appropriately, labelled and briefly referred to in-text; appendix not used • supporting documentation for arguments • acknowledgement of documentation using appropriate referencing convention • precise and accurate referencing (in-text, tables & reference list) using correct reference style
THIS MUST BE IN KEEPING WITH THE FIRST ASSIGNMENT AS ATTACHED ALSO USING THE SAME RESEARCH QUESTIONS BUT REFINED
Justifying Research Question and Research Approach
Name
Institution
Justifying Research Question and Research Approach
Introduction
Nurse retention is a term used to refer to the number of licensed nurses that leave a registered hospital annually (Humphreys et al., 2017). The issue of nurses stopping working and some even changing their career has become a common problem that the government must take reasonable steps to solve. The problem is caused by both quantitative and qualitative factors such as nurse burnout and low compensation. Currently, the issue is an international problem as more nurses continue to leave their profession and there are few new students who are willing to pursue the profession (Aamir, 2017). Some of the factors that cause the problem are unfavorable working condition and increased workload with little pay leading to unequal ration of nurse to patient globally (Upenieks, 2003).
This essay is a continuation of the first essay that describes both quantitative and qualitative research aim and question, search strategy used and a list of secondary sources that proves work of other over the topic, and research methodology and design. The quantitative research aim was to determine the degree at which rewards and compensation affect nurse retention. While, the qualitative research objective was to investigate the impact of nurse burnout on nursing retention in the industry. All the same, the essay further described that search strategy varies depending on the type of an organizations database. The aim of search strategy is to check for the required results in a database. Further, the work explained that indexing is one of the ways of speeding up search in a database and even gave an example of a search strategy. Moreover, the work covered a critique of a list of secondary sources that relates to nurse retention issue.
Finally, the work covered the various methodologies and designs used to collect data about nurse retention. The work describes non-positivist technique with qualitative design that will be performed to measure the experience and perception of nurses’ staff and nurse managers on nurse workload. The study will be performed on surgical unit assuming that medical and surgical nursing are comparable regarding practice environment and nurse workload. The data will be collected through interview where nurses will be asked rate their engagement on a “4 point Likert-type scale.” More so, semi-structured interview will be conducted through questionnaires to investigate the mental and physical effects of workload on people after which a data analysis will commence. The study proposed using non-positivist methodology with qualitative design and positivist methodology with quantitative design to collect the relevant data to answer the research questions. There is a stack difference between these methodologies with serious implications. The choice of a methodology should be dictated by the choice the nature of research. The issue of nurse retention arouses a lot of interest; therefore, a lot of care needs to be taken in that regard. There are many theories as what contributes in this to the high nurse turnover and the strategies that can be sued to arrest the situation. In this essay, I argue that low rewards and high employee burnout are the major contributors of nurse retention.
Research Justification
Nurse retention is a global issue given the declining number of nurses. Today, more than one-third of the senior nurses are over the ages of 50. It is this trend that has seen implementation of several strategies to retain nurses. The research questions addressed here touch on some of the perceived reasons that cause nurses to leave their jobs. Despite the importance of the two questions, burn out and remuneration, there has never been any adequate research conducted on the two.
There have been several attempts to address the issue of nurse retention to find a solution to the problem and yet none has been satisfactory. Mrayyan (2005) conducted a study to determine how the role of job satisfaction in ensuring nurse retention. While the study did appreciate that job satisfaction is a global issue that affects nurse retention, the research was limited and could not give a satisfactory answer. The sample size used would not have been adequate to provide a global picture. Besides, the research never addressed all the research questions although made a good attempt at answering one of my research questions on nurse retention and burnout. However, the research work never really answered my second research question on remuneration and nurse retention.
Buffington et al. (2012) conducted a research to determine the factors that affected nurse retention at Magnet Hospital. While the researchers made a good attempt at identifying such factors as the working environment, mentorship, rewards, job scheduling and management, but just identifying alone did nothing to address my research topic. Besides, that they identified the issues that my research question sought to answer only serve to corroborate why this research is important. Research today should be directed at determining the methodologies that can be used to ensure that there is nurse retention. Identifying the problems alone without providing remedies just serves to open more room for confusion. What are needed are concrete strategies that can be used to ensure that the problem of nurse retention is addressed fully.
One of the best researches done in the recent past was by Van den Heede et al. (2013) on “effective strategies of nurse retention in acute hospitals”. The research made a good attempt at addressing the gigantic question of nurse retention but being limited to acute hospitals reduced the scope of its application. However, the research did address one of my research questions related to nurse retention and reward. On the other hand, the issue of nurse burnout was not brought out clearly in the research. I feel that that was a major let down because one of the disturbing issues in nurse retention is the ratio between nurses and patients. More often, nurses are left with the burden of attending to more patients than they have the capacity to handle. As a result, they end up being burnt out and rather than suffer, they decide to quit their jobs. Any research into nurse retention today must touch on the issue of burn out for more credibility.
Milliken, Clements & Tillman (2007), conducted a study to determine the “impacts of stress management on nurse retention. The research highlighted the issue of nurse burnout as one of the contributing factors to stress in the nursing profession. However, there was no mentioning of rewards and retention in the research. Additionally, the researchers only addressed how stress management impacted on nurse retention without suggesting effective strategies to ensure that stressful situations are dealt with effectively. As a result the research cannot stand solely when attempting to determine strategies for ensuring nurse retention.
Finally, a research on the “impact of management development on nurse retention” by Wilson (2005) looked at the various ways that management contributed to retention of nurses. The research did touch on management efforts aimed at ensuring that nurse burnout was as minimal as possible. Besides, the research touched on management efforts to reward nurses and give them incentives. There were good attempts to address the research questions. However, the findings were not conclusive in explaining in details how nurse burn out related to nurse retention.
The existing research tends to argue on the issue of nurse burnout as the major cause of nurse turnover. A lot of research work that has been done in the past tends to focus on strategies that are aimed at reducing the burden on nurses by increasing the nurse to patient ratio. This only goes to further highlight why the issue of nurse burnout stands out from rewards and remuneration.
Approach Justification
Methodological Framework for the First Question (How does nurse burnout relate with nurse retention?)
Nurse burnout cannot be measured. Therefore, collecting data from people about their experience on how employee burnout affect retention will require methods that cannot be quantified to be used. The methods include narrative, non-participant, theme identification, observation, qualitative interviews, life history, and case study. After the data have been collected, the researcher will interpret the results to arrive at a conclusion. The assumptions made are that the data collected cannot be quantified, the respondents will answer the questions honestly, and the variables cannot be measured reliably. The research is designed using historical methods such as narrative, summary, grounded theory, and case study. The sample is selected based on some predetermined criteria (Creswell & Clark, 2007). For instance, a sample may be selected from a population that has been identified using random method. Thereafter, the data will be collected using statistical methods such as interviews, ethnography, self-study, action research, focus group, and observation. Finally, the data will be analyzed using interpretive methods such as narrative analysis, social network analysis, conversation analysis, discourse analysis, and grounded analysis.
The aim of determining the relationship between workers’ burnout and employees’ retention is to give a subjective knowledge about the subject of study. The research is observational and explanatory in nature because the relationship cannot be quantified but interpreted. The sampling method used is purposeful; they are chosen to judge the outcome of the subject being studied (Ramani & Mann, 2016). However, the technique involves the use of unstructured data collection method. Moreover, the characters that are selected portray the context of the subject being studied. Before designing the technique to use, the researcher must first determine the target population and the elements to choose as the sample. In a hospital setting, the sample elements used are the nurses. The nurses are the most preferred people to be interviewed about th...