Research Methods in Healthcare Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Research Methods in Healthcare - Essay Example For Polit and Beck (2004, p. 14), two important paradigm in research are positivism and naturalism. Ontologically, the positivist paradigm asserts that reality is objective and singular while the naturalistic paradigm holds that reality is multiple and subjectively constructed by an individual (Polit and Beck 2004, p. 14). Epistemologically, the positivist paradigm considers that the researcher is independent of its subject and, thus, findings are not influenced by researcher (Polit and Beck 2004, p. 14). In contrast, the naturalistic paradigm assumes that findings are product of the interactive process between the researcher and the researched (Polit and Beck 2004, p. 14). Axiologically, the positivist paradigm maintains that values and biases must be rejected in the interest of objectivity but, contradicting this, the naturalist paradigm hold that subjectivity is unavoidable (Polit and Beck 2004, p. 14). ... 18). Following Conger (1998), Bryman et al. (1988), and Alvesson (1996), Ospina (2004, p. 2) pointed out that there are at least three advantages in employing qualitative research. First, qualitative research designs are highly flexible as the research design can be modified in the course of research as unexpected situations unfold. Second, qualitative research is sensitive to contextual factors. Third, unlike quantitative research, qualitative research is more appropriate for symbolic dimensions and meanings. Hancock (2002, p. 2) pointed out that qualitative research is most appropriate for finding out the motives for behaviour, how opinions and attitudes are developed, how people are affected by events, and how social groups are different from each other. Hancock (2002, p.2) pointed out that qualitative research can concern itself with an elaborated description of the opinions, experiences, and feelings of individuals, something which quantitative research usually cannot do or can do so in a very limited way. There is an array of qualitative research techniques. Creswell (2007) focused on five: narrative, phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography, and case study. Narrative studies involve the documentation and study of written or spoken texts (Cresswell 2007, p. 54). A narrative study can be an autobiography or a recording by the subject of the study (Cresswell 2007, p. 54). It can also be a biography which is a study in which a researcher writes and records the experience of another person (Cresswell 2007, p. 54). A narrative can also be life history when the narration portrays a person’s entire life (Cresswell 2007, p. 54). For healthcare studies, one possible use