Research Question and Qualitative Method
Research question: What are the best practices that could mitigate the adverse effect of Alzheimer’s disease on aging patients and how these practices influence the existing practices of geriatric nurses and patient outcomes on a long-term scale?
Within the framework of the current research, the best qualitative method that is available to the researcher is the implementation of in-depth interviews. This method will cover all the important aspects of the research question that are of interest to the researcher. Implementing this qualitative research method means to obtain relevant and accurate data from all the participants of the research (Holloway & Galvin, 2017). Nonetheless, several advantages and disadvantages are inherent in this method. One of the biggest strengths of interviews is their personalized nature. Moreover, the researcher can always clarify vague answers. In addition to these two crucial aspects of in-depth interviews, the researcher does not limit the participants to simple fixed answers (Comerasamy & Siu, 2013).
By using interviews, the researcher will be able to connect to different groups of individuals who are associated with Alzheimer’s in any way and obtain an extensive array of diverse information on the subject (Nee, 2013). It is also safe to say that flexibility is one of the key strengths of in-depth interviews. Regardless, several important weaknesses are characteristic of in-depth interviews and can seriously affect the outcomes of the study. First, the interviews limit the research sample due to their expensiveness (Burns, Grove, & Gray, 2016). The critical weakness of this method is the probability of receiving unreliable information and encountering the participants’ improper behavior. The researcher has to keep in mind that the respondents may not possess the required information or influence by the external factors (for instance, the presence of the researcher) (Ali, 2015). The biggest weakness of in-depth interviews is the bias that transpires when the interviewees share information they believe is sought by the researcher instead of giving honest answers.
Mixed-Method Approach
One of the practice issues that could benefit from the use of the mixed-method approach is the development of end-of-life care practices (Palinkas et al., 2013). The qualitative data will be presented by the geriatric nurses who took care of the patients in the late stages of Alzheimer’s. They will share their outlooks on the best nursing practices that can be applied to mitigate the anxiety in elderly patients and help them to go through the last stage of the disease easier (Palinkas et al., 2013). The quantitative data will be presented by the number of patients who were positively influenced by these practices. Several advantages characterize the use of the mixed-method approach in the research on Alzheimer’s disease and its ultimate outcomes. First, the discrepancies inherent in the obtained data concerning end-of-life care will lead to legitimate and accurate data (Palinkas et al., 2013). Moreover, the researcher will be able to analyze the attained data from several different points of view and make sure that there are no gaps in the research that interfere with the obtained information. Within the framework of the mixed-method approach, the combination of the obtained qualitative and quantitative data will represent an extensive collection of data regarding the geriatric patients with Alzheimer’s and either confirm or disprove the researcher’s hypotheses (Palinkas et al., 2013). The most serious challenge that the researcher will have to deal with is the probability of losing data complexity and flexibility. There are possibilities to evade the quantization of the qualitative data, but these methods are time-consuming and intricate.
References
Ali, N. (2015). Understanding Alzheimer’s: An introduction for patients and caregivers. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Burns, N., Grove, S., & Gray, J. (2016). Understanding nursing research (6th ed.). Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier.
Comerasamy, H., & Siu, C. (2013). Doing a research project in nursing and midwifery. New York, NY: SAGE.
Holloway, I., & Galvin, K. (2017). Qualitative research in nursing and healthcare. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons Inc.
Nee, P. (2013). The key facts on Alzheimer’s disease: Everything you need to know about Alzheimer’s disease. New York, NY: The Internationalist.
Palinkas, L. A., Horwitz, S. M., Green, C. A., Wisdom, J. P., Duan, N., & Hoagwood, K. (2013). Purposeful sampling for qualitative data collection and analysis in mixed method implementation research. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 42(5), 533-544.