Linking the research question: suggested answers
- The simplest level of assessment would be in terms of judging the participants’ immediate satisfaction with the course.
- The next level might be to address whether a change in knowledge has taken place.
- The next might involve considering whether a change in stress levels has occurred, after the course and 6 months later.
- The next level (an ambitious one) might look for relationships between changes in a specific patient-related outcome (e.g. complaints, patient satisfaction, quality of life, medication error) and changes in either or both knowledge and stress levels of the participants.
- The largest question would be to ask if the course has produced long-term effects on participants and patients. This most ambitious level would involve conducting a trial using the same outcomes as above, but randomly selecting those in the intervention group and those who become controls. Your choice of level would depend on the factors outlined above (Jones et al., 1988).
As you see, each research question implies a different design and a different magnitude of commitment. Bordage and Dawson (2003) suggest that we ask the following questions about research design at this stage.
- Do you want to intervene or simply observe?
- Do you need a control group?
- How will you control for confounding variables?
- What is the ‘best’ research design to answer your question?
And the following questions about the sample of research participants.
- What are your criteria for inclusion and exclusion of subjects?
- How are you going to obtain your subjects?
- If an experiment, how will you assign your subjects?
- How many subjects do you need? How will you address issues relating to power?