The reason for this book
During my years working as a senior lecturer at a widening participation higher education institution, I observed that both undergraduate and postgraduate students struggled with understanding research methodology, knowing which research methods best suited their research project and understanding how published research linked to practice. For many, research methods was a least enjoyed and even feared module, as it came with a whole new dictionary of terms and concepts. Many students choose a health and social care course after working in such roles in a paid or voluntary capacity and, prior to enrolling on their degree programme, they invariably have not encountered academic research, and many find it challenging to comprehend ‘research’, finding it the most difficult module on their programme.
While there are a range of books that provide a comprehensive guide to understanding qualitative and quantitative research methods, there are limited resources that explain how these methods are used in practice, particularly for health and social care students.
To address this issue, Understanding Health and Social Care Research: Methods in Context was conceived and developed.
Aims of the book
The aim is to help students following health and social care programmes to understand the relationship between social care issues, research methodology and how the findings from research studies can both improve and change practice. It will enable the reader to relate social research methodology to social research studies done in the real world.
This book aims to also provide clear examples of different social research methodologies to help postgraduate students make an informed decision on the most appropriate research methods to use for their own research projects. It is intended to help students gain an understanding of how different research approaches are undertaken in practice – their strengths, limitations and the challenges involved.
Students are expected to demonstrate skill in being ‘critical’ and ‘evaluative’ but often these concepts can be difficult to grasp. Each chapter contains an appraisal of a research study completed by the author, including a reflective section, enabling the reader to appreciate the nature of critique.
The studies included in the book serve to highlight how societal changes and contemporary problems such as austerity, new populations in the UK, and increased awareness of inclusion and participation all require innovative research approaches in order to gain a deeper understanding of the key issues involved and greater appreciation of developments in the social world.
Knowledge transfer is also an increasingly important aspect of academic research. This book serves to illustrate the immense value and benefit to practice of innovative qualitative research studies in the field of health and social care. It also highlights the challenges of knowledge transfer and the importance of making the findings accessible to practitioners and policymakers in order to make a difference.
While a broad range of social research methods are covered in the chapters, providing a comprehensive guide to each method included, this book does not claim to provide coverage of all available social research methods.
Who the book is for
This textbook is for practice-based levels 3 to 6 students on social work, health/public health, nursing and social care programmes. The book will also be of value to practitioners who are planning to conduct health and social research projects in their workplace, as it gives an overview of the delivery of all aspects of a research project.
The book is designed to be accessible for students to pick up and read. The case studies are relevant to practice and their current future employment. It is written in plain English making it suitable for widening participation and international students – an increasing population in many university health and social care programmes.
The authors
Each chapter is written by an academic who has undertaken a recent research study as part of their own doctoral studies, as a postdoctoral project or as commissioned research. A link to their study, where available, is included in their chapter. A biography of each author and their contact details can be found in the preface of the book.
The book and chapter structure
Following this introductory chapter, the book contains ten chapters featuring a range of topics related to social care and different research methods used in health and social care research studies. Each chapter outlines how the studies were disseminated and their relevance to practice.
Each chapter follows the same structure to enable comparisons to be drawn by the reader:
- A brief overview of the research
- The research question(s)
- Identification of the research approach and the reason for the methods selected to answer the research questions (with references to research methodology texts)
- The challenges of selection and recruitment of the research sample
- The benefits of the approach taken and its application to the research topic
- Ethical concerns related to the study and how these were addressed
- Practical issues arising from the chosen research approach
- Links between the research process and the findings to health and social care values
- How the research project was disseminated
- The feasible impact on social care, nursing/public health practice, policy or education
- Lessons learnt and pointers for replicating the research study
- Links to the full research study
- A comparison summary of the strengths and weaknesses of the research method
- Further reading
Also contained within each chapter are one or two activities for students to help embed the learning from the chapter.
Ethical issues
As mentioned, each chapter covers the ethical issues relating to the specific research study and how these were address...
