Strengths and Weaknesses of Research Methodology

Question: Discuss about the Strengths and Weaknesses of Research Methodology. Answer: Introduction A large number of immigrants need health services beyond basic healthcare provided by NHS and thus, go to hospitals in their respective regions to receive healthcare services. Such healthcare service providers need to understand the healthcare expectations of immigrants and refugees to be able to provide them best healthcare services. This research involves a study on a public regional hospital in Victor whose management is seeking support in understanding the perceptions of immigrant and refugee patients on the healthcare services provided by the hospital( Islington Council, 2016). Certain research questions can be used to guide this research to achieve this aim including: What are the services provided by the hospital to the immigrants and refugees What are the demographic and personal characteristics of the immigrant and refugee patients coming to Victoria hospital? How do these immigrants and refugees perceive the healthcare services of the hospital? Can there be a scope for improvement in services of the hospital to better take care of the needs of these patients? Literature Review The quality of healthcare in UK varies with the hospitals and regions. Citizens of the country definitely enjoy some healthcare benefits and preferences. However, when it comes to immigrants, rules and treatments differ. But NHS claims to provide free healthcare services even to immigrants but government is considering restricting this free access to healthcare for immigrants and refugees with limited stay in UK. Currently, NHS provides free basic healthcare to migrants and full NHS healthcare service to migrating students. Free services are provided by public hospitals but advanced healthcare services are provided at a cost. There is very less information that is available on how these healthcare services perform with the refugees and immigrants. Various aspects of care may be explored in order to understand if the patients have positive experiences of receiving these services. Various aspects of healthcare that may be explored can include communication with healthcare professionals, medications, nursing services, discharge planning, pain management, and more. Past researches has shown that the perception of patients about healthcare services is affected by actual services as well as by several other factors like demographics, health condition, age, and education levels. A HCAHPSstudy on 4032 hospitals of USA had studied the perceptions of patients considering hospitals services and characteristics of students. Over 63% of the patients provided positive ratings to healthcare services and 67% were open to recommending services to friends and family. 74% of the patients were satisfied with the communication received from healthcare professionals. There are a variety of studied conducted on the patients of hospitals but there is very less literature specific to the healthcare received by immigrants and refugees in UK and thus, the current study can fill this gap for UK region by taking the case of Victorian hospital understand the views of immigrants and refugees(Jha, Orav, Zheng, Epstein, 2008). Research design and conduct Methodology: A quantitative research methodology would be used involving survey for capturing experiences of the immigrants and refugees served at the Victorian hospital. Research instruments: A survey would be conducted on the immigrant and refugee patients of the hospital for which a questionnaire would be prepared. This questionnaire would involve objective questions asking patients about their experiences with the hospital with respect to different dimensions like communication, nursing, pain management, medications, discharge planning, and more. They would be asked to rate the services considering some major parameters to explore their views(Chawla Sondhi, 2011). Sampling: A convenient sampling would be used as the study targets a single hospital such that the data would be collected from the patients who would be available at the time of the study. Data Collection: The patients of the hospital would be personally met by the researcher and a questionnaire would be distributed in order to receive their inputs for the study. A written consent with declaration of the significance and use of study would be taken from them before their responses are recorded by the researcher(Creswell, 2008). Data analysis: The data received would be coded and recorded in SPSS and statistical tests like T-Test and Chi-square test would be utilized for analysis. These tests would be used for comparing various characteristics of hospital services as well as patients from different demographics(Choy, 2014). Limitations: This research is targeted only to a single hospital and thus, it may not be generalized for a wider array of patients including immigrants and refugees. If their views have to be studied then the study would have to be reproduced for more hospitals(VisitScotland, 2013). Bibliography Islington Council. (2016). NHS healthcare for migrants with NRPF (England). NRPF. Chawla, D., Sondhi, N. (2011). Research Methodology: Concepts and Cases. New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House. Choy, L. T. (2014). The Strengths and Weaknesses of Research Methodology: Comparison and Complimentary between Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science , 19 (4), 99-104. Creswell. (2008). Selection of Research Design. Sage Publications. Jha, A. K., Orav, E. J., Zheng, J., Epstein, A. M. (2008). Patients' Perception of Hospital Care in the United States. The New England Journal of Medicine , 359:1921-1931. VisitScotland. (2013). Netherlands: Consumer Research. VisitScotland.