My refined PICOT question is, how can we better pain management of rural adults with chronic/acute pain care needs, and the alternative medications compared to narcotic medications to improve pain management? I decided to use the qualitative research approach for this specific research topic. I chose this research approach because “qualitative research is primarily exploratory research. It is used to gain an understanding of underlying reasons, opinions, and motivations” (Simply Psychology, 2017). Since pain management is in abstract and immeasurable nursing assessment, it makes it hard for health professionals to gauge pain levels and treatment options based solely off the patient’s opinion of the pain level. I believe qualitative its better tailored to this type of research because quantitative research is based more off of mathematical data and numerical measurements to analyze the data collected. Data will then be collected in a few different ways. One way will be through face to face interaction through interviews and focus groups. Another way to collect data will be through ” impressions, environmental contexts, behaviors, and nonverbal cues” (US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, 2015) on pain levels and pain management techniques. Lastly, data can be collected through readings of transcripts or other written articles. The quality data they may be produced by my EBP project is better pain management techniques for rural areas to implement for their chronic and acute pain patients. Ideally this will cut back on the narcotic epidemic and over prescribing of narcotics to those whose pain can be controlled in a more therapeutic way. We will evaluate patients pain and listen to what has worked and not worked, and create a personalized pain management plan based off the needs of the patient. This will better control their pain and allow them to have an improved quality of life on a daily basis.
-Halley Barnes
Simply Psychology. (2017). Qualitative vs. Quantitative. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/qualitative-quantitative.htmlLinks to an external site.
US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health. (2015). Qualitative Research: Data Collection, Analysis, and Management. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4485510/Links to an external site.
The PICo question for my evidenced based practice research project is: Are post war veterans (P) at a greater risk for suicide (I) as they reintegrate into society (Co)? I have chosen the qualitative research design approach because I want to better understand how the post war veteran is feeling and understand their lived experiences as they return from combat. A qualitative study allows the researcher to understand the participants characteristics and lived experiences when the participant is allowed to speak freely (Polit & Beck, 2017). I feel the qualitative study has the potential to create further avenues of researcher as themes develop throughout the interview process.
In-depth interviews are my data collection method of choice with permission received to audio tape the session and take notes in the anticipation that themes and commonalities emerge from the data. Clark and Veale (2018), discussed how images or words will consistently emerge during in-depth interviews showing a connection with individual participants and the research being accomplished. The collection of data retrieved from the in-depth interview process will provide adequate information to answer my PICo question and is considered a strength in my research process. A weakness to this type of data collection would be allowing my own personal feelings, bias, or opinions interfere with the appropriate interpretation of data. Often, we see things through the lens of our own personal experiences and that could inhibit the subjective nat