How do social workers ensure that older people get the appropriate residential care when discharged from hospital

Research Proposal: How do social workers ensure that older people get the appropriate residential care when discharged from hospital

Introduction

 The research will examine how social workers ensure that older people get the appropriate residential care when discharged from hospital. The study about the social workers roles and more general views about the services the social worker offer or would like to offer in ensuring that older people get suitable residential care will be further examined. Research relevant to social work will deal with broad questions for example, the relationship of life chances, health and education with social class, and with access to health and social service provision (Clarke, 2005). The research will further address the effectiveness in older people protection and in models of community care and care management. The outcome of the research will help in the understanding of the appropriate roles of the social workers in ensuring that the older get appropriate care and residential areas.

Research questions or hypotheses

1. The research will seek to identify the various roles played by social workers in ensuring that the older people get appropriate residential cares after discharge for the hospital.

Aims and objectives of research proposal

Building understanding of the roles and expectations of the social workers will provide an insight on the problem areas and support system needed by social workers and users, the best way for social workers to meet their obligations, and their role in ensuring the older people get suitable residential cares after discharge for the hospital. The study will further address and identify particular problems or drawbacks in social workers’ services.

Research Design

To align with the mixed method, two data collection methods will be used. Using both these methods supports the collection of thorough data on the roles social workers in ensuring that the older people get appropriate residential areas after being discharged. The methodological framework of the study will be mixed method combining qualitative and quantitative study (Camilla, 2003). Combining the qualitative and quantitative study ensures thorough data collection on the roles of social workers in ensuring that the aged get suitable residential areas (Kabala, 2005). A qualitative study aims to derive a detailed description of the phenomenon studied. The outcome is data in the form of words and other descriptive forms. The qualitative study supports the purpose to investigate the problems faced by both social workers and users. It will be expected that some effects will be measurable while other effects will not (Charmaz, 2006). Using the qualitative study ensures that the effects that are not measurable are collected.

A quantitative study aims to classify, count and use measures to explain the condition or situation being studied. Data collection instruments, which are prepared beforehand, comprise the tools in collecting data (Mandan, 2005). The result is data in the form of numbers and statistical measures. Using quantitative study ensures that the measurable roles of social workers are examined.

Literature Review and Theoretical background

In the past, there have been various debates on the roles of the social workers after the patient in discharged from the hospital. Various researchers though have done numerous study concerning the roles of social workers in caring for the patients but few have determined their role after the patient is discharged form the hospital. The socio-demographic characteristics of social workers affect the ability to care for the old patients, the difficulties that arise and the means of addressing these difficulties. The sections are divided further to numerous areas whose data will lead directly or indirectly to answering or fulfilling the research objective (Caldwell, 2003).

Methodology

The quantitative data collection method is survey using a questionnaire and interviews. A survey is best used in studies seeking answers for how, role, problems and to what extent the social workers should proceed with their roles post-discharge. It is also useful in collecting data from a large number of participants. A survey is the appropriate quantitative method for the study because it supports the gathering of data on the measurable effects and it enables the researcher to collect data from 100 respondents.

 Methods of data collection and analysis selected

The participants of the study will be social workers, hospital attendance, the old (who at one time obtained the social workers’ care) and the doctors. The participants (to fill the questionnaires and to be interviewed) will be selected randomly from various hospitals and residential areas.

After identifying the residential areas or families with social workers, 100 participants will be selected using stratified random sampling. The same way, various hospitals will be sampled and 100 social workers picked for the interview process (Kabala, 2005). Using this sampling method ensures that both the users and social workers from different hospitals and residential areas are represented proportionally (Munhall, 2007). The selected respondents will be contacted to introduce the study, explain the participation needed from them, request their participation, and arrange the sending and return of the questionnaire. The respondents selected for the interview will also be contacted for the interview arrangements (Caldwell, 2003).

 Data Analysis

Quantitative data will be analyzed using descriptive statistics to summarize the responses from both the interview and questionnaires (Kabala, 2005). Qualitative data will be analyzed by using thematic classification and drawing implications relative to the quantitative data and the research questions. Results will be presented in tables and graphs together with textual explanations. From the analysis, the roles of social workers in ensuring the older people get the appropriate residential care when discharged from hospital will be examined.

Credibility of the finding

The study takes both qualitative and quantitative approaches to achieve the desired objectives. The qualitative approach will help in the examination of the current demographic factors exploring the various roles of social workers .............