25 Jan Please review the attached paper and make necessary corrections to the comments made to the side by the professor on pages 4 and 7. Research Paradigm: Positivism COVID-19 Burnout among He
Please review the attached paper and make necessary corrections to the comments made to the side by the professor on pages 4 and 7.
Research Paradigm: Positivism
COVID-19 Burnout among Health Care Workers
Task 8- The Research
Introduction
The research’s central area of focus is assessing healthcare workers’ exposure to burnout during the pandemic. These professionals are crucial in advancing healthcare outcomes and establishing improved health and overall well-being. The research will exert possible efforts to examine how different stakeholders can help address these burnouts, especially when the industry is experiencing numerous issues from the pandemic. The key area of focus is how leaders can improve their skills and abilities to limit the development of burnout among healthcare providers. This flexible single case study aims to assess aspects that expose healthcare providers to professional burnout in the southeastern United States. The researcher will reach out to a segment of care providers and leaders to gather ideas and insights targeting the exposure to professional burnout during the pandemic. The researcher will use the outcome of the study to recommend best practices that leaders can adapt and implement to protect their workforce from burnout in the present and future. The results will build the foundation for reduced professional burnout among care providers, especially during pandemics.
Purpose Statement
The purpose of this flexible single case study aims to understand the inability of healthcare leaders in the Southeastern United States area to create and implement potential response measures for addressing professional burnout emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic. The researcher will select healthcare workers and leaders to offer their ideas and perspectives about healthcare management and the administrations impact on staff burnout during the pandemic. The targeted population will relay viable information that will answer the research questions. The research will focus on two major concepts: professional burnout and leadership. First, the study will investigate the increasing emotional and physical exhaustion among healthcare providers with COVID-19 infections (Cotel et al., 2021). Second, in examining leadership contribution, the research will assess leaders creating the environment to address the burnout constructs. The results obtained from this research will supplement existing studies focusing on leadership strategies likely to develop a potential working environment for care providers during healthcare pandemics. This research will inform leaders on the courses of action they can take to advance the health and well-being of healthcare professionals amidst the harsh realities of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Role of the researcher
The researcher remains a crucial part of the successful outcomes of this study. First, the researcher seeks to collect a wide range of information from the participants to better understand the actual situation on the ground. The role of the researcher is to ensure that the participants gathered for the study match the needs of the research. The researcher is also responsible for selecting the most appropriate research methods and approaches that match the studys needs. One of the critical approaches that the investigator will need to pay attention to is collecting vital information on participants’ thoughts, feelings, and emotions because burnout is not a physical element readily seen (Salvaggioni et al., 2017). Salvagioni et al. (2017) emphasize this element of burnout by describing it as a syndrome that affects individuals’ well-being and health, making it a personal problem. The researcher will aim to understand how healthcare providers and leaders feel about the issue of burnout during the pandemic. This will expose the researcher to numerous themes, primarily those connected to the role of leaders in addressing burnout. The researcher will retrieve viable information that answers the key research questions through interview sessions, questionnaires, and focus group discussions. In line with the ethical values and perspectives linked to research processes, the investigator will observe confidentiality, privacy, autonomy, and zero potential harm (Yip et al., 2016). This will boost the chances of obtaining valuable information that supports quality generalizations and conclusions. For instance, the assurance of privacy and confidentiality, which is also a major role of the researcher, will ensure that the targeted participants can offer helpful information in the research. They are more likely to agree to participate and relay quality information when they are guaranteed confidentiality, privacy, and zero exposure to harm. The investigator must abide by ethics and integrity to obtain the desired outcomes.
One of the main roles that the researcher will need to achieve is an excellent bond with all the participants. This will entail building positive relationships, which will allow greater openness. Building trust between researchers and participants translates to successful research outcomes (Guillemin et al., 2018). This portrays the need for researchers to create a valuable rapport with all the targeted respondents. Since leaders may be deemed the central factor behind the increased exposure to professional burnout, a connection is essential to ensure that leaders and care providers do not withhold information. There is a dire need for the researcher to focus on appropriate tools that enhance the data collection process (Fischer, 2009). This will accelerate the chances of obtaining valuable data and information that supports effective analysis of the study topic. The researcher will achieve the desired milestones through the selected data collection tools. Besides selecting viable tools, the investigator must address the bracketing perspective to reach the research outcomes.
The researcher understands that bracketing can affect the established outcomes and will remain committed to addressing it (Noble, 2019). Refraining from personal judgment is one integrated approach the investigator will adopt to avoid personal bias (Gustafsson, 2017). The dominant approach I will use to bracket is interviewing with an outsider, where biases and preconceptions will be discussed. The fundamental rationale behind bracketing is to ensure that a research outcome has zero presumption and bias that can influence the interpretation process (Fischer, 2009). The interviews with an outsider will raise awareness of the researcher’s perceptions by introducing a platform where alternative views can be discussed and openly identified. The overall goal of conducting bracketing interviews is to provide researchers with clarity, especially in emotionally charged studies that may apply or be compromised by personal experiences (Tufford & Newman, 2010). Writing a journal is a second approach that the researcher will apply as part of bracketing. The journal will be initiated before the research questions are identified to include perceptions and questions that the researcher holds towards the topic of burnout. Overall, the researcher will incorporate and document the presence of any preconceived notions because they might sometimes be unavoidable. The central focus is to help the audience develop a baseline understanding of the final research outcomes associated with the project (Weller et al.,2018). Journaling is a crucial bracketing method that draws its efficiency from the fact that it is a process-guided approach that records changes as the research continues. Journaling will allow the researcher to record assumptions and identify how they are changed through interactions within the research.
Summary
The rationale behind the study is to explore how healthcare providers work in the southeastern United States region. The researcher will delve into how institutional leadership may have exposed care providers to professional burnout during the pandemic. Leaders play a vital role in creating and implementing strategic changes encompassing the needs and interests of their workforces (Weller et al., 2018). During the COVID-19 pandemic, leaders may have lagged in their mandate and thus exposed care providers to burnout. The researcher’s role is to investigate employees’ physical, psychosocial, and mental stability to identify their vulnerability to burnout (Rahman., 2016). The role of the researcher is to form non-biased bonds with the research participants to ensure that the population being investigated is comfortable enough to share information (Fischer, 2009). Additionally, the researcher reduces bias in the study, which is achieved through processes that ensure the researcher’s perceptions do not interfere with the analysis. The researcher must also engage in bracketing to reduce the biases in the research, which will be achieved through bracketing interviews and journaling (Rahman, 2016). The researcher’s roles are vital to the research because they give the right momentum to the rest of the study and influence the research outcome.
Research Methodology
Introduction
A single and flexible research-based study will be used to evaluate the exposure of healthcare providers to burnout during the pandemic. The researcher will target crucial methods that offer more comprehensive access to relevant data and information. The key approaches the researcher will focus on are interviews, questionnaires, and focus group discussions. Also, secondary data sources will be used to enhance triangulation. Combining these methods will offer comprehensive access to quality data and information.
The rationale behind the Selected Research Design
The research will focus on a single case and flexible research design. The researcher will pay attention to a qualitative approach which will assist the researcher in collecting data focusing on perceptions and attitudes (Rahman, 2016). Rahman (2016) explains that qualitative research is advantageous because it allows the researcher to interact directly with the population being researched and gather personal perception and experience that encompasses experiences, perceptions, personal views, and emotions. These advantages guided the selection of qualitative research for the study because investigating burnout requires a more personal approach and factual data. A single case study will be essential in this research. The use of single case studies is presented as a viable research design because they offer researchers holistic and context-specific accounts of the research questions and theory-building and testing (Gustafsson, 2017). The issue of burnout and the COVID-19 pandemic can take a broader scope. However, the researcher’s primary target is to assess how institutional leadership exposes healthcare providers to professional burnout. Also, this will ensure that the researcher collects data from a limited scope, thus simplifying the interpretation and analytical processes. A flexible system will allow the researcher to adopt the best tactic which offers optimal benefits. Roser and Kazmer (2000) explain that flexible research design is highly advantageous because it provides an explorative window in research where the theory is not well-established while placing the researcher as the data gatherer to provide room for the researcher to intervene during data collection. The combination of flexible research design and single case study method is effective for the proposed research because these approaches deliver factual data while providing room for the researcher to build on the theory as the study progresses. Single case studies can be designed to have strong internal validity for assessing causal relationships between interventions and results (Rahman, 2016). A single advantage of the case study exists at a more practical rather than a theoretical level (Rahman, 2016).
The topic encompasses one of the crucial issues of concern in healthcare. It can be extensive due to the numerous burnout challenges experienced by various care providers. This calls for the researcher to narrow down the study and focus on a single approach that provides easy and smooth research operations. Also, flexibility ensures that the researcher can select a system that one feels can derive more outcomes. This may guarantee that the researcher can collect significant data on how care providers are exposed to burnout and how leaders may be able to accelerate the situation. The primary objective remains a commitment to deriving strategic research outcomes. The results may offer insights to assist future leaders. Overall, the researcher will rely on a single, flexible case study to accelerate the likelihood of achieving the projected goals and objectives.
Triangulation
The researcher will rely on triangulation to boost the generalization and conclusion process. This entails using numerous data-gathering sources to enhance research outcomes. It helps a researcher improve the validity and credibility of the acquired findings (Noble et al., 2019). In this case, the researcher will apply two types of triangulations: methodological and theoretical. The dominant triangulation method in the proposed research is methodological triangulation. Heesen et al. (2016) describe methodological triangulation as a process where the researcher collects crucial information from multiple methods of gathering data. This entails collecting information using questionnaires, interviews, and focus group discussions. The researcher will use each of these approaches with the set of selected participants to ensure that different forms of factual data are collected, including the intensity of emotions and frequency of how a certain perception or opinion is shared. The healthcare workers and institutional leaders from the Southeastern United States area will offer vital details that will enable the researcher to establish crucial generalizations. The information provided through questionnaires, interviews, and focus group discussions will boost the analysis allowing comparison to arrive at critical conclusions.
As part of methodological triangulation, the investigator may frame strategic research questions, which will be the focal point behind the targeted analytical approach. The selected questions will be simple to drive the study delving into issues that do not support the research process and intended outcomes. The selected team of healthcare providers and leaders participating in the research will be expected to offer important information helpful in answering the research questions. As highlighted, the researcher will use interviews, questionnaires, and focus group discussions. The answers from the interview sessions will be cross-examined against those collected from the other sources to evaluate occurring themes. One of the aspects that the research will need to pay attention to is using open-ended interview questions. These questions will be used to examine the topic to deeper lengths (Weller et al., 2018). This means that the researcher will have a crucial chance to collect essential details about the issue. Also, the researcher should consider well-established questions when using questionnaires and focus group discussions. Combining these data collection approaches helps to achieve the triangulation milestone.
Secondly, theoretical triangulation will be an additional method that the researcher will apply to cement the study’s credibility. Flick (2019) explains that theoretical triangulation encompasses using different theories to expand on the research questions by framing the research questions from different frameworks. The research may combine different theories to investigate the concept of burnout among healthcare workers, ensuring all elements contributing to the problem are effectively considered. Examples of theoretical frameworks applicable to the research include Maslach’s theory, Job demands-resources theory, and conservation of resources theory. Theory triangulation will achieve triangulation by approaching burnout from different lenses, including the role that the availability of resources plays in the development of burnout.
Summary
The researcher will invest in the qualitative approach, which integrates a flexible single case study. Also, questionnaires, interviews, and focus group discussions will be used to expand the data collection processes and deliver the triangulation perspective. Relying on triangulation will provide the researcher with a viable chance of establishing accurate generalizations and conclusions. More comprehensive access to numerous data sources and information supports the validity, reliability, and outcome of the case study. The primary data collection and theme development will continue from interviews. For example, by supplementing questionnaires with interviews, focus group discussions, and secondary sources, the investigator will obtain highly informative information, enhancing the generalization and conclusion processes. Through triangulation, the researcher will collect a broad range of information that can improve the analytical process and enable one to answer research questions and justify the established hypothesis.
Overall Summary
Analyzing the concern of professional burnout experienced by healthcare providers during the COVID-19 pandemic is vital in ensuring that institutional leaders can make strategic adjustments. Leaders may have played a role in exposing care providers to burnout, evidenced by their inability to adjust operations and approaches in a highly demanding environment. The researcher must incorporate suitable data collection processes and avoid personal bias, which can pose a central challenge to practical interpretations. Also, there is a dire need to invest in the triangulation methodology, which is essential in allowing the investigator to enhance the analysis process. For example, the investigator can establish validity and reliability by using questionnaires, interviews, focus group discussions, and secondary research sources. The research will achieve triangulation through method triangulation and theory triangulation. The use of different methods will allow the collection of diverse information that will create a deeper understanding of burnout among healthcare workers. Also, the use of different theories will expand on the frameworks that the researcher uses to address questions on burnout.
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References
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