Research: an integral part of your practice

Research is undertaken within most professions. More than a set of skills, research is a way of thinking: examining critically the various aspects of your day-to-day professional work; understanding and formulating guiding principles that govern a particular procedure; and developing and testing new theories that contribute to the advancement of your practice and profession. It is a habit of questioning what you do, and a systematic examination of clinical observations to explain and find answers for what you perceive, with a view to instituting appropriate changes for a more effective professional service. Let us take some disciplines as examples.

Suppose you are working in the field of health. You may be a front-line service provider, supervisor or health administrator/planner. You may be in a hospital or working as an outreach community health worker. You may be a nurse, doctor, occupational therapist, physiotherapist, social worker or other paramedic. In any of these positions, some of the following questions may come to your mind or someone else may ask you for their answers:

• How many patients do I see every day?
• What are some of the most common conditions prevalent among my patients?
• What are the causes of these conditions?
• Why do some people have a particular condition whereas others do not?
• What are the health needs of the community?
• What are the benefits of this programme to the community?
• How do I demonstrate the effectiveness of my service?
• Why do some people use the service while others do not?
• What do people think about the service?
• How satisfied are patients with the service?
• How effective is the service?
• How can the service be improved?

You can add many other questions to this list. At times it may be possible to ignore these questions because of the level at which you work, at other times you may make an effort to find answers on your own initiative, or, sometimes, you may be required to obtain answers for effective administration and planning.

Let us take another discipline: business studies. Assume you work in the area of marketing. Again, you can work at different levels: as a salesperson, sales manager or sales promotion executive. The list of questions that may come to your mind can be endless. The types of questions and the need to find answers to them will vary with the level at which you work in the organisation. You may just want to find out the monthly fluctuation in the sales of a particular product, or you may be asked to develop an R&D strategic plan to compete for a greater share of the market for the products produced by your company. The list of questions that may come to mind could be endless. For example:

• What is the best strategy to promote the sale of a particular product?
• How many salespersons do I need?
• What is the effect of a particular advertising campaign on the sale of this product?
• How satisfied are the consumers with this product?
• How much are consumers prepared to spend on this product?
• What do consumers like or dislike about this product?
• What type of packaging do consumers prefer for this product?
• What training do the salespersons need to promote the sale of this product?
• What are the attributes of a good salesperson?

To take a different example, let us assume that you work as a psychologist, counsellor or social worker. While engaging in the helping process you may ask yourself (or someone else may ask you) the following questions:

• What are my clients’ most common presenting problems?
• What are their most common underlying problems?
• What is the socioeconomic background of my clients?
• Why am I successful in certain cases and not in others?
• What resources are available in the community to help a client with a particular need?
• What intervention strategies are appropriate for this problem?
• How satisfied are my clients with my services?

As a supervisor, administrator or manager of an agency, again different questions relating to effectiveness and efficiency of a service may come to your mind. For example:

• How many people are coming to my agency?
• What are the socioeconomic-demographic characteristics of my clients?
• How many cases in a day can a worker effectively handle?
• Why do some people use the service while others do not?
• How effective is the service?
• What are the most common needs of clients who come to this agency?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the service?
• How satisfied are the clients with the service?
• How can I improve this service for my clients?

As a professional you might be interested in finding answers to theoretical questions, such as:

• Which is the most effective intervention for a particular problem?
• What causes X or what are the effects of Y?
• What is the relationship between two phenomena?
• How do I measure the self-esteem of my clients?
• How do I ascertain the validity of my questionnaire?
• What is the pattern of programme adoption in the community?
• Which is the best way of finding out community attitudes towards an issue?
• Which is the best way to find out the effectiveness of a particular treatment?
• How can I select an unbiased sample?
• What is the best way to find out about the level of marriage satisfaction among my clients?

In this age of consumerism you cannot afford to ignore the consumers of a service. Consumers have the right to ask questions about the quality and effectiveness of the service they are receiving and you, as the service provider, have an obligation to answer their questions. Some of the questions that a consumer may ask are:

• How effective is the service that I am receiving?
• am I getting value for money?
• How well trained are the service providers?

Most professions that are in the human service industry would lend themselves to the questions raised above and you as a service provider should be well prepared to answer them. Research is one of the ways to help you answer such questions objectively.

Source: Kumar Ranjit (2012), Research methodology: a step-by-step guide for beginners, SAGE Publications Ltd; Third edition.