“Patients’ experience of identifying and managing, exacerbations in COPD: a qualitative study”
- Background of the study
This study is focusing on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), people should be careful about these dieses in the early stage. Effective self-management is necessary for reducing the hospital admissions and for getting quality service in care organization. The number of COPD patients is increasing in UK and this number can be reduced by making people aware about the effective self-management (Healthcare, 2016). People’s contribution is necessary for getting a desire outcome and ensuring better health care. People’s poor knowledge about this disease is responsible; they fail to identify the diseases in the very beginning. Patients seek medical point when they reach at a critical point, so this kind of situation can be changed by making people aware about self-management.
b. Results from previous studies shows what are the basic measurement of this disease, what are the symptoms. Visible symptoms are cough and sputum and invisible symptoms are chest sensations and bodily knowledge (Effing, 2012). Most of the people experience the combination of these symptoms and these symptoms has impact on the wellbeing of an individual. During that time patients have used self-management treatment during exacerbation, they took medicines like anti-biotic and wait for recovery. People normally contract with health care workers when the situation gets worse and they cannot manage themselves. .
C. the significance of the study is to discuss about the importance of identifying exacerbations and the importance of proper self-management knowledge. People should have clear knowledge for dealing with this different health issues including COPD in home. People feels better and safe in home, so for taking right treatment in home they should have clear knowledge about the requirements. - Overview of Research Design:
A. Aim of the research:
This research will focus on patient’s current knowledge and experience regarding the management and identifying COPD exacerbations at home in the early stage.
B. Research design:
This is a qualitative, interview-based study; this is conducted in patients home. The interview has been recorded and then translated and analysed with the help of grounded theory approach.
C. The main characteristics of the research design is this is made for giving a general and realistic information. Information has been collected in primary research method, so relevant and ethical information has been collected (aylor, 2016). This will give a clear idea about the importance of clear and right knowledge for taking treatment at home during COPD exacerbations.
D. the aim of the study is giving an inside about the negative affect of taking wrong treatment at home during COPD. Most of the patient visit in health care p0orgessional when they come in a critical stage. So at that stage people suffer a lot, so for ensuring own betterment people should gather knowledge and experience for managing this kind of health issues. People will get an idea about measuring and managing COPD in early stage with the help of this study. People should take proper initiative at home as this helps to getting the situation worse. - Sampling tools
This research has been conducted on forty-four patients among them 17 women, 27 men; age range 55–85 years. This people are selected on a trial sample and the study has been conducted over 12 months. Patients have been recruited from the hospital admission record. Pulmonary rehabilitation programmers and general practice by a respiratory research nurse.
This article is a inclusion criteria of the sample, as all the analysis has been done in detail and a detail description has been given on the topic (Polit, 2012). Reader will get a clear idea about the topic as proper description has been provided, so the aim of the study has been achieved successfully.
Identifying the criteria before starting the recruitment is necessary as data should be collected from right sources. For this study patients has been recruited very carefully and information has been collected through interview process. Recruitment has been done in trial sample and purposeful sampling strategies have been used. Patients have been identified form different background and lots of factors have been considered during that time. Like such as age, gender, COPD severity, length of diagnosis, frequency and number of exacerbations.
This survey has been conducted in trial sampling method. Recruitment has been done in a systematic method and after collecting the information that have been analyzed in grounded theory approach. Along with this constant comparative method, open, axial and selective coding and memo-writing has been used for creating proper link among the data. For ensuring accurate coding process, two interviews have been coded by an experienced qualitative researcher.
Trail sampling method has been used for this study; this helps to get expected result by recruiting patients on trial basic. This is totally unpredictable that researcher will get the desire data from this survey in this data collection method. People do not have enough knowledge and experience about the self-management process and treatment of COPD. - Data collection:
Data has been collected in an in-depth interviews, this interview has conducted in patients home. Interview has been conducted by the first author as he is expert in qualitative research method. A semi structured topic has been used and that focuses on how a patient deal with, manage and experience COPD at home. That interview lasts for 20-55 minute and that is recoded. Data has been collected only in primary data collection method.
Research has been done in qualitative method and face to face interview has been taken, this method id most accepted for getting most relevant information. During the interview six participants and their family members of spouse was present (Moule, 2012).
The aim of the research is to giving idea about the self-management techniques and its importance for dealing with COPD exacerbations at home. The data collection method is perfect for achieving the objectives as right people have been recruited for the interview and they can give the most accurate information.
Primary data collection method has been chosen and information will be collected in interview process. The advantage of this process is this gives the most authentic and reliable information, so the success rate of an study is highest in this method. On the other hand the disadvantages are it is a time consuming process and for completing this study the team required 12 months.
Researchers can issue observation method as an alternative data collection method. In this method researchers can visit the patients in different care organization and can collect information regarding the treatment and self-management technique for COPD. Observation is a very useful tool for primary data collection; this research is basically a primary data collection method based research so observation technique is highly recommended as an alternative technique. - Data analysis:
The interview is audio-recorded and after that for analyzing the information has been transcribed verbatim and anonymised transcripts were imported into NVIVO 10. In this method organization analysis the method and after the analysis grounded theory approach has been used.
Qualitative research gives description of different situation and problems. In this method numerical and statically data is collected. So the recoded version of data will help to get descriptive data and based on that a solution on the situation can be given. Most of the problems have different solutions so choosing appropriate data collection method is most important for getting an expected outcome. Among all the information most reliable and authentic information will be used for giving a description.
Rigour of the analysis gives right example in different type of situation. This is used for getting a right evaluation method. In this method organization uses different real life situation and relevant information is given based on the issue. Different cased is presented for giving an appropriate analysis. In these method researchers also gives proper justification.
The finding of this study is the symptoms that patients get which is relayed with the exacerbation of COPD. The visible symptom is sputum, cough and temperature. All or some of the symptoms will be present or visible. In this stage patient’s condition will become worse, so clinical assessment is required. People get limited physical ability during COPD. Along with this visible symptoms there are some visible symptoms, those are chest sensations, such as heaviness, tightness and soreness of the chest and were perceived as that body is telling patient that an exacerbation is developing. This knowledge about the symptoms can help a patient to take appropriate self-management initiative.
This finding can be transferred kin education setting as people should know about this so that they can help other when they are in critical situation. The more people will know about the symptoms, the more managing this kind of issue become easier.
Reference:
Healthcare Commission Clearing the Air: A National Study of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection: London, UK, 2016.
Effing T, Monninkhof E, Van der Valk P, Van der Palen J, Van Herwaarden C, Partidge M et al. Self-management education for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2012: (4); CD002990.
aylor, B. and Roberts, K. (2016). Reviewing the literature. In: B. Taylor, ed., Research in Nursing and Health Care: Evidence for Practice, 3rd ed. Australia: Cengage Learning, p.86.
Polit, D. and Beck, C. (2012). Nursing research: Generating and assessing evidence for nursing practice, 8th edition. 8th ed. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/lippincott Williams & Wilkins, p.72.
Moule, P. and Goodman, M. (2012). Nursing Research: An Introduction. London: SAGE publications ltd, p.127.