[Research in nursing: direct action research becomes a book on clinical nursing. Interview by Inger Rosenkvist].
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Denmark↗
SEARCH · Search PubMed
Results for “Action Research”
Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
Reviving the action research model: combining case and cause with dislocated workers.
Action research, a model combining research with activist goals and microlevel and macrolevel social work practice, has received little recent attention in the social work literature. This article reports on an action research project conducted by a major labor union and a university department of social work to assist dislocated workers in New England. A partnership of union-trained peer counselors and social work faculty and students combined a research study with providing direct service to displaced workers, assisting in an organizing project, and developing a policy agenda to assist low-income workers. The author suggests that an action research model can be used by social workers in a wide variety of settings and under different practice auspices.
Humans↗
The theory-practice gap in nurse education: its causes and possible solutions. Findings from an action research study.
Kurt Lewin, the originator of action research, proposed that it was valuable not only for innovating change, but also the process of change could lead to new insights into the nature of the problem that was being tackled. This action research project developed and evaluated a teaching model that aimed to help RGN (registered general nurse) students to bridge the theory-practice gap. During the course of this work, the possible reasons for a theory-practice gap started to become clear. This paper provides a discussion of these factors. The viewpoint for this discussion is that of the student nurse. The student is assumed to 'own' the problem and it is from her perspective that the theory-practice gap is analysed. The paper includes a critical examination of books, lectures, the school curriculum and ward nursing practice. Finally, possible solutions to the theory-practice problem are discussed and it is hoped that these will provide a rational basis for tackling the problem.
Attitude↗
Action research: philosophy, methods and personal experiences.
This article discusses the philosophical basis of action research and the methods by which it may be carried out. These are related to a ward development action research project, and the initial phase of this project is discussed. Methodological and ethical issues arising during the project are considered, and themes emerging from the data are analysed. The action researcher's personal experiences and feelings about being involved in the study are discussed, and this reflexive aspect is drawn together to suggest implications for the next and 'action' stage of the project.
Attitude of Health Personnel↗
Participatory action research with self-help groups: an alternative paradigm for inquiry and action.
Presents participatory action research (PAR) as a scientific paradigm most relevant for inquiry and action with self-help groups. "Subjects" individual and collective involvement in the design, conduct, and utilization of research, and scientists' involvement in action to improve group functioning, are among the hallmarks of PAR. Such an approach is most consistent with self-help characteristics and ideology: highly participative membership, aprofessional leadership, localist and grass-roots orientation, and respect for experience-based knowledge. Conducting research and action for change that simultaneously generates useful knowledge and advances group goals requires new scientific roles and techniques. The orthodoxy of the conventional scientific paradigm is problematic for productive inquiry about self-help and for aiding self-help groups.
Adaptation, Psychological↗
Implementing a philosophy of care on a children's ward using action research.
This paper charts the progress of an action research project initially implemented to assist the staff of a pediatric ward in the development of primary nursing. The use of ward meetings to identify needs and clarify objectives is discussed; from this emerged a broader remit to implement the ward's philosophy of care. Five areas of clinical practice development were identified for work: development of a staff development strategy, identification of resource people, movement to primary nursing, development of standards of care, and development of the ward environment. Progress in these five areas is explored, and the use of evaluation strategies such as visual analogue scales, unstructured interviews and personal diaries are discussed. Description and discussion of some of the difficulties associated with this project are given. In conclusion, the authors address the issue of whether action research is in fact a specific methodology or a philosophy.
Clinical Nursing Research↗
Development of the nursing process through action research.
Implementation of the nursing process in practical nursing can be achieved in accordance with the principles of action research. A pre-requisite of the action research is a knowledge of the basic principles and the component areas of the nursing process, and of the opportunities for applying the nursing process to practical work. The documentation of the nursing of the patient is one clear object in which the model of the nursing process takes concrete shape. Another prominent form of action is the analysis of the content of the nursing, and on the basis of this framework the needs of individual patients can be determined and evaluated. Important methods in action research are consulting and work guidance. The researcher, together with the workers, endeavours to develop the work of nursing and to seek opportunities and methods to carry out the nursing process model.
Goals↗
Social networks and work/nonwork life: action-research with nurse managers.
An action-research project with hospital nurses is reported which explores the utility of social network analysis for understanding and enhancing the quality of work life. Based on a framework for conceptualizing work stressors, we present a rationale for developing resource-support groups. These groups combine emotional support, group problem-solving, and participatory decision-making within the context of developing programs and policies to enhance the quality of working life. A workshop help for nurse managers focused on the potential for using these groups to achieve specific, prioritized goals. To study the ecology of work/nonwork life, we obtained data from workshop participants on both their work and nonwork social networks. We found these to be almost totally segmented. Personal, organizational, and sociocultural variables that may account for this pattern are examined. Implications are also discussed for developing support programs and for empowering nursing as a profession.
Humans↗
Action research on occupational stress: involving workers as researchers.
In this article we describe the rationale, design, and selected results of a longitudinal action research project conducted in a component-parts manufacturing plant. This project is aimed at reducing occupational stress and strengthening psychosocial factors (i.e., social support and participation in and influence over decision-making) that may mediate the negative effects of stress on health and quality of worklife. A discussion of the gaps and weaknesses in the existing research and intervention literature on work stress and health is provided, followed by an overview of the theoretical and empirical foundations of the present study. The design of this research addresses previous limitations in three major ways: (1) the project has been implemented within an action research framework that has the potential to enhance both the quality, relevance, and utilization of research findings and the adoption, diffusion, and impact of planned interventions; (2) it combines research and intervention in a single longitudinal study providing data that allow for stronger causal inferences than cross-sectional research, while also ensuring that research findings guide the design and evaluation of the interventions; and (3) it employs multiple methods of research and intervention that enhances the comprehensiveness and validity of the project. We explicate each of these aspects of the design, show how the design has effectively been put in operation, provide evidence of ways in which these features have improved the project over conventional approaches, and address limitations in terms of effectiveness and efficiency.
Decision Making, Organizational↗
An action research approach to workplace health: integrating methods.
Action research, which combines the generation and testing of theory with social system change, demands multiple sources of knowledge about the research setting and encourages the integration of data collection techniques. This article describes the implementation of a longitudinal multi-methodological research and intervention project aimed both at examining the relationship between occupational stress and psychosocial moderating factors (e.g., social support, participation, and influence over decision-making) and health outcomes; and reducing work stress and improving employee health. Combining qualitative and quantitative research techniques such as semi-structured individual and focus group interviews, field notes and survey data increases confidence in research findings and strengthens the process and outcomes of needs assessment, program planning, implementation, and evaluation. Specific examples are provided that illustrate the usefulness of this approach in identifying and understanding problem areas and in developing and evaluating appropriate health education interventions.
Bias↗
Anthropology, occupational therapy, and action research.
This paper describes the research process and methodology used in the American Occupational Therapy Association/American Occupational Therapy Foundation Clinical Reasoning Study. This study examined the clinical reasoning of occupational therapists through a 2-year ethnography of therapists at one hospital site. The research was innovative in several important respects. One important innovation was a combined ethnographic and action research design that involved collaboration between the research team and those therapists being studied. Therapists who were research subjects became actively involved in examining and reflecting on their own practice through group analysis of videotaped sessions with clients. One outcome of this action research component was that the study served as both a research and a staff development project.
Clinical Competence↗
[Action-research on the prevention of abuse in the very young child. Methodology and initial results].
Teams of pediatricians and psychiatrists are leading a joint action-research in public health which intends to develop and evaluate original modes of prevention of abuse and grave neglect concerning infants with medico-psychosocial high risk factors. The framework of this study is a randomized controlled trial on the modes of prevention. The sample, consisting of infants under one year of age and selected from their health certificate of the 8th day and 9th month, is divided into two groups: the treated group who benefited from specific preventive interventions and the control group who benefited from classic surveillance. The research was longitudinal and was centered on the study of mother-infant interactions at 3 months, 1 year, 2 years and 3 years of age. The dynamics in the action-research is illustrated by the evolution of the tool for assessment of early interactions and the refocusing of the research. From the analysis of the data from the phase of feasibleness, which included 114 infants, three main results have come out: definition of a "danger" pointer: dysharmonious mother-infant interactions at 3 months; a new risk factor was brought to light: "disrupted grand-parental family"; father's role in mother-infant interactions. These first results have had a major impact on the method for the active phase which is now in progress and intends to evaluate the new modes of prevention.
Child Abuse↗
The use of a teaching model to promote reflection and the experiential integration of theory and practice in first-year student nurses: an action research study.
This study developed and evaluated an experiential teaching model which aimed to improve the integration of theory and practice for first-year RGN students. This work took a qualitative approach and used Lewin's action research methodology. Using a participant observation approach, data, in the form of diaries, interviews and spot checks, were gathered. To evaluate the teaching model, the spot checks were developed as an indicator of theory-practice integration. The analysis of these spot checks revealed that this teaching approach had value. The strengths and weaknesses of the teaching model, in relation to possible origins of the theory-practice gap, are outlined. The validity of action research is discussed, as are similar issues that are related to the methodology of this study.
Education, Nursing↗
The Wholistic Health Center Project: an action-research model for providing preventive, whole-person health care at the primary level.
The Wholistic Health Center action-research project is designed to stimulate new approaches for rectifying a variety of maladies present in the nation's primary health care delivery system. In response to the call for an increase in health education programs, for availability of care in early stages of illness, for care focused on life stress factors, and for better coordination of care-the church-based Wholistic Health Centers utilize a unique multidisciplinary teamwork approach for diagnosis and treatment planning. The patient is involved as an active participant in this process. In conjunction with the University of Illinois, Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health, the project has developed from its inception as a free clinic in Springfield, Ohio, to the establishment of two potentially self-supporting centers in middle and upper-income suburbs west of Chicago, Illinois.
Community Health Services↗
Action research and evaluation: can research and practice be successfully combined?
Educative intervention with the young severely subnormal child and his family is envisaged as an example of 'action research' in which the dual roles of the practitioner-researcher and the client-subject are examined. A view of the effect of the interaction of these roles on the intervention and its evaluation is given, and conclusions drawn concerning the nature of evaluation appropriate in future projects of this kind.
Child Health Services↗
Dilemmas of Iran's opium maintenance program: an action research for evaluating goal conflicts and policy changes.
Much of evaluative research in the drug abuse field to date has centered on the outcome comparison of different treatment and rehabilitation modalities. Consequently, despite avowed interest in policy research by the students of drug abuse to a great extent and, in part, due to lack of research opportunities, there have not been many action-oriented evaluative policy researches even in the industrially advanced countries. On the other hand, the piecemeal accumulation of information through numerous ad hoc drug-related research activities has signaled the need for more integrated research activities on a comprehensive scale, embracing both the demand and supply dimensions of drug abuse. In the absence of substantive inputs from drug policy research, there is a real danger than the call for comprehensive approaches may once again, by default, neglect the crucial dimension of macro policy. This paper presents the findings of an action research design for evaluation of Iran's opium maintenance program. As such, the paper's primary focus is on the impact of unintended and unanticipated consequences of Iran's opium maintenance program upon treatment and rehabilitation efforts for the drug addicts. The findings here are based on a two-wave study. The first wave was carried out in the early summer of 1976. The major conclusions of the first wave suggested the need for fundamental revisions in both the eligibility requirements for and the the distribution system of opium coupons to those who legally received opium, the registered addicts. The findings of this study convinced the government to initiate a number of changes in the eligibility requirements. In addition, the authors were given the responsibility to design a new system of opium distribution for registered addicts. The second wave of the study was conducted in the spring of 1977, some 6 months after the policy revisions, in order to monitor their effects.
Adult↗
Health visiting: action research in a controlled environment.
The nature of health visiting is discussed. It operates in a radically different way from any of the curative services. Research into the effectiveness of health visiting must therefore take into account the many differences in context, in professional goals and in the nature of the interaction between health visitors and their "clients", compared with the work of the curative professions within their more controlled and controlling environments. The evaluation of one large scale health visitor intervention study is used here to highlight these differences. Health visiting research needs to free itself from the attempts by some to apply the laboratory model of evaluation, if it is to develop a corpus of "action research" thinking which reflects its more human and developmental characteristics.
Child↗
[Establishment of a child public dental health service - an action research project. II. Overall plan, objectives, and course of action].
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Adolescent↗