Part A
Qualitative research is employed in long term care facilities extensively. This is because long term care facilities provide various services to people suffering from chronic ailments and people in their old age who require specialized care and attention. Because of the delicate nature of this job, it is therefore important to have constant appraisal and feedback from both the care-givers and the patients. Qualitative research, therefore, lends itself to this area of service in many ways.
Qualitative research methods are means through which inquiry is done to provide a deep understanding of perceptions and the “how” and “why” aspects of people’s opinions. For example, qualitative research is used to investigate nurses’ perceptions regarding quality care for the aged in long-term care facilities (Sung, Chang & Tsai, 2005. This information is used to provide insight into the issue of high nurse turnover rates in these facilities. Qualitative methods can also be used to gather patients’ perceptions of services offered. This is done on a daily basis to inform the improvement decisions.
Part B
According to Keen & Todres (2007), successful dissemination of qualitative research findings requires the researcher to tailor the approach according to the intended audience in terms of message, medium and content. The researcher must also consider the message source. Additionally, the dissemination method should enable active discussion on the findings. A journal article would be the best way of disseminating the findings. This is because it would provide other nurses and care-givers with information that would guide them in their work. The journal article would be published in an online journal like Lippincott Williams & Wilkins which provides information about long term care. This is because this journal has a wide readership and it is known by other professionals in this field of nursing.
References
Keen, S., & Todres, L. (2007, September 17). Strategies for Disseminating Research Findings: Three Exemplars / Forum: Qualitative Social Research. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research. Retrieved April 6, 2013, from http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/285/625
Sung, H., Chang, S., & Tsai, C. (2005, May 14). Working in long-term care settings for older people [J Clin Nurs. 2005] - PubMed - NCBI. Retrieved on April 6, 2013, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15840073
