Handbook for Health Care Research

This is a unique book on scientific research written for health care practitioners. Using step-by-step guidelines, the text teaches students and practitioners to implement a research protocol and evaluate the results, even with no experience or formal training in the research process. It provides the basic tools to carry out and critically analyze the research data, from asking the initial questions to preparing a publication. The chapters are organized around the major steps in the research process, allowing the reader to sort through various research procedures easily. Statistical procedures are illustrated with actual examples from health care practice in this user friendly resource.

Table of Contents

Section  I  Introduction
  Chapter  1  Why Study Research?
  Chapter  2  Ethics and Research
  Chapter  3  Outcomes Research
Section  II  Planning the Study
  Chapter  4  The Scientific Method
  Chapter  5  Developing the Study Idea
  Chapter  6  Reviewing the Literature
  Chapter  7  Designing the Experiment
Section  III  Conducting the Study
  Chapter  8  Steps to Implementation
  Chapter  9  Making Measurements
  Chapter  10  Basic Statistical Concepts
  Chapter  11  Statistical Methods for Nominal Measures
  Chapter  12  Statistical Methods for Ordinal Measures
  Chapter  13  Statistical Methods for Contiguous Measures
Section  IV  Publishing the Findings
  Chapter  14  The Paper
  Chapter  15  The Abstract
  Chapter  16  The Case Report
  Chapter  17  The Poster Presentation
  Appendix  I  Basic Science Writing
  Appendix  II  Glossary
  Appendix  III  Peer Review Checklist
  Appendix  IV  Answers to Questions
  Appendix  V  Model Paper
  Appendix  VI  Response to Reviewers