Methodological pluralism in health communication research

Neumann, Melanie; Kreps, Gary L.; Visser, Adriaan

doi:10.1016/j.pec.2011.01.018

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Another possible explanation is that the answers to multiple-choice questions give an indication of parents' general impressions of communication in the NICU, while the free-response portion of the survey allowed them to focus on details of their experience. The use of complementary methods in communication research allowed a more nuanced picture to emerge than either method on its own would have [30]. …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strengths and weaknesses of parent–staff communication in the NICU: a survey assessment

2013

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BackgroundParents of infants hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) find themselves in a situation of emotional strain. Communication in the NICU presents special challenges due to parental stress and the complexity of the highly technologized environment. Parents’ need for communication may not always be met by the NICU staff. This study aimed to describe strengths and weaknesses of parent–nurse and parent–doctor communication in a large level III NICU in Sweden in order to improve our understanding of parents’ communication needs.MethodsParents were asked to complete a survey consisting of sixteen questions about their experiences of communication with nurses and doctors in the NICU. In each question the parents evaluated some aspect of communication on a five- or six-point Likert scale. They also had the opportunity on each question to comment on their experiences in their own words. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics 20.0 and qualitative manifest content analysis.Results270 parents (71.4%) completed the survey. Parents generally rated communication with the staff in the NICU positively and appreciated having received emotional support and regular information about their child´s care. Although a large majority of the parents were satisfied with their communication with doctors and nurses, only about half of the parents felt the nurses and doctors understood their emotional situation very well. Some parents would have desired easier access to conversations with doctors and wanted medical information to be given directly by doctors rather than by nurses. Parents’ communication with the staff was hampered when many different nurses were involved in caring for the infant or when the transfer of information in connection with shift changes or between the maternity ward and NICU was poor. Parents also desired to be present during doctors’ rounds on their infant.ConclusionsTraining both doctors and nurses in communication skills, especially in how to meet parents’ emotional needs better, could make communication at the NICU more effective and improve parental well-being. Creating a framework for the parents of what to expect from NICU communication might also be helpful. In addition, our results support the use of primary nurse teams to improve continuity of care and thereby promote successful communication.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strengths and weaknesses of parent–staff communication in the NICU: a survey assessment

2013

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“…We applied a mixed-method approach, since it is one of the most effective methodologies able to “capture the complexity of healthcare processes and to gather advanced insight into healthcare communication phenomena” (p.281) [29]. By combining quantitative and qualitative techniques, a large amount of information, collected in flexible and iterative ways, can be synthetized and analyzed.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patient empowerment in risk management: a mixed-method study to explore mental health professionals’ perspective

Rimondini

Busch

Mazzi

et al. 2019

BMC Health Serv Res

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Background In the last years, patients’ empowerment has been increasingly recognized as a crucial dimension of patient-centered healthcare and patient safety. Nevertheless, little work has been done so far in the field of patient safety to investigate strategies for empowering psychiatric patients. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify, by using focus groups, whether and how psychiatric patients’ empowerment can improve risk management according to the perspective of healthcare providers (HPs). Methods A mixed-method approach composed of a qualitative data collection method (i.e., focus groups) and a quantitative analysis technique (i.e., inductive content analysis) was applied. HPs working in mental health settings shared their perspectives on psychiatric patients’ empowerment in risk management. After the transcription of the audio-taped discussions and the subsequent development of a hierarchical four-level coding system (strategy versus critical issue, thematic area, category, subcategory), two independent raters codified the transcripts and synthesized the content. Absolute frequencies are reported for quantitative data. Results Twelve focus groups consisting of six to ten participants, each with an overall sample size of 95 participants (65 women; average age ± SD 47 ± 9 yrs), were enrolled. A total of 1252 participants’ verbal contributions (i.e., units of analysis) were assessed. Strategies and critical issues (Level 1) were mentioned almost equally (52 and 48%, respectively) by the HPs. Most of the contributions at Level 2 referred to the thematic areas Treatment and Cure (69%) and Emergency Management (21%). In the area Treatment and Cure , the category Therapeutic Compliance (Level 3) was discussed in one third of all contributions. Conclusions Our results suggest that HPs consider patients as crucial partners in risk management and expect them to play a key role in actively enhancing safety. Policy makers should be aware that risk management in mental health settings particularly relies on the therapeutic relationship between HPs and patients. Therefore, allocating sufficient human and financial resources to mental health care aiming to further support the relationship between patients and HPs is of utmost importance. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12913-019-4215-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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“…The way in which a methodical check of PE, NE, and PSCE can be performed without RCT is also very important in order to pay due attention to the above-mentioned complexity of interactions, possible domino effects and a processual experience of dietary change. The context factors described in sections 2 and 3 should therefore be analysed not only with quantitative but also qualitative methods in the sense of a mixed method approach (159,160) since qualitative and quantitative methods can be integrated to complement each other (154,(161)(162)(163)(164). Qualitative studies [e.g., one-toone interviews, group discussions, diaries, observation, and first-person research; (165)] and mixed method studies [e.g., qualitative preliminary studies, concomitant interviews, group discussions on how to interpret data from RCTs; (161)] place a stronger focus on the subjective patient perspective.…”

Section: Recommendations For Outcome Research On Diet Changes In Non-...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Why context matters when changing the diet: A narrative review of placebo, nocebo, and psychosocial context effects and implications for outcome research and nutrition counselling

Neumann

Wirtz²,

Lutz³

et al. 2022

Front. Nutr.

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Placebo (PE) and nocebo effects (NE) have been subjects of systematic research in medicine and psychotherapy for many decades to distinguish between the (specific) pharmacological effect of medication and the (unspecific) effect of the context. Despite this significant research, the awareness, operationalisation, and reflection of the multiplicity of PE, NE, and psychosocial context effects (PSCE) is currently limited when researching outcomes of diet changes in studies without randomisation and placebo control. This neglection is critical as it could systematically influence outcomes by moderating and mediating them and thus reducing the validity and evidence base of these studies. Therefore, we performed a (non-systematic) narrative review (NR) on the following objectives: (1) present a concise overview about the relevance of PE, NE, and PSCE in medicine and nutrition research; (2) review the current state of research on reflecting context effects when studying diet changes; (3) provide useful theoretical foundations via consideration and integration of micro- and macro context effects; (4) operationalise as hypotheses the potential PE, NE, and PSCE which are specific for researching diet changes; and (5) derive their impact for future research as well as for nutrition counselling. The electronic search in this NR for objective (2) identified N = 5 publications and for objective (4) we found N = 61 articles retrieved in the first round of search, additional references were identified by a manual and snowball search among the cited references resulting finally in N = 37. This NR offers a synoptical basis to foster awareness and operationalisation of a variety of PE, NE, and PSCE. Interdisciplinary research teams should monitor these factors using, e.g., qualitative, mixed-method studies, process evaluation, item bank approaches, moderator and mediator analysis that might reveal substantially new insights, and outcomes of relevance to science and nutrition counselling. Nevertheless, the present NR has several limitations, especially as it is non-systematic, because it is a very heterogeneous field of research, in which the topic we are investigating is usually regarded as marginal and subordinate. Therefore, future research should conduct systematic reviews and particularly theory-based primary studies (experimental research) on hypotheses of PE, NE, and PSCE in outcome research in diet changes.

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Methodological pluralism in health communication research

Cited by 8 publications

References 31 publications

Strengths and weaknesses of parent–staff communication in the NICU: a survey assessment

Strengths and weaknesses of parent–staff communication in the NICU: a survey assessment

Patient empowerment in risk management: a mixed-method study to explore mental health professionals’ perspective

Why context matters when changing the diet: A narrative review of placebo, nocebo, and psychosocial context effects and implications for outcome research and nutrition counselling

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