Research Proposal: Obstructions To Effective Mentoring In Clinical Work Employment Settings

Research Question

Research Proposal

1. Developing a research question

Technically, this can be in the form of a statement or a question, consequently, devise a working title for the project. The title should be based on the outline your colleague issued.

The Research Question

What are some of the obstructions to effective mentoring in many clinical work employment settings: from a 360 degree perspective?

1. literature review

Mentoring is a vital feature of proficient learning in clinical work placement settings (Allan 2010). It becomes further important to develop a healthy mentor-mentee relationship that should turn out to be beneficial for both students as well as mentor. The relationship also influences the experiences of belongingness where a positive experience results in proficiency and confidence; on the other hand a negative experience may result in weakened self-esteem, heightened levels of stress, anxiety as well as depression (Levett-Jones et al 2009). A positive experience strengthens the confidence as well as professional competence in a student, whereas, a negative experience may shake the psychology of student and downgrade his/ her professional ability. The first step towards creation of positive clinical work placement experiences is to understand the types of interactions between mentor nurses and student nurses; from the perspective of both, the mentor as well as mentee. The staff-student relationship may turn out either as a facilitator or as an impediment to future career. Researchers have shown that mentorship should be supportive as well as challenging to certain extent where students should feel secured and safe, confirming their sense of self-worth. An effective mentoring programme shifts the locus of control positively where students start believing in their abilities and feel that they have some control over their professional abilities (Bulut et al 2010). Successful mentoring helps in developing professional vision among students. Peer mentoring is also a successful strategy where both mentor and mentee are of similar age-group; for example, final year students could mentor second year students (Bulut et al 2010). It is also significant to comprehend the lived experiences of mentors as they often feel overwhelmed with the additional responsibility of mentoring students along with their clinical duties (Wilson 2014). Mentors sometimes feel as being used as a tool in the business of nursing education. Thus it becomes very important to understand the psychology and experiences of both mentors as well as mentees. The barriers are faced by both, mentors as well as mentees. Only after having an in-depth understanding of these barriers, we will be able to address them. Thus the first step of this research will be to have an in-depth understanding of relative obstacles to mentoring in clinical work placement sceneries, from the perspective of both- mentors as well as mentees.

1. Design

What research approach would be convenient for the selected research question?

Quantitative, qualitative or the mixed method

The most convenient research approach in this case will be the Qualitative research approach. The reason being Qualitative research involves investigative methodologies such as naturalistic inquiry, field study, ethnographic study, participatory observation as well as anthropological exploration. Subsequently, this kind of research approach credits the description of variables in what is considered as their natural settings. Wide-ranging data is obtained through using semi-structured tools that have questions that are considered as open-ended. In this process both the respondents as well as the interviewer are vital components. The analysis of the research include: phrases, view-points and direct quotations.Therefore qualitative research is helpful in looking at a broad scope of information thus providing a detailed analysis of data; hence the research does not confine itself to an individual level analysis but also aim at a wider circumstantial as well as a structural level analysis. If the research confines itself only at an individual-level variables, the occurrence of new Variables will be a persistent problem hence implicating the general outcome of the research. Subsequently, there is a vital need to examine much more than what meets the eye and hence need to address the “WHY” question such as the reason as to why mentors or mentees behave in the way that they do? In relation, similar questions could be addressed holistically only through the use of qualitative research.

Research Approach

Identify the research design that would best suit the selected research question. Choose one from the listed approaches and support with ideas the rationale behind the selection

Qualitative: Ethnography, Phenomenology, Grounded Theory or Field Research

Quantitative: Descriptive, Correlational, Experimental or Quasi- experimental

In this case, Phenomenology will be the most convenient research design for this research. Subsequently, this is because the methodology enables the researcher to understand the subjective meanings of social issues or relational dynamics. Here we need to understand in-depth or in detail that what kind of barriers are faced by mentors as well as mentees during clinical work placement. Thus Phenomenology is a research design method which will fill in the Why gaps in our research (Bryman 2012).

Definition of the selected research method

Phenomenology, falls under the qualitative research method which is based on how researchers understands the world and phenomena’s around them and how they modify or improve the preconceptions regarding previous understanding of that world/ phenomena (Bryman 2012). It comprises; successions of common sensual concepts different from positivism, and stream of opinions regarded as Interpretivism.

Identify which type of data collection method/s is convenient as a data collection method. The method must be compatible with the type of research design previously selected.  

Technically, the selected data Collection techniques include Key informant Interview and Observation. Relatively, the tools for interviews will be semi-structured interview schedule and tools for observation will be semi-structured check-list. There will be a large scope to record any new variable which is not structured before-hand in the tools (McIntosh, & Morse, 2015). Semi-structured interviews help in collecting detailed information where the type of information is both objective as well as subjective.

Examine organisational policies, procedures and protocols that may impact the process of planning a research study?

Interviews should be carried out legally and only at the convenience of the informants by not disturbing their routine work. Their permission will be taken, after explaining the study objectives. In the case study, names of all intermediaries will be anonymised if they so wish.

Part 4 – Covers the Schedule

Fill in the relevant blanks in the table:

Research Project Title	Obstacles to effective mentoring in clinical work placement settings: from a 360 degree perspective
Aim	To identify and discuss barriers to effective mentoring in clinical work placement settings: from the perspective of both mentors as well as mentees.
Approach	Qualitative
Design	Phenomenology
Participants	Mentors and Mentees
Timeframe	One Year
Costs	20,000 USD
Benefits	In-depth understanding of barriers to effective mentoring in clinical work placement settings, from a 360 degree perspective, which will help in designing solutions towards an effective mentoring during work placement.

Part 5– Covers Evaluation

Examine the concept of data analysis

Technically, data analysis requires rigorous, systematic and organised methods to constantly draw meaning out of the collected information (Miles et al 2013). Although quantitative data analysis involves statistical methods, qualitative data analysis should also be systematic and rigorous

The technique through which the data in the proposed research question was analysed examples include counting, statistics and finding patterns.

Qualitative data was analysed through grounded theory methodology (Strauss and Corbin 1990). Relatively, with the help of this methodology, theory progress is embedded on the availability of data. Theory will be established in the course of the research process as data interpretation will take place and the comparison of the established interpretation will be based on the new data collected. However, the primary ideology is that the grounded theory will try to develop and elaborate theory through the concept of constant comparison with the data and information gathered in the course of the research process. The data collected from different sources will be triangulated with each other.

Research Design

Possible obstacles to the proposed research and the employed techniques to overcome the obstacles

The primary challenge was language barrier while conducting research on the nurses with divergent ethnic and racial backgrounds (Squires, 2008). Barriers may also arise while translating, or transcribing the transcripts in the official language (Lopez et al, 2008). Barrier cases may also emerge during triangulation of data where it may be just penning down of all the quotations, whereas it should be a rigorous synthesis of information, simultaneously drawing out meaning from it and suturing the data together, so that it turn out to be a meaningful and useful research (Bryman 2007).

How to determine the authencity of the proposed research, is it valid, useful and cost effective?

It is somehow difficult to establish validity in cases of qualitative research as compared to quantitative research because of subjectivity associated with it (Silverman, 2016). The research should be rigorous which can ensure validity in a qualitative research. If the data is captured with congruence, accuracy and thoroughness, it will ensure validity in research. If the conclusion of the study is applicable towards finding solutions to the mentoring problems during nursing work placements; the research will be determined as being useful (Corbin et al, 2014). The research will be cost-effective, if its usefulness is greater than the cost involved in conducting this research (Marshall and Rossman 2014).

Examine one method of disseminating the research findings

It is crucial to disseminate research findings so that results could become useful for a wider community (Zoubir, 2013). Wider dissemination of research helps maximising its cost-effectiveness. Nowadays various research communities have come together on web-portals like Research Gate, Researchers ID, and Orcid. The research could be shared on these web portals for wider dissemination.

Which of the following mentioned words would best suit as a synonym (substitute) for reliability?

Reliability of research is equal to consistency in findings of a research.

• Consistency
• Usefulness
• Truthfulness
• Economy

References

Allan, H. (2010). Mentoring overseas nurses: barriers to effective and non-discriminatory mentoring practices. Nursing ethics, 17(5), 603-613.

Bryman, A (2012), “Social Research Methods”, 4th Edition, South-Asia Edition, New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Bryman, A. (2007). Barriers to integrating quantitative and qualitative research. Journal of mixed methods research, 1(1), 8-22.

Bulut, H., Hisar, F., & Demir, S. G. (2010). Evaluation of mentorship programme in nursing education: A pilot study in Turkey. Nurse Education Today, 30(8), 756-762.

Corbin, J., Strauss, A., & Strauss, A. L. (2014). Basics of qualitative research. Sage..

Levett?Jones, T., Lathlean, J., Higgins, I., & McMillan, M. (2009). Staff–student relationships and their impact on nursing students’ belongingness and learning. Journal of advanced nursing, 65(2), 316-324.

Lopez, G. I., Figueroa, M., Connor, S. E., & Maliski, S. L. (2008). Translation barriers in conducting qualitative research with Spanish speakers. Qualitative Health Research, 18(12), 1729-1737.

Marshall, C., & Rossman, G. B. (2014). Designing qualitative research. Sage publications..

McIntosh, M. J., & Morse, J. M. (2015). Situating and constructing diversity in semi-structured interviews. Global qualitative nursing research, 2, 2333393615597674.

Merriam, S. B., & Tisdell, E. J. (2015). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation. John Wiley & Sons.

Miles, M. B., Huberman, A. M., & Saldana, J. (2013). Qualitative data analysis. Sage.

Silverman, D. (Ed.). (2016). Qualitative research. Sage.

Squires, A. (2008). Language barriers and qualitative nursing research: methodological considerations. International nursing review, 55(3), 265-273.

Wilson, A. M. (2014). Mentoring student nurses and the educational use of self: A hermeneutic phenomenological study. Nurse education today, 34(3), 313-318.

Zoubir, A. (2013). Dissemination of Research Findings: What Role Can We Play?[From the Editor]. IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, 30(3), 2-8.