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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1991

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↗
PubMed1991

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↗
PubMed1992

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↗
PubMed1991

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↗
PubMed1977

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↗
PubMedDate not supplied

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↗
PubMed1992

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↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Action research in day nurseries: evaluating programmes through staff perceptions and attitudes.

Day nurseries in deprived inner-city areas have to cope with a wide range of problems which are presented by the young children and their families. Many of the children can be delayed in some area of their development or have emotional problems which require sensitive handling. These challenges are in addition to the expected difficulties of helping young children to adjust to a new situation and the presence of unfamiliar adults and children. The staff of day nurseries tend to be young and the 2-year training has a great deal to cover on normal development. The consequence is that staff in their late teens and early twenties have to face the demands of children whose development is often far from 'normal' in terms of the average range. It was a concern about this situation in a very disadvantaged area of London and the fact that nurseries have traditionally been fairly isolated institutions that led to the planning of a 2-year exploratory project with the objective of introducing new ideas and approaches to nursery staff which would help them provide a better quality of care to socially disadvantaged under-5s.

Attitude↗
PubMed1977

Implications of attitude-behavior studies for population research and action.

Results of many family planning surveys do not suggest that attitudes are strongly predictive of family planning practices. An inquiry into methodological issues suggests two recommendations for improvement of research procedures. First, more attention must be paid to the reliability of the questionnaires by which attitudes and practices are measured. Second, questions on attitudes and practices should refer to the same action or object and to the same period of time. The available evidence suggests that implementation of these procedures can lead to identification of stronger linkages between family planning attitudes and practices, and to survey results having greater practical utility.

Family Planning Services↗
PubMed1977

Managing change in health care organizations.

The forces for change seem more potent today than ever before; increased technological advancement and rapid "societal upheavals" create a more critical need for change and a more significant need for skills to manage and channel change toward meaningful ends. The area of health care delivery is probably one of the fields most impinged upon and most affected by these turbulent times. Organizational development is presented herein as an approach to assist people in health care organizations with the problems of adaptation and change. A specific change strategy, action research, is discussed and a concrete case example is presented to illustrate the ways in which the action research model can be applied. Advantages and pitfalls are discussed in the concluding section.

Feedback↗
PubMed1992

Moving from health care research to action.

Although the United States spends more on health care than any country in the world, access to that care is becoming increasingly difficult. The National Cancer Institute and other federal agencies are sponsoring innovative research for delivering effective medical services, particularly to underserved populations. Models of successful collaboration between private and public sectors concerned with health care can be adapted and implemented at the national, state, and local levels. However, other measures are needed to ensure access to adequate health care for all Americans. Minimal but effective regulations are needed to ensure quality control, reduce duplication of services, and minimize cost increases. Public and private sectors also need to consider ways to extend adequate health insurance coverage to all Americans and to provide compensation for preventive services.

Cost Control↗