Question

Describe how health services research differs from other kinds of research. Give an example

Answer 1

The word "RESEARCH" came from 2 words. 'RE' which means once again and 'SEARCH" which means to find out or to explore. Thus research means, finding out or exploring something new.Its a new field of knowledge, which helps to explore new findings related to all matters.There are various types of research activities are carried out. They include, basic research, applied research, scientific research and so on. Different types of research designs are also used to carry out the research activity. One of the common research carried out in health field is health service research. Because of the emergence of new pandemics, and lack of quality based tretment options and inorder to improve the quality of health care the health care members are forced to carry out new research activities inorder to develop new knowledge.Thus the health team members like physicians, nurses, pharmacists, psychologist etc are carrying out new research studies, and it has become an integral part of theur accademic schedule also.

Health services research are those research activities, usually carried out to investigate how various social factors, newly invented health technologies, and behavior of each individual etc will affect the health care,its quality, availability, access, cost and finally how it improve the human health. These studies are usually carried out in hospitals, community etc. The health service research activities mainly focus to provide comprahensive health care services to each individual and their by they are focusing to improve the personal well being, avoidance of patient negligence, avoidance of medical errors, accidents injuries etc.

There are various types of other research activities also conducted in community. But they are usually carried out to answer some un answered questions, inorder to identify the impact of certain programmes, inorder to analyze the current situation, current status of a existing problem etc. Most of the time the research activities are carried out to generate a new knowledge. Hence all thos research activities differ from health service research. Health service research are usually carried out to identify the the quality of care provided to the individual, family, community etc.

"A study to assess the effectiveness of health care policies to improve the health in the local community." This study can be considered as a good example for health service research. Because this study is carried out to identify how effectively the government policies can improve the community health. This study also helps to identify the safety of patients in the community, the effectiveness of the govermnet policies to improve the community health,the efficiency of the government policies, equity of services, etc.