descriptive statistics

Please submit an annotated bibliography of 5 articles, website materials, or book chapters you have surveyed while searching for sources related to your chosen area of research.

For at least one of your sources:

Describe the source's use of descriptive statistical measures you learned about in this module.

Describe the statistics used and how the researcher interprets them in relation to his/her study.

Discuss how the findings in that article compare or contrast with the hypothesis you developed for your SLP area of research. In other words, does the article support help your hypothesis? Or contradict it? Please explain.

Critical Thinking; Basic Concepts of Quantitative Reasoning; Hypothesis

Healthcare is rich with areas of research. Some of the areas that are of interest to me at present are: Training with computers for new employees, depression in elderly care givers, and job satisfaction.

1) The first area is caregiver depression. Caregivers for the elderly are becoming more prolific are how population begins to age. There are not too many middle working class families who do not have at one aging parent in the family of their own or their spouse. Unless there are no resources to care for this family member in their home, they have to make a decision to put them into an assisted living situation. Families are reluctant to do this considering the stories they have heard and the rising expense of assisted living and long term care.

After months of seeing their loved one become so debilitated, the stress of progressive daily care can have a heavy toll on the responsible caregiver or number of caregivers. If it is just the husband or the wife, the emotional expense can quickly mount up. If they are fortunate enough to have several caregivers, the depression may not be so easily felt in the primary caregiver. Alzheimer's disease is known for its devastation not only on the patient but the family. Over a period of short years, once the late symptoms appear, the patient forgets even their spouse. They can become violent and forget everything they knew in their prior life. Family members are subjected to violent rages and forgetful mothers and fathers and this can lead to serious feelings of depression in any of the caring family members (Clark & Diamond, 2010; Hayslip, Han, & Anderson, 2008).

Research Question: Do caregivers who care for family for Alzheimer's disease patients have more depression than those who do not have Alzheimer's disease.

2) Job satisfaction is now high on the list of many areas of healthcare. Hospital care has many roles that are traveling from hospital to hospital in hopes of finding a better working situation. There are many problems that can be assigned to this issue. Respiratory therapy is a good example. Hospitals are hiring fewer therapists in hopes that they will still be satisfied with their work even though some anecdotal information has reported that it has doubled. New treatments and technology have not made the job easier; it has the therapist more necessary. Most nurses either don't or cannot take the time to learn the newer types of ventilators or respiratory equipment, therefore every time a procedure is needed, the therapist is called and it is usually what is called "stat" or an emergency. A night, many institutions drop their staff to half while patient census remains the same (Heisler, 2007).

Research Question: What is the relationship between job satisfaction of respiratory therapist in the hospital and the number of staff that on duty in ratio to patient census?

3) Training and development for new employees is an important part of the orientation but often these employees will say after the classes that the information did not help them in their job. They are more interested in job specific information rather than global information regarding payroll, human resources and safety. Healthcare is an area where it is important that all new employees received information regarding certain criteria for standard orientation. These may be mandated by the Joint Commission or Occupation Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Hands on learners like to obtain information through reading a manual with a computer testing or just computer courses to go through the orientation. The key to this type of learning is the question as to whether is will be sufficient for the employee to remember if there is no trainer to get feedback in a classroom situation. Also, will the computer training programs be selective enough to engage the employee in keeping their interest in the instruction (Harrelson, 2007; Attack &Luke, 2009).

Research Question: Will the new employee remember information in a computer assisted course rather than a traditional classroom?

Research Hypothesis: Employees will have more retention of information using computer-assisted modules for orientation compared to traditional classroom training.

Atack, L. & Luke, R. (2009). Improving infection control competency through an online

learning course. Nursing Times, 105, 30-2.

Clark, M.& Diamond, P. (2010). Depression in family caregivers of elders: a theoretical

model of caregiver burden, sociotropy, and autonomy. Research in Nursing &

Health, 33 20-34.

Harrelson, M. (2007). An innovative approach to orient nursing students. Journal for

Nurses in Staff Development, 23,73-6

Hayslip, B., Han, G. & Anderson, C. (2008). Predictors of Alzheimer's disease caregiver

depression and burden: what noncaregiving adults can learn from active

caregivers. Educational Gerontology, 34, 945-69.

Heisler, J. (2007). Where are healthcare workers going? A study of respiratory therapy

and job satisfaction.; Capella University, (doctoral dissertation - research).