empirical findings
Building a case: Using empirical findings
to reconceptualize patient-centeredness for primary care
(15% – 50 points)
Purpose: For exercise 1, you were asked to synthesize a set of studies to consider what ‘story’ they collectively told. For exercise 2, you were asked to review and critically think about and develop a perspective regarding the scientific and interpretative approaches to studying patient-provider communication based on how these approaches were described in the literature. So for both exercises, you were asked to analytically reflect on others’ findings and critiques, and for exercise 2 you were also asked to evaluate others’ critiques to identify your own position.
For exercise 3, you will be asked to combine these skills (synthesis of findings and analytical reflection on those findings to develop a position)
· by drawing on the empirical evidence – the findings from the studies we have read – that identify patterns of communication practices and consider their consequences
· in order to make a case for how you believe we should define (or reconceptualize) “patient-centeredness” in primary care.
In other words, rather than developing your position regarding others’ arguments and claims in the literature (as with ex 1 and 2), you are being asked to specifically draw on the empirical findings or results of research studies as the evidence to support your position.
This exercise provides you with
· your aim — to rethink or reconsider patient-centeredness in primary care and
· your approach — to draw on the range of findings that identify concrete communication practices of patients and providers and demonstrate why they matter; these findings will become the evidence to support your claims (which taken together will convince a reader that your reconceptualization or definition of patient-centeredness is sound).
Steps for completing this assignment:
(1.) Review the empirical findings from our readings that have examined and analyzed actual communication practices of patients and primary care providers. (You are welcome to draw on additional studies if you like, but you are not required to do this.)
Some people prefer to develop their thesis (their claim) first – that is, they prefer to identify how they believe patient-centeredness should be conceptualized or defined and then turn to the evidence (the empirical findings from the readings) to select the most suitable evidence to make their case (a deductive approach). You are welcome to start with your thesis, but you should try to remain flexible and open to altering your thesis as you work more carefully and review the findings you will incorporate, since this approach can lead to “cherry picking” the evidence (ignoring evidence because it doesn’t fit your position).
(2.) Critically evaluate and reflect on the findings as a set or collection. Think about how each finding speaks to the others and how they hang together coherently. This process is similar to what you did for Exercise 1 when you were synthesizing and coherently integrating your mini literature review.
The idea is to think of these findings as a collection and not as individual, unrelated study results – how do they all tell a story about patient-centeredness? And importantly, what is that story from your perspective? This requires analytical work and isn’t always easy. For example, you might decide to focus your attention on the communication practices of patients (or perhaps family members!) and develop an argument about how their communication practices need to be better considered as part of patient-centered care. Or you might focus on both providers and patients communication practices and discuss how the interaction between them is where patient-centeredness resides and then highlight what that interactive process should look like to be reasonably considered “patient-centered.” There are many options, but you want to think about this from your point of view in relationship to what you’ve learned from our readings.
However you decide to approach the exercise, you want to think about how the findings hang together coherently to develop your perspective. Essentially, this should help you identify the most convincing evidence to support your position or thesis (and probably also refine your position along the way).
(3.) Outline your response (most find this to be helpful but you may not so it is just a suggestion). It usually helps to write out your claim or position (i.e., thesis) about how you believe patient-centeredness should be defined or conceptualized in primary care. Put that at the top of your outline. From there, list your best or most convincing evidence – bullet point each argument you want to make that supports your position or broader claim (i.e., thesis). That list may begin as a simple list of “best communication practices.” As you work through your evidence, ask yourself how does this piece of evidence demonstrate support for my thesis/position? How am I going to make that clear to my reader?
(4.) Write your response in 3-4 pages. Your first paragraph may straightforwardly identify your thesis (the position you are adopting regarding how patient-centeredness should be defined or conceptualized) and why. The why is important to include because it tells your reader what is important about what you are trying to achieve and it demonstrates the reason your particular thesis is well-reasoned. So there are two “whys” you may discuss:
(a) why is it important to reconsider or think more carefully about how we understand patient-centeredness and what it means (in Unit 1 we saw there is quite a bit of ambiguity about what patient-centeredness is and how it should be defined)
(b) why your position is unique, an improvement, or important for moving us forward regarding our understanding of patient-centered communication
The remaining paragraphs should carefully and cogently lay out your evidence – that is, you should present the reader with the empirical findings from our readings (or other readings you find) that make a case for supporting your position/thesis that you identified in paragraph 1.
(5.) Include a references list with the sources you’ve drawn from (at least 6 sources, formatted using the 6th edition of APA). Your in-text citations should also be formatted according to the 6th edition of APA. Be sure to proofread your work for clarity, grammatical and spelling errors