Research methodology: design and implementation approaches

Disaster Preparedness Research: Proposed Methodology

Exploring the issue of disaster preparedness in emergency centers and trauma clinics require not only an understanding of the challenges that have been experienced in the past (i.e., lack of supplies and/or equipment, staff shortage, poor management, among many others) and through extant literature on the topic, but also an understanding of how these emergency centers and trauma clinics operate in the event of a disaster or an emergency.

It is only through understanding the operations of emergency centers and trauma clinics that the researcher would be able to fully explore, identify, and determine weak and strong points that is the current situation in emergency and disaster preparedness management. In order to do this, a research into the operations of emergency centers and trauma clinics must be conducted. In line with this requirement, the proposed methodology for the research study on determining points of improvement of emergency relief and disaster response management.

The proposed research design is the quantitative approach, mainly, operations research. Data collection and analysis will be conducted in two phases. The first phase of the data collection will be centered on conducting secondary research, wherein the researcher will collate data on the operational structure and procedures of the emergency centers and trauma clinics under study. The second phase, meanwhile, will be focused on conducting statistical analyses on the identified variables and measures that will be found to be relevant to the study of efficiency and effectiveness of emergency centers and trauma clinics.

In Phase 1: Secondary Research, the researcher will randomly select emergency centers and trauma clinics that will be used as the sample for the study. It is recommended that the researcher conduct cluster sampling, so that emergency centers and trauma clinics will be selected based on their homogenous characteristics. Selecting centers and clinics with similar characteristics will enable the researcher to validly compare the results of the study across the centers and clinics sampled. The secondary source research will require the researcher to determine and document the operations structure and procedures of centers and clinics included in the sample. The researcher must ensure that the structure and procedures documented must include both formal and informal structures and procedures -- that is, what is formally written and what is actually practiced on the ground. After collating all structures and procedures, the researcher will identify relevant variables and measures that could be used to test for significance and determine if these variables are significant contributors to the strong or weak implementation of emergency relief and disaster response management.