Some Sections of a Study

¶ … Target Population The identified target population are mental health patients. The reason is that these are the patients at behavioral health facilities, and they are the ones whose needs are being met by the study. The study therefore will focus on how offering larger rooms and more open spaces will have a positive impact on mental health care of these individuals (Miller, 2016). The study is about making mental health better, in the behavioral health outpatient setting.

That is the basis for looking at these patients as the population, because that is the population relevant to the problem that was identified in the problem statement. There may be other ways to define the population, in terms of demographic breakdowns, but this is the best one because it encompasses a much broader range of patients, the sum total of mental health patients whose interests are being served by this study.

Method for Determining Appropriate Sample Size It is important in research to have a sample size that is good for the population size. There are three criteria that are normally taken into accounting. These are the purpose of the study, the population size and the risk of selecting a bad sample (Israel, 1992). There are considerations like the level of precision. This is "the range in which the true value of the population is estimated to be" (Israel, 1992).

It is necessary to have a sample that falls within this range, which is usually expressed in percentage points. So to determine the sample size, there is the question of what the population size is. In this case, the population size is not known because it is all mental health patients who are seeking behavioral mental health. What this means is that the population is assumed to be very large. The sample should be of a good size then, for example all the patients at a single facility.

It will be necessary then to build out larger rooms at a facility in order to test the influence of such larger rooms on the patients at that facility. Rationale for Selecting the Data Collection Methodology The data collection methodology has to make sense in the overall context of the study. Data will be collected from the patients and from the doctors who are working with the patients.

The data has to be outcome-based, in that the study is trying to measure whether or not having larger rooms at behavioral mental health outpatient facilities leads to overall better outcomes for the patients. It is believed that they will. So with that in mind, it is important that those outcomes are measured effectively, as they are the dependent variable. So there must be a choice between different outcome-based measures, such as evaluation by doctors to see whether or not patients have improved mentally over the course of their care.

A second measure can be whether or not there is a reduction in violent incidents. Remember that one of the most important aspects of the thesis is that the larger rooms will make patients feel more at ease, and they will be more comfortable talking. This should lead to a reduction in negative issues, such as violent outbursts, or incidents where security staff have to be called in to deal with a situation, because the patient will be more relaxed.

So the overall idea here is that there will need to be fewer negative incidents and more positive outcomes, and that is the target for the data collection in this study. Describe Descriptive or Comparative Statistics A comparative statistic is more common for this study. It will measure the two types of data (positive and negative) against the figures that occurred before the change in the room size.

By comparing the outcomes for patients and the number of incidents on a before and after basis, it is easy to see what the effect of the change in the exogenous variable (in this case, the room size) has on the patient outcomes. Thus, comparative statistics are the most appropriate. However, these statistics can also be descriptive in nature, offering insight into the current state. This is the case when there maybe is not as much data as desired for the "before" state.

Descriptive statistics can still be comparative, in that they can be compared to other descriptive statistics from other facilities where the changes have not been made. Describe Statistical Tests that can be used to Analyze the Data There are a number of statistical tests that can be used to analyze the data. When you are talking about comparative statistics, it is important to understand that the comparables are before and after states.