Sampling and the Protection of Participants - Essay Example

This study will use probability sampling and in this study, and the design that will be used is systematic random sampling. In this type of sampling the population will be numbered and thus a person to participate in the research will be chosen after every given interval. The method is used because different healthcare providers are going to be considered and thus in each of those groups, a few people will be selected randomly for study (Sharp, Peters, & Howard, 2002).

In this study any healthcare provider, be it nurses, doctors, or health insurance providers will be eligible for participating in the study. An educational forum will be called from which the groups will be identified and several people selected from each group. A total of 5 people will be used for each group or category of healthcare providers who will be available. The seminar or workshop should bring together many people and this will make it easier to get the participants.

In protecting the participants, an independent study will be carried out to ascertain the risks and benefits of the study on the population before the study can begin. The participants will be asked to give consent before being selected for participation and confidentiality will be maintained at all times as no names or personal details of the participant will be mentioned. In this study, the sampling design to be used will be simple random sampling in which hospitals will be identified in the whole country. After being identified, they will be categorized based on counties and thus five hospitals will be selected for study in each of the counties across the nation. In the county, the total number of hospitals will be taken however selection will be done after every two hospitals of the total number of hospitals selected.

All the large and the small in size hospitals will be considered for the study with a total number of 100 hospitals expected to be used in the study. They will only be surveyed such that they will not be invited but the researcher will physically go to the hospitals and assess various elements that will reflect whether the hospital has adopted the use of electronic medical records or not.

In protecting them, all the information about the hospitals will be kept confidential. Appropriate channels will be used to acquire permission to investigate the hospital. Consent will be sought from the hospital management to ensure that the study goes on as planned.

In the first study, the budget is expected to be lower than in the second study because of the simple fact that in the first study, people will already have gathered for the seminar and thus the cost of looking for them in their respective places will be reduced. The only cost will be in covering the workshop. In the second study, it will be expensive because the researcher needs to go physically to all the hospitals selected and this will take time and effort meaning that the cost and other expenses to be incurred will be higher than in the first study.