Using Research in Primary Care - A Workbook for Health Professionals
Author: Alan Gillies
Fuelled by the drive for Evidence-based Healthcare, research in Primary Care is an ever-expanding field. With this in mind, today’s Primary Care worker not only requires the tools to be able to interpret the importance and the significance of published research, but also requires a framework to allow the planning and implementation of individual research topics.
This super book by Alan Gillies, a Professor in Information Management, is exactly what it says it is, i.e. a workbook. In his introduction, Professor Gillies explains that the book should be used in conjunction with the related Website, which contains all the resource material for the book, as well as acting as a portal to other research and information resources.
The chapters cover all aspects of research from how to phrase a research question, through the role of ethics committees, and on to questionnaire design and data analysis. Each chapter ends with a list of "keys points", which summarise what the reader should now be expected to do - a useful way of reinforcing the messages conveyed. A large portion of the book is also given over to qualitative research methods, and there is a particularly useful practical section on how to write both a research proposal and a research report.
Alan Gillies’s style is to pose questions to the reader and then point the reader in the direction of the resources required to help provide the answers to the questions. All the chapters are short and snappy and the whole book is underpinned by Professor Gillies’s dry sense of humour.
The related Website is easy to access and use, and, in addition to the resources needed for the book, is also full of useful links to other related sites.
I thoroughly recommend this book to all Primary Care workers, regardless of whether or not they actually intend to undertake research, as the skills learned will undoubtedly be put to greater use as Primary Care continues to develop.
| Publisher: | Radcliffe Medical Press
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| ISBN: 1-85775-936-2
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| Reviewer: | Dr Adrian Boonin
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