Article
An Introduction to Clinical Research for Health and Social Care Professionals
As an enthusiast for (dental) practice-based research, I was delighted to receive a copy of this book. The principal authors have a background steeped in research, so they, plus their eight contributing authors, are ideally placed to provide a wealth of information on the subject of clinical research.
The first chapter, rightly, justifies the need for practice-based research and the subsequent circa 300 pages of the book outline the stages of a research project. Chapter 2 is a logical follow up, by stating ‘before taking part in research, it is essential to understand the principles of evidence-based practice and how to critically appraise the literature’, while chapter 3 covers literature searching in depth. This reviewer suggests that these two chapters (2 and 3) make essential reading for any Masters student, be it a Masters by research or a ‘taught’ degree course.
Chapters 4–11 are dedicated to the various forms of research study design, qualitative, quantitative, systematic reviews, and so forth.
I learned a number of new words! For example ‘phenomenonology’ and ‘ethnography’ – readers may wish to guess the meaning, but if you are like me – I will tell you – the purpose of a phenomenonological study is ‘to understand and describe a specific phenomenon that answers the question ‘what is the meaning of one’s lived experience’, while ethnography is a ‘research approach in which people are observed in their cultural setting’. Chapter 9 on ‘questionnaires’ is a most useful chapter, in this reviewer’s opinion, given that questionnaire-based research is a methodology often used by researchers who are starting their research career.
Subsequent chapters (12 and 13) deal with the nuts and bolts of actually carrying out a research project – writing the protocol, obtaining ethical approval (including consent) and, importantly asks the question ‘Is it research?’ This chapter also presents interesting examples of how not to do it by citing various cases of research misconduct. Of course, research needs funding – the researchers (generally) need paying – so chapter 14 helps to address that. The book finishes with the methodology of collecting and collating data, data analysis (with a very useful statistical section), and how to go about publishing the results. Appendices contain very useful checklists and a glossary of terms.
In summary, only one ‘beef’ about this book! Its title is ‘An introduction’. No, it is a compendium! While, like everything, there is no substitute for actually doing something, this book can provide a useful introduction for any dentist, or healthcare professional, who decides that they might like to get involved in research.