Undergraduate - UnitHSC2142 - Research methods in the health sciences

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2013 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 2, 0.125 EFTSL

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Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences
Organisational Unit	Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine
Offered	Berwick Second semester 2013 (Day) Caulfield Second semester 2013 (Day) South Africa Second semester 2013 (Day)
Coordinator(s)	Dr Rosalie Aroni (Berwick), Dr Rosalie Aroni (Caulfield), Peter Nyasulu (South Africa)

Synopsis

This unit builds on the introduction to research methods provided in HSC1061 and HSC2141. In those units students learning was focused on appraising evidence produced by other researchers, and on describing and comparing study designs.
In this unit we extend this learning by enabling students to develop skills in designing and conducting their own research projects. The unit will cover: developing answerable research questions, matching research questions with study designs, collecting and analysing study data, managing research projects, and applications of quantitative, qualitative and combined approaches. The cultural, ethical and political contexts within which research takes place will also be discussed.

Outcomes

On successful completion of the unit, students will be able to:

Develop researchable questions
Develop a viable study design
Demonstrate critical awareness of the options and constraints of different types of research design
Select appropriate sampling strategies
Identify appropriate methods for conducting research across a range of contexts
Design data collection instruments (e.g. questionnaires and interview schedules)
Use a suite of data collection methods appropriately
Choose and use the appropriate tools for analysis of data
Work collaboratively in a research team
Appreciate the importance of conducting ethical and culturally