Deck 6: Practice-Based Research in Healthcare Social Work

Question 1

Karen has started a job in an oncology office. This is a new area of practice for her. Karen looks on the Association of Oncology Social Workers (AOSW) website for published, scholarly research to answer questions about the type of treatment shown to be most effective with this population. Karen is beginning the process of ________________________.

A) Plagiarism
B) Evidence-based practice
C) Critical pathways
D) Formative evaluation

Answer 1

Evidence-based practice

Question 2

Karen consults the website of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) for the distress screening ________________________________, which are the treatment protocols for evaluating the subjective distress of cancer patients.

A) Evaluation target
B) Clinical trails
C) Empirical studies
D) Clinical pathways or clinical practice guidelines

Answer 2

Clinical pathways or clinical practice guidelines

Question 3

Mary is team lead for the social work department of a community hospital. She is collecting the data from the caseloads of the social workers she is overseeing in order to better understand which programs should be maintained. Mary is practicing ___________________.

A) Program evaluation
B) Single-subject design
C) Best-practice models
D) Evidence-based practice

Answer 3

Program evaluation

Question 4

_______________________ incorporate(s) the most efficient and effective standards of care.

A) Bureaucracy
B) Best-practice models
C) Ambulatory care
D) Epidemiology

Question 5

_______________________ is a decision-making process that uses established evidence to design, select, implement, and evaluate practice interventions.

A) Evidence-based practice
B) Bureaucracy
C) Representative case studies
D) Cost-benefit analysis

Question 6

Program, department, and/or agency evaluation can be done on the _____________________ level.

A) Micro
B) Mezzo and macro
C) Macro
D) Micro, mezzo, and macro

Question 7

Criteria for evaluating articles in journals include all except _________________________?

A) Is the article published in a peer-reviewed journal?
B) Is the author identified?
C) Where the study limitations discussed?
D) Are mostly primary sources cited?

Question 8

According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), there are ___________________ phases to clinical trials.

A) 9
B) 2
C) 4
D) 5

Question 9

Studies that have proceeded through all phases of clinical trial, including random assignment of patients to experimental and control groups, are referred to as the _________________ of medical research.

A) Benchmark
B) Gold standard
C) Gold star
D) Apex

Question 10

__________________________ synthesizes and evaluates the findings of multiple research studies that address a particular problem using established criteria for judging the quality of the studies included in the analysis.

A) Gestalt process
B) Gold standard
C) Integrated studies
D) Meta-analysis

Question 11

Sandra is the team lead for a social work department. Recently, the hospital has had several unexpected patient deaths, which appear to be due to poor care provided by the organization. The hospital is concerned. In the past, Sandra worked at a hospital in which all staff members continually engaged in activities that evaluated and improved the quality of services. Sandra suggests to administration that they bring this same system, ___________________, to the hospital.

A) Six sigma
B) Systemness
C) Continuous quality improvement (CQI) or total quality management (TQM)
D) Root cause analysis

Question 12

Mary worked in a hospital in which a patient that did not speak English had the wrong leg amputated. This was a _____________________, and Mary was part of a team that worked to identify ways to ensure that this would not happen again.

A) Sentinel event
B) Mortality
C) Cultural humility
D) Epigenetic crisis

Question 13

Following the amputation of the wrong leg of a patient, Mary lead a team of healthcare practitioners in a _______________________________ in order to analyze what went wrong and propose corrective steps that minimize or eliminate reoccurrence of those problems.

A) Flow chart
B) Benchmark
C) Brainstorming session
D) Postworkshop evaluation

Question 14

Due to staffing shortages, the medical surgical unit had three patients injured as a result of falls in a 6-months period. This is an example of a(n) ______________________________.

A) Bad luck
B) Adverse occurrence
C) Critical incident debriefing
D) Active surveillance

Question 15

Keith has been asked to design a psychoeducation group for people who have been newly diagnosed with diabetes. Keith wants to ensure that the program is providing beneficial information to the group. For his pilot group, he gives them a pretest and then a posttest at the end to evaluate what changes occurred for the group members. Keith is using a ___________________ evaluation.

A) Level I summative evaluation
B) Level II summative evaluation
C) Level III summative evaluation
D) Level IV summative evaluation

Question 16

A formative evaluation collects data _____________________.

A) Before the time of service
B) During the time of service
C) After the time of service
D) Before and after the time of service

Question 17

Karen asked all the social workers in her department to verify if all the patients in their caseload had an advanced directive and, if so, whether the advance directive was on file. The social workers were to collect this data for a period of one month. This is an example of a ___________.

A) Convenience sample
B) Representative sample
C) Random sample
D) Retrospective audit

Question 18

________________________________ research uses large samples to gather objective, numerical data to measure relationships between variables or the impact of interventions.

A) Qualitative research design
B) Practice-based research
C) Quantitative research design
D) Meta-analysis

Question 19

Pam is the team lead for an inpatient social work department. She is concerned about the number of readmissions that arise due to patients being unable to afford their prescription medications. She would like to hire a social worker whose focus would be a medication assistance program. Pam is positive this will save the hospital money and help a lot of patients. In order to convince administration, Pam will need to do a _______________________ to show how the cost of providing this service will be offset with the financial benefit to the system.

A) Flow chart
B) Fishbone diagram
C) Cost-benefit analysis
D) Single-subject design

Question 20

Jane is a 75-year-old patient in a community hospital. She has been hospitalized due to periods of unexplained of dizziness. She has been diagnosed as having anemia and dehydration. She has received a blood transfusion and several liters of fluids. She has been in the hospital for 24 hours and is still weak. Cindy, the case manager, has reviewed Jane's case, and Jane no longer meets criteria for hospitalization and must be discharged or pay privately to stay in the hospital. Cindy has conducted a ______________________________________ of Jane's case.

A) Utilization review
B) Accountable care review
C) Active surveillance
D) Continuous quality improvement

Question 21

Double-barreled questions, such as "Overall, I felt the hospital social worker was knowledgeable and available to me" are good because you can test two variables with only one question.

Question 22

Data mining occurs after a service has been rendered.

Question 23

Time studies provide the most effective data regarding efficiency of staff if they are performed continuously.

Question 24

Since single-subject designs have an n = 1, they cannot possibly provide enough information to be useful.

Question 25

Regression to the mean is the tendency for subjects to select the midpoint when answering questions in order to avoid taking an extreme position.

Question 26

Representative case studies are well suited for training purposes.

Question 27

Informed consent must always be obtained prior to patients' or family members' participation in surveys or focus groups.

Question 28

When creating a survey, decide if you will ask open-ended questions or closed-ended questions and then stick with whichever one you chose.

Question 29

A ________________________________ is done when we review patient medical records after a service has been provided.

Question 30

When conducting practice-based evaluation, we begin the evaluation project by asking _________________________, which are formulated like the questions in a research study.

Question 31

What are two things a supervisor can do to create a positive culture for evaluation?

Question 32

Name two crucial ethical issues that must be considered when engaging in practice evaluation.