You are the hospital administrator in a medium-sized, urban, for-profit hospital that caters to middle-income groups. You wonder if patients' satisfaction with the hospital stay will increase significantly if they are given better and more flexible meal options. You decide to conduct a research study to find the answer. The first step is to design the study.
Design a descriptive study to investigate if better meal options will increase patient satisfaction. Include the following elements of design:
- Develop a research question or purpose of the study
- Selection of subjects for study (what is the sample)
- Assignment of subjects to experimental or control groups
- Study time period
- Type of data to be gathered
- Measures of meal options and of patient satisfaction
- Method of data collection
- Guidelines for data interpretation