QUALITY CRITERIA FOR OBSERVATIONAL RESEARCH

        Observation method is a time consuming method and therefore requires a lot of money expenditure, as it has a number of ways to collect data from the participants. It is therefore required to be used in regions where benefits are more than the cost of research project. Advantage of Participant Observation is that it can instantly measures the people’s experience by using the services provided.  It is useful in conditions where people are unable to answer to questionnaires or interviews and wherever the chances of proxies are not as accurate as required. In such conditions, it is necessary to have an important place in the extent of research methodology which is used in service evaluation. The main limiting factor in this kind of research is that the methodology is more expensive in terms of money, time spent in comparison with other methods. For researchers, it might be possible to minimize the cost by using the services and working with organizations which utilize observations as a part of monitoring quality of their services (Abrams, 2010).

        Observational data in combination with different other kinds of data which is about quality of life experienced by the people who are being supported by processes and resources provided by the organizations, were collected by the team who were trained by the researchers. Same procedures of quality control were used in research and researchers analyzed the data. Observational research needs the ethical approval and this is why it is important for researchers to talk about and discuss the factor like consent. People who participate in this type of research may lack capacity and may need the support of Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005. In this principle, the issues do not differ from the studies done by using different methods. Ethics committees need to assure that observation is not and will not be intrusive and participants are free to withdraw from research whenever they want without even explaining (Abrams, 2000).