Week 3 – Discussion

Your initial discussion thread is due on Day 3 (Thursday) and you have until Day 7 (Monday) to respond to your classmates. Your grade will reflect both the quality of your initial post and the depth of your responses.
 

Nervous   System and Endocrine System

Last names that begin with A through M: Select the nervous system for your initial post.  

• Choose one of the CDC’s five      most common chronic diseases (heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, or      arthritis) and describe the anatomical and physiological changes      associated with the nervous system.  Describe normal function of the      system and how the disease alters the normal function.  List signs      and symptoms that indicate the disease has developed, specific to the system      being covered.  Identify and describe steps people can take to reduce      their risk of developing the chronic disease

 Last names that begin with N through Z: Select the endocrine system for your initial post.

• Choose one of the CDC’s five      most common chronic diseases (heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, or      arthritis) and describe the anatomical and physiological changes      associated with the endocrine system.  Describe normal function of      the system and how the disease alters the normal function.  List      signs and symptoms that indicate the disease has developed, specific to      the system being covered.  Identify and describe steps people can      take to reduce their risk of developing the chronic disease.

Use two scholarly sources (one may be your course text) to support your initial post. All sources must be referenced and cited according to APA guidelines as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. Your initial post should be 250 words at a minimum.
 

Guided Response: Review several of your classmates’ initial posts. Respond to one post by a classmate who covered the nervous system and one post by a classmate who covered the endocrine system.  Choose a comorbid condition associated with the disease chosen by the student to whom you are responding.  List signs and symptoms associated with the comorbidity.  List factors that contribute to the development of the comorbidity as well as steps the person can take to avoid the development of the problem.  Describe the impact of the comorbid condition on a patient’s physical and mental health. Your responses must be at least 100 words in length.
 

Carefully review the Discussion Forum Grading Rubric for the criteria that will be used to evaluate this Discussion Thread. 

Respond 

SOCW 6311 wk 3 Discussion: Choosing and Using Single-System Design

Many people receive their first introduction to the scientific method in their early school years. The first experiments which students undertake typically involve plants, chemicals, or small animals in a tightly controlled experimental environment. These experiments enable students to establish a relatively clear cause-and-effect relationship between the outcome of the experiment and the manipulation of the variables.

As soon as a researcher introduces a human element, proving a cause and effect relationship becomes more difficult—as the researcher cannot enact total control of another person even in an experimental environment. Social workers serve clients in highly complex real-world environments. Clients often implement recommended interventions outside of social workers’ direct observation. Yet, evidence-based research calls for social workers to establish cause-and-effect relations between selected interventions and client outcomes as much possible. To meet this challenge, social workers must understand the study designs available to them and all of the variations of that design that can increase the rigor of the experiment and improve the likelihood of verifying a cause-and-effect relationship.

In this week’s case study(provided) you decide whether the social worker in the case study has appropriately chosen a single-system (subject) design and implemented it in such a way that it can be considered an appropriate example of evidence-based research.

To prepare for this Discussion, read the case study Social Work Research: Single Subject and criteria for using single-system (subject) designs as evidence of effective practices in this week’s resources. Consider whether the study design described in the case study will serve the purpose of evaluating the program’s practice approach (case management with solution-focused and task-centered approaches). Consider whether these approaches are well suited to evaluation by the types of measurement used in the study. Consider to what objective measurement the numerical scales used to measure problem-change and task completion corresponds. Consider what new knowledge and evidence for the efficacy of the treatment approaches Chris has generated with her study.

300 to 500 words questions in bold then answers 

Post an evaluation of the proposed study design described in the case study file. 

Explain whether the outcome of Chris’ study with her client George would lead you to adopt the model of case management with solution-focused and task-centered approaches, and substantiate your choice. 

Provide recommendations for improvements should Chris and her colleagues wish to submit the study to the evidence-based practice registry. 

Include a rationale for your recommendations.

Incite citations and full references apa

Resources 

Dudley, J. R. (2014). Social work evaluation: Enhancing what we do. (2nd ed.) Chicago, IL: Lyceum Books.

Chapter 9, “Is the Intervention Effective?” (pp. 226-244: Read from “Client Satisfaction & Effectiveness” to “Target Problem Scale”)

Plummer, S.-B., Makris, S., & Brocksen S. (Eds.). (2014b). Social work case studies: Concentration year. Baltimore, MD: Laureate International Universities Publishing. [Vital Source e-reader].