Utilizing Mixed Methods Research to Demonstrate the Health Education Competencies

Universities across the country are encouraging undergraduate students to become more involved in research. As this trend continues, students can benefit from understanding and applying a systematic mixed methods approach to designing tailored health interventions. During the process, students gain a deeper understanding of the application of entry level health education competencies. The intended audience is anyone involved in applied research including survey development. The purpose of this presentation is to describe how a mixed methods approach was used to drive the development of surveys to evaluate perceptions related to the addition of evidence based practice in a college health science curriculum. Researchers applied eight sequential steps including a literature review; facilitation of focus groups; development of themes from focus group data; survey design; use of content reviewers to improve the survey; data collection; analysis and evaluation of data and finally the development of recommendations for curriculum innovation. This collaborative systematic framework can be utilized in many allied health interventions and directly applies to Area I (Competency A, B and F); Area II (Competency A, B, and G); Area IV (Competency A, C, D, E and F); and Area V (Competency D). These areas of responsibility will be discussed in relation to the use of a mixed methods approach to developing tailored interventions.