Do Fatality Rates Fall When Responders are Issued Narcan?

Introduction 

Narcan is a type of Neloxane drug that is medically prescribed for reversing opioid overdose effects. Today, Narcan has become an important tool for health care providers and opioid prevention programs aiming at preventing death or disability caused by opioid overdose. All states in America allow Narcan prescription to patients at risk of opioid overdose. State laws also allow the use of Narcan for outpatient treatment to those who misuse prescribed opioid for medical conditions. However, not all people at risk of opioid overdose have access to health professionals; hence the law allows for Narcan access and distribution beyond the traditional medical prescription method. When the first responders are issued with Narcan, opioid overdosed patients get well. This research endeavor is designed to collect information that answers the research question of whether fatality rates fall when the first responders are issued Narcan. 

Study Hypotheses 

The study shall be guided by the below null and alternative hypothesis. One side, the research will anticipate for positive results. On the other hand, the outcomes may be negatives thus offer shady interventions to curb the problem. 

Ho: Fatality rates do not fall even when first responders are issued Narcan 

H1: Fatality rates do significantly fall when first responders are issued Narcan 

Strategies to Protect Human Subjects 

The study will involve humans for research; thus the study will obey all the ethical research issues to ensure the rights of all study participants are not breached. First, permission will be sought from the relevant bodies and authorities to allow research to be conducted in the field. Without seeking permission from relevant authorities, the research would be considered illegal hence its credibility questioned (Fusch & Ness, 2015). Also, permission from concerned entities will help pursued the subject objectively to take part in the study. They will have a clear picture of what will be expected of them right form the onset. 

After getting permission to conduct research in the field, the study will seek permission from the respondents who will participate in the study. The study participants will be allowed to participate voluntarily and without any outside influence. The research participants will also be assured of the privacy of information collected and all information collected will be solely used for the research purpose and not for any other course. The research participants’ identity shall be concealed and kept anonymous so as to ensure a respondent cannot be identified with their individual information they contributed to the study. The objective of the study shall also be well communicated to all study participants to ensure they fully understand the reason for the study. All these assurances by the team of researchers will be accompanies by written commitments that will be signed by all the parties involved. 

Research Method 

The study shall adopt a survey approach to explore whether fatality rates fall when the first responders are issued Narcan. Surveys mainly focus on gathering in-depth information on a particular issue under investigation. Thus, by adopting the survey design, the research will explicitly gather information on whether fatality rates fall when the first responders are issued Narcan. Surveys have the strength of gathering and providing detailed information on a subject such that the conclusion derived is specific to that population of subjects ( Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2016 ). Surveys use questionnaires and interviews as measures of self-reporting by the population sample. 

The study will also adopt a mixed research methodology by using both qualitative and quantitative data methods. The qualitative data will be collected from data obtained through interviews, and it was analyzed using a quantitative method to produce inferences regarding the views presented by the participants ( Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2016 ). Qualitative data will be used to discuss whether fatality rates fall when the first responders are issued Narcan. When both qualitative and quantitative research methods are used in a study, it is easy to account the study population opinions and knowledge on a specific issue under study. 

Sampling Strategies 

The study will use a convenience sampling technique to establish a sample out of the total study population. Convenience sampling technique is a non-probability sampling method where the subjects selected for participation in the study are chosen due to their ability to provide the information required for the study (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2016). The researchers thus choose the sample among the respondents' teams like the police, security, red-cross, health care providers and opioid prevention programs officers across America. The exclusion criteria in the study will include the age of the participants, willingness to volunteer and being a member of a response team. 

Research Instrument 

The main research instrument will be a structured questionnaire which will be administered through interviews. A questionnaire is a research instrument that gathers information to allow the measurement of a particular viewpoint. The questionnaires are also powerful tools in collecting an individual’s beliefs, opinions, ability, behavior and knowledge on a specific issue under study. Before the research instrument is used, it must pass the test of validity and reliability (Taylor, Bogdan & DeVault, 2015). Validity is the extent the instrument will accurately measure the concepts under study. The instrument will be reviewed for content validity and to ascertain it measures the content under study. To ensure the instrument pass the validity test, the instrument will be given to university research experts for their expert judgment. Based on the experts' response, it will be revised to ensure it is clear, precise and unambiguous and it addresses the study objectives. The questionnaire reliability will be determined by use of a Cronbach alpha coefficient (Saunders, Lewis, and Thornhill, 2016). Holding all study factors constant, the coefficient provides the best measure for instrument reliability. A pilot study will be conducted using three individuals from a response team who will not form part of the study sample population, and the reliability coefficient will be measured. A coefficient of above 0.70 indicates the instrument is reliable when administered in a similar environment. 

Measurement of Concepts 

One way to measure the workability of the concepts in the research questions will be giving them the test of time. Monitoring the time before and after the responders have been given Narcan, to see if the drug lowers the fatality rate or does not work will help establish this concept as a fact or just hypotheses. One can decide to choose a time frame or period of a week, month, quarterly or a year to establish if the Narcan reduces the fatality rates (Smith & Wolf, 2018). Following up on the patients in a given systematic time frame to establish how they are reacting to the drug will help determine the workability of this concept. 

Another way to measure the concepts in the hypotheses is by interviewing the responders randomly and having these results separately. This process should come after the administration of Narcan to establish if they are experiencing any pain at any given instances, and how often they have to use the drug. Conducting interviews will enable one to interact with the responders directly, thus gathering concrete information on the effectiveness of the drug administered. The responders will give information on how long they have had to rely on the medication, and or if it has helped them in their situation (Smith & Wolf, 2018). The information gathered during these interviews can be used to analyze the workability of the concept. 

The use of both qualitative and quantitative analysis method is a good way of measuring the concepts. The information gathered during the surveys and interviews can be analyzed in depths and used to establish if Narcan reduces the fatality rates. The number of responders who reacted positively to the drug/ process and the number of responders who did not respond positively to the drug can be used against each other in a chart, or any other information presentation mode to show the workability of the concept (Walker, Oeben, & Walker, 2018). The data obtained on the three discussed methods can be used to measure the viability of the concepts. 

Limitations of the Research 

There are potential limitations to this research that need to be considered. To begin with, the selection process for the respondents may limit the internal validity of the data collected. Among the sampled respondents, the researcher will h ave to perform regular follow-up activities to determine the Narcan usage and refill measures. As a result, the link between the use of Narcan and fatality rates could be varied by a certain measure depending on the availability of the patients (McAnally, 2018. The follow-up procedures may not be active while measuring medical concepts because it raises doubts on the quality of scientific analytical data. 

Secondly, the research will be experimental; hence the data given by the patients on the dosage may vary depending on the extent of their conditions. The fatality of the patients depends on the individual body strengths and the existence of other medical conditions that do not require opioids (McAnally, 2018). There will be a need to conduct further studies to confirm these results and assess the implications of various patients. Moreover, the results from this dat a focus on the increase and decrease of fatality rates on first respondents and do not emphasize on the drug distribution or overdose related effects of Narcan on the fatality rates of the respondents. 

The research is also likely to eb carried out within a specific geographical location thus the findings may not be a representative of global situations. The use of questionnaires require that the questions be standardized. The responses to such questions will only be viable if the respondents share similar conditions and have same practices. Therefore, the survey will not be easy to analyze if it covers wide areas. Consequently, whatever the outcomes of the research, it will eb a reflection of the situation in one place only. In this manner, it may be difficult for there recommendations of the report to hold water in other settings. 

Finally, there is a possibility of bias on this research because of the exclusive reliance on self- response data from the Narcan users. The questionnaires give the respondents the freedom to rate themselves better or worse depending on personal preferences. A few researchers have focused on the essential statistical methods of calculating the effects of fatality rates related to overdose and under dose of Narcan. Their subjects are not randomized into different categories depending on the nature of the respondent’s health conditions and the duration of the disease. 

Conclusions 

The results after analyzing the data collected will help in drafting the conclusions section. This part will be vital in explaining the relationships between various factors and variables. It will also break\k down the findings to connect them with the hypotheses of the study. This process will be essential in helping to draft recommendations that would be of value to the medical field in the location where the research will be conducted. 

References 

Fusch, P. I., & Ness, L. R. (2015). Are we there yet? Data saturation in qualitative research. The qualitative report , 20 (9), 1408-1416. 

McAnally, H. B. (2018). An Epidemiologic Perspective. In Opioid Dependence (pp. 3-19). Springer, Cham. 

Saunders, M., Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A., (2016). Research methods for business students . Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd, p.13-15. 

Smith, A. J., & Wolf, L. A. (2018). “What are you measuring?” Choosing an Appropriate Instrument to Measure Nursing Concepts. Journal of Emergency Nursing, 44(1), 97-98. 

Taylor, S. J., Bogdan, R., & DeVault, M. (2015). Introduction to qualitative research methods: A guidebook and resource . London: John Wiley & Sons. 

Walker, M., Oeben, S., & Walker, R. (2018, November). OpenUP Measuring Research Impact: Concepts, Methods, Limitations and Solutions. In Septentrio Conference Series(No. 1).