Public Health Administration: The Next Health Pandemic

A paradigm is “a set of basic beliefs or a frame of references that explains how individuals perceive the nature of the world and their places in it” (Burkholder et al, 2020). During the last public health pandemic, COVID-19, there was much speculation about the first few months which played an essential role in the overall administrative functions that determine the velocity of scientific research to produce the vaccinations and booster vaccinations that we currently provide. Many public health professionals seek new preventative measures to alleviate the potential health threats to the general population. A pandemic is a widespread disease or infection on a vast scale and across borders (Mittal et al., 2021). Some conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic included the geographical areas and behaviors of individuals exposed. Relative information to the COVID-19 pandemic was discovered by the virulence, contagiousness, and new variations of the disease (Mittal et al., 2021).

According to Mittal et al. (2021), “Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a highly contagious respiratory illness that quickly spread globally within the short term after finding the first case of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China in December 2019” (p.7). The World Health Organization (WHO) sets international norms and policies for member states that help world leaders and scientists prevent the spreading of diseases around the world. My personal worldview on COVID-19 and the protentional for the next health pandemic is pragmatism. Pragmatism is the meaning of conceptions through practical bearings that the function of thought is to guide action and that truth is preeminent to be tested by the practical consequences of belief (Merriam-Webster, n.d.). COVID-19 management has the possibility of creating solutions for international communities that need medical assistance and awareness to prevent the spread of this disease. The current US government administration has sent vaccinations worldwide to help third-world countries protect their citizens from this infectious disease. Along with vaccinations, the current government has provided healthcare materials like clean water, clothes, food, and educational materials that will have a long-term positive effect on the US healthcare outreach programs (Mittal et al, 2021).

Pragmatism

Ontology: reality is constantly renegotiated, debated, and interpreted considering its usefulness in new unpredictable situations. “Ontology addresses the nature of reality and being (Ponterotto, 2005) and the underlying question of whether there is an objective, verifiable reality outside of the researcher, a position associated with realism, or whether reality is the result of individual interpretation or social construction, a position associated with relativism” (Burkholder et al, 2020).

Epistemology: The best method is the one that solves problems. Epistemology concerns knowledge (Burkholder et al, 2020). Epistemology is the study of knowledge and guides us to ask questions about what we can know and how we can know it, and the reliability of such knowledge (Burkholder et al, 2020; Johnson & Duberley, 2000). The epistemology of the next pandemic and public health sector is to use the practice of the scientific method and respond to the nature between the researcher and the subject being researched. This allows for the methodology to be mixed methods by combining quantitative and qualitative analysis.

Methodology: Mixed methods are the primary methodology for resolving public health issues. In policy creation, the researcher begins with a design. “For example, in qualitative research, there are several designs from which to choose, including phenomenology, ethnography, and grounded theory, among others” (Burkholder et al, 2020). “In quantitative studies, researchers can choose from experimental designs, such as randomized controlled trials; quasi-experimental designs, in which random assignment to groups does not happen; or observational studies” (Burkholder et al, 2020). In the field of public health research, the mixed methods approach is appropriate because it allows scientists to understand statistical data like blood pressure, glucose intake, diets, weight, age, and other demographics. Yet, the mixed methodology approach allows the researcher to understand how a patient feels through surveying, frequent questioning, and conversations with medical practitioners to create policies that positively affect everyone.

Methods: Combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. Resolving pandemic public health issues is to have a design that includes the population and sampling, how data are collected, and how they will be analyzed (Burkholder et al, 2020). Mixed methods as an approach to an inquiry have been examined from philosophical, theoretical, and pragmatic perspectives (Burkholder et al, 2020; Teddlie & Tashakkori, 2008).

References:

Babbie, E. (2017). Basics of social research (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

Burkholder, G. J., Cox, K. A., Crawford, L. M., & Hitchcock, J. H. (Eds.). (2020). Research designs and methods: An applied guide for the scholar-practitioner. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Merriam-Webster (n.d.). Pragmatism definition. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pragmatism

Mittal, N., Bhadada, S. K., & Katare, O. P. (Eds.). (2021). Covid-19 : Diagnosis and management - part i. Bentham Science Publishers.