Post your abstract in the discussion board and discuss why you chose this topic and how it relates to research you plan to continue or to your future career.

REPLY TO MY CLASSMATE’S RESPONSE TO THE ABOVE QUESTION AND EXPLAIN WHY YOU AGREE? (A MINIMUM OF 125 WORDS or MORE EACH QUESTION)

                                      CLASSMATE’S POST

Multiple Myeloma was not common to me until my father was diagnosed with this incurable cancer at 64 years of age. He has undergone countless chemotherapy trials, a bone marrow transplant and prescribed a slew of medications to combat the pain and the side effects of the chemotherapy. The ever-developing tumors make his bones very fragile, it’s like they can break if he sneezes too hard. One must wonder if his bones can withstand the bone modifying agents. The treatment plans do not guarantee an enhanced quality of life or an extended life span. The average diagnosis is over 60 years of age, so that makes it very complex to treat and manage the treatment-related adverse effects it has on the elderly population. Quality of life is sometimes diminished as people age, physically, mentally and socially. As a researcher I must gather data to be able to interpret and present to others, so I will start by reviewing literature that is available to gain a better insight on treatment plans that are available and if it effectively treats the elderly. Do the treatment plans coupled with other medications improve the quality of life for the elderly? When conducting research, teams must be very cognizant that ethical violations on human subjects could possibly occur during the study. Ethical issues can be a cause for concern when conducting medical research studies, but do not be alarmed because they can be avoided. Ethical standards help to protect human subjects that choose to participate in these research studies. I will review that Belmont Report to break down how human subjects are protected. To gain a better understanding of diseases, studies/research must be conducted to discover treatments that help to manage or cure diseases. There are three types of research designs that can be used to collect data, the three designs are quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods, which will be defined later. I have chosen to use the mixed method, and conduct interviews to collect the data required to gain a better understanding of the effects of multiple myeloma on the elderly population. I will also discuss how I will ensure internal and external validity in my research. I will discuss which data instrument and collection tools will be used to conduct the research to gain a better understanding of multiple myeloma as well as take a deeper look to see if the treatment plans are effective in improving the quality of life for elderly patients. I will lay out how I will secure and maintain accuracy of data input into the database. I will also determine which statistical technique are applicable to my research project, collect variable measurements and show which statistical tests will answer my question.

I chose my topic because of my fathers’ battle with multiple myeloma. His quality of life has diminished greatly, and I want to find alternative treatment plans with less side effects. The chemotherapy alone keeps him bedridden for days at a time. Since this disease affects the bones, he has became less mobile then before. I want to help my father in any way that I can, and if conducting research on the disease and identifying new ways to improve his quality of life helps, then that is what I want to do.