How to Write A Medical Case Study

In writing a case study based on a medical subject, there are many things to consider. Since this is a medical subject and deals with humans, this is subject to ethical considerations. Sometimes, but not at all times, you might require informed consents of the patients under study. But unlike researches, case studies do not experiment on a patient. Rather, it details only what happens to a patient – before, during, and after hospital stay or medications.

Case studies are more or less the same as research except that is only observational in nature. There are no variables to manipulate or tests to do in order to come up with a conclusion. It is an inquiry into the nature of an unknown phenomenon, like a new disease that has not been discovered by the medical community, or the occurrence of an event.

Case studies only follow an event and record them and come up with conclusions based on the observations and existing literature. It does not explain relationships but serve as basis for some future actions and reference for health care professionals. There is no need for control or comparison groups as is vital in most researches. In short, case studies are more like descriptive studies that the one studying it is not artificially manipulating the factors that are involved in the case.

The health care staff involved and most especially the patient under study must be aware that this case is under study. What is unique about case studies involving medical subjects is that the health care professionals, either as individuals or as part of a collaborative group, oversee the management of patients with specific case types.

If we talk of medical or nursing case studies, this is usually in the form of caseloads of patients with complex nursing and medical problems. Usually, this would be diseases or accidents that affect an individual and makes the individual subject to various health care treatments and programs under the supervision of health care professionals. Usually case studies that are under the management of clinicians or nurses are also accountable to them when it comes to some standard of cost management and quality.

How does one choose an event or phenomenon as case study subject? One cannot simply choose events out of will so that he or she will be able to write a case study. To be able to write and effective case study that will be helpful to other health care professionals, the writer must ask himself some very important questions. Will this certain case study have scientific or medical merit? Does it exhibit medical utility and uniqueness? Will you have enough for monetary costs or availability of funds? These and some other questions are important to ponder on before starting on a case study.

Also, when picking up a subject for a case study, as the same with research, you have to pick a medical case on the basis of the interest of the outcome. You should be able to at least anticipate, even a little, the results before doing the particular study. You should look for a medical case that has potential.

When you have decided on a certain medical case, you can then now start your case study writing. Before starting on your case study, you must be prepared to pursue this project to any depth necessary. You can’t just decide in the middle of the case that you don’t want to pursue the case anymore for a variety of reasons. You have to be sure right from the beginning that this study is worth the time and effort before going on. Aside from the fact that it will be a waste of money, it will also be a waste of time; not only for you but for the other health care professionals involved.

When you write a case study, you should have a plan of action before starting on. This will guide the conduct of the case study. This will not guide how the treatment of the patient will go though, for that will be depending on the findings of the knowledgeable health care teams. Although you will have a say on it, it will not be entirely up to you.

The case study doesn’t start only when the patient has complained of his or her medical problem. It goes before that, since medical problems are a product of various and interacting factors. The writer should therefore see to it that he or she is able to document objectively the patients’ history – medical, social, psychological and other factors that could have lead to such a medical problem. The writer can get this information from the patient and other people who know the patient.

It is important to remember that as the person who will write the case study, you have to coordinate with the patient’s care in any setting where the study is taking place – it could be in the hospital, in the patient’s house, or some other setting. If the patient is in a hospital, the person writing the case study also has the responsibility to follow up with the patient when he or she is discharged from the hospital.

The person responsible for the case study, or the case manager, may or may not provide direct care to the patient. The important thing is that when you are the one who will write the case study, you should see to it that you are following the whole process and everything that the patient went through and has experienced during the time that is included for your case study. As the writer of the case study, you should be able to document everything that happened, every intervention performed, every medical drug used by the patient, and all that is of concern to the patient.

When writing a case study, you could also collaborate with and supervise the care delivered by other health care members and actively coordinate in planning for the patient. Take for example, you are a nurse and writing a case study of a patient who had pneumonia, you have to follow up the patient. Even if you are not directly involved with the care of the patient, you should also coordinate with the health care staff involved with the care of the patient. This way, you will know what is actually happening to the patient with pneumonia and you can also help in planning the patient care suited for this patient. In fact, the case study should be written in chronological order – even before the medical problem began until the patient is discharged from the hospital.

Another example is as a nurse writing a case study within a community setting. This would usually involve patients who are at greatest risk for needing extensive coordination of health care services. Generally, the nurse would assume responsibility and at the same time be the writer of the case study as there would not be too many health care staff within a community setting.

In any setting, it must be noted that there are multiple providers and payers, and herein the challenge lies. As a writer of a case study, you must be able to coordinate the activities of these multiple providers and payers throughout a patients’ continuous care.

It is also important to remember that as a person writing the case study, you should be aware that your patient under study can be subjected to different multidisciplinary treatment and care plans. These treatment and care plans are designed for patients with a specific type case. As the writer of a case study, you have the responsibility to explain to your readers why such a treatment or care plan is used for this particular patient.

The writer of the case study or the case manager, along with other members of the health care team will have to use pathways to implement timely interventions in a coordinated care of plan. By making a care plan, it would eliminate guesswork in patient care by having all members of the health care team working from the same plan.

When the health care team in charged of the case study already has a medical care or treatment plan established, it is now a task of the case writer/case manager to direct and support the health care staff in realizing that care or treatment plan.

It has to be taken into account also that although this is a case study, this is still the same as any other ordinary cases in the medical field. The only difference is that this one is being studied and will be written and published in order for future reference for other health care professionals and the health care field in general.

Therefore, the same care and attention should be given to this case as with all the cases. It should not be given special considerations just because it is under study and the writer or writers would like to get a positive outcome of the study. The same care that will be given to patients of the same case will also be given to the patient under study. That way, the study is truly reflective of other true situations of the same cases.

Case studies vary, not only in complex medical problems but also in time and in the amount spent. It could range from a few days to a few years. The amount could be small or it could be too costly, it all depends on what kind of case is being studied. As a writer of a case study, you should be able to plan for this even before starting the study.

Decide if you are willing to manage a case study in the short-term or the long term. Decide also if you can handle all the monetary expense that will be involved in the study. If you cannot, you better have some financial assistance that will help you get through with the case study. These factors are not solely at the decision of the writer of the case study but also with the type of case which is under study. Just keep in mind that the time and amount spent on the case study better be worth the results and the contribution that the study will have on the field of medicine.

So far, the kind of case study that is discussed in this paper is one of the factual kind. Remember that case studies could be factual or fictional. Factual case studies are those that are based on real people and situations. That has been the content of this paper so far. The one writing the case study has to follow through the entire time that the medical case is unfolding and record them detail by detail.

               The fictional kind of case studies are those that are usually based loosely on actual people and medical events but do not use real organization's or people's names. When writing such a kind, the writer can just make up his own medical situation based on similar events that have happened. He could support his case study with literature in order to make it more convincing and helpful to the readers.

               Between the two, just remember that the factual kind of case study is the one with more advantage. The advantages of factual case studies are that they can provide a wealth of detail, give credibility to medical situations and problems, and, most important, provide real medical outcomes.  Actual results from factual medical case studies give those who analyze and write the case study a case with real-world solutions.

               Although factual medical cases furnish concrete, not theoretical, solutions, they also have some drawbacks. It could be that factual cases will become outdated as the medical field is dynamically changing. Factual case writers must obviously stick to facts that they have seen and experienced during the case study. They are therefore limited only to those topics that are implicit in the case.

               Fictional medical cases have the drawback that whose who write the case and even those who are reading it can never know if a medical intervention worked or not. Fictional medical cases are theoretical ones, and thus often do not have the credibility that factual medical case studies do. On the other hand, fictional case writers are not constrained by the facts.  Fictional medical case writers can exercise whatever they can and embellish on medical problems, issues, situations, and people in order to focus only on the problems they want to address.

               But then if you have to choose between the two, which would be the more appropriate kind to use when writing a medical case study, the factual one would be better. This is medicine and health, this is not business or organizations. What works well for the latter does not work well for the former. Medical cases are better off written and studied in real. 

In line with all these, you should take into account that the case study you are writing is not only for your eyes, but for everybody. Millions of people would be able to read the case study and thus as the writer, you should take into consideration that these could be people from all walks of life. Therefore, you should provide a thorough explanation of the medical terms that are used in the study.

You should make your study understandable to readers who are not health care professionals and at the same time not lose the essence of the study as one of medical etiology. Whatever medical case it is that you are studying on, you need to provide also literatures to support it and the interventions given. To do this, you could do a computerized literature search; search in libraries for publications, journals or books that has more or less the same case study; or contact experts, companies and societies that are concerned with the topic. Also, provide objective conclusions and recommendations that could help the readers, most especially other health care professionals.

If you want to be able to write an effective case study, you should eventually learn the roadblocks deficits, and even the opportunities that exist within any health care setting that the case study takes place that influence the ability to find solutions for patients’ health care and medical needs. Also, an effective case study is one in which other health care professionals and even those who aren’t in the health care field can look into, use as reference, and gain knowledge from for the betterment of man.

Case studies are more like researches. In the area of medicine and health care delivery, the use of investigation is of paramount importance in the continuing advancement of health for all. This investigation could be in the form or research or it could be in the form of case studies. Questions regarding diseases in humans, its determinants, distributions and outcomes are constantly being generated with the overall purpose of improving the quality of health of every member of the community.

Because of the relevance of information gathered through factual case studies, the conduct of the activity must be such that the answers or even just the information arrived at will provide the truth or at the very least, the closest estimate of the truth. Writers of case studies therefore are obligated not only to obtain the information in a scientific and efficient manner but also to present and disseminate the information with clarity and accuracy.

Reference:

Warner, C. (2006). How to Write a Case Study. Retrieved from:

http://www.charleswarner.us/howwrite.html