Care management team is working to develop a way to offer mothers a more effective way to communicate with a caregiver after they are discharged home with their new baby. They understand that the physical and emotional demands of giving birth and caring for a newborn are challenging, and the rates of postpartum depression within the mothers delivering at the hospital are on the rise. You have been asked to create a research plan to understand what variables could be impacting the presence of postpartum depression. An analyst will be assigned to conduct the study based on your direction, and the conclusions will be used as a guide for developing a new outreach model. You should consider the following: demographics, type of delivery, marital status, number of children, length of stay for delivery, number of prenatal visits before delivery, discharge status, the health of newborn, single newborn, or multiples, follow-up discussions, use of a doula, and any other variables that could impact the mother's mental health after delivery. The research plan will be presented as a report to leadership within the care management team for approval before having an analyst begin working on it.

Instructions

You will need to develop a research plan that:

• Summarizes the research question and the purpose of the research.
• Explains the type(s) and methods of research to be conducted.
• Defines the criteria to select patients for participation, including any exclusionary criteria that should be considered.
• Identifies existing data sources to be used.
• Determines data collection instruments, if additional supporting data elements are required beyond what is readily available in the patient medical records.