Summary

In this study session you have learned that:

1. The community profile is a report of the findings of your community survey. It should be written in a standard sequence, beginning with the Cover page, then the Summary, Table of contents, Introduction, Objectives, Survey methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion and recommendations, Acknowledgements, References and Annexes.
2. The recommendations of your community profile should be considered by all stakeholders, including health service managers and community leaders.
3. A recommendation arising from your community profile may be to conduct a small-scale research project into a priority health problem in the community, with the aim of understanding the issues better and suggesting more effective solutions.
4. All research proposals must start with a clear statement of the problem to be addressed and the general objective in conducting the research.
5. At an early stage it is necessary to determine if the proposed research is applicable, i.e. it will actually help to tackle the problem that has been identified, and whether it is relevant, urgent, feasible, acceptable politically and ethically, and avoids duplicating existing research findings.
6. If several health issues are identified that may be researched, it is important to prioritise them so that the most important issues are dealt with first; a rating scale can help in decision making about priorities, which must also be approved by the relevant authorities.
7. Every research project requires clearly written general and specific research objectives; consulting other information sources can help to clarify your thinking about your research objectives.