Case studies

Choosing a case

A case is a real-world example or scenario that you will analyse in the case study - a case could be an organisation, a business, a patient or patient group, or an event. It is important to choose a case that is sufficiently complex to ensure that you have enough to write about. Some things to look out for are:

Organisations or examples that are being impacted by a range of different factors, challenges or problems. For example, you may write a case study on behaviour management in your placement school where a range of factors are contributing to student behaviour in the classroom.

Scenarios where solutions may not always be straightforward. For example, when choosing a patient case, it is more challenging to write about a patient with a condition with complex lifestyle and social determinants.

Opportunities to bring in theory. When you first identify a case to write about, check that you can find a good amount of academic literature using Library Online. This will make it easier to relate the real-life scenario back to existing research.

Multiple recommendations or solutions. You may be able to show higher order thinking skills if you choose a case or situation with more than one solution and sift through options with appropriate arguments for your reasoning.

Persistent problems with no obvious solutions. For example, you might choose a case where normal solutions may not apply because of factors or the setting, such as NHS staff shortages. Cases with inherent tensions, dilemmas or ethical issues can also provide many opportunities for critical writing.

Analysing the case

Once you've identified the case or scenario that you'd like to write about, you will need to analyse it. This means breaking the case down into key elements or factors - in other words, the parts that make up the whole.

Here are a few questions to help you get started, before looking at the literature:

• What has contributed to the current situation? What were the major events or turning points that have led to this?
   
• What is the relationship between the contributing factors - did they all happen at once or has there been a 'snowball effect' over time?
   
• What are the current problems and who are these impacting most?
   
• What are the further effects or consequences of these problems or difficulties? Try to go into detail: if discussing a patient you may be discussing the impact on wider functioning, life chances, social participation and holistic health. If discussing an organisation or business case you may be trying to predict likely outcomes further down the line, like impacts on markets, profit, market dominance and staffing.
   
• What are the opportunities to intervene? 
   
• What solutions or recommendations can you think of now? 

These questions can help to prompt you to write down what you already know about the case. Once you've completed this step, you can begin to deepen your understanding using reading and theory.