What is the emphasis of research in the first half of the 20th century? focused on education
Why more research or an increase of research was done in specific period of time? 50’s-60’s increase in
research b/c of increase in advanced degrees (1952 the 1st nursing research journal); 90’s-2000 goal to develop
research based outcomes
What is the emphasis of research in the future? The focus of health care research & funding is expanding from
tx of illness to include health promotion & illness prevention.
What is the purpose of nursing research? “To generate scientific knowledge to guide nursing practice”; to
develop a body of knowledge
A purpose statement does what? Establishes essence of study, establishes general direction, provides overall
goal, identifies variables (quantitative) or nature of inquiry (qualitative)
Where might it be found in an article? In the introduction. Remember also that the purpose statement
identifies the study variables and population.
Why is the quality of nursing research important? Quality of research will help predict & improve patient
outcome
What is the role of a graduate of a BSN program concerning research? To help improve the education
process; id problem, collect data, summarize info. The BSN nurse is also able to judge the merit of reported
research studies.
Often research studies can be identified by examining nursing practice.
What is your responsibility when critiquing a theoretical framework? Evaluate whether the framework led
the researcher to the expected findings in a logical and systematic way
What are some purposes of the use of theory in research? Help stimulate research & the extension of
knowledge by providing direction; serve as a springboard for scientific advances
The framework for a study: is essentially the blueprint for the study. Also remember that nursing theories are
subject to always being refined.
What are some of the purposes of a review of the literature? Provides the background or the problem;
identifies gaps in the knowledge base; identifies the contribution of the current study to the development of
knowledge
Remember that the research design (i.e descriptive, comparative, experimental, etc.) is the plan that is developed
to get answers from research questions.
Be aware of the differences between quantitative and qualitative research.
Quantitative- formal, systematic, objective
descriptive- describes new characteristics
correlational- relationships
quasi-experimental-cause & effect
experimental- pure random selection
Qualitative- subjective, describes experiences
phenomenological- described as lived
grounded theory- formulates & refines
ethnographic- studies among cultures
historical- narrative, descriptive
Also, how do steps of quantitative research compare with the steps in the Nursing process?
Nursing Research is an example of one of the journals that might contain a high number of primary sources
(original researcher vs. someone who just reports on a primary study—secondary source).
Be aware of what a demographic variable is. characteristic or attribute of the subject that are collected to
describe the sample
identify independent and dependent variables. *changes in the dependent variable are presumed to be caused
by the independent variable Remember that this pertains to studies that look for a cause and effect relationship i.e.
quasi-experimental or experimental studies. A descriptive study, for example, will not have an independent
variable.
independent variable: is something you do (i.e. teaching) to see if it has an effect on something else; stimulus or
activity that is manipulated or varied by the researcher to create an effect on the dependent variable
dependent variable: response, behavior or outcome that the researcher wants to predict or explain
random sampling, decreases bias and helps to implement control.
Types of hypothesis (null, directional, etc.).
Associative vs Causal
-associative- identifies variables that occur or exist together in the real world, such that when one
variable changes, the other changes
-causal- states the relationship between two variables, in which one variable is thought to cause or determine the
presence of the other variable
Simple vs Complex
-simple- states the relationship between two variables
-complex- predicts the relationship among three or more variables
Nondirectional vs Directional
-nondirectional-states that a relationship exists but does not predict the exact nature of the relationship
-directional- states the specific nature of the interaction or relationship between two or more variables
Research vs Null
-research- states what the researcher thinks is true
-null- states no difference or relationship exist
Three levels of research questions (as far as rewriting hypotheses to a research question).
Level I- “what is…” or “what are…” questions; designed to elicit descriptions of a single topic or population;
exploratory by nature; describes something
Level II- “what is the relationship between…” questions; focus on relationships between two or more variables
Level III- asks why the relationship developed in level II exists; seek to predict that one variable influences the
other in a certain way; try to establish a cause and effect relationship
What are the problems and purposes of a study?
The problem is the reason for the study
A purpose statement establishes essence of study, establishes general direction, provides overall goal, identifies
variables (quantitative) or nature of inquiry (qualitative)