Exam Prep Flashcards
Define evidence based practice
The conscientious use of current best evidence in making decisions regarding patient care
Why do nurses need to seek out new evidence?
- Ensure we are providing best care possible
- Legal issue if something goes wrong
- Developing policies/standards
- Usual case- need more knowledge
What is the purpose of an abstract?
- Summarises the report
- Explain why research is conducted, where and how it was done, who done it, what was found and what was the implications
Why are abstracts useful?
Nurses don’t have to read the whole article to see if the literature answers our questions. Saves time and helps with the search
Research is..
A systematic investigation which aims to discover new knowledge or to validate and refine existing knowledge
Define quantitative data
Quantitative data is data expressing a certain quantity, amount or range.
Numerical data
Define qualitative data
Qualitative data is any data that cannot be expressed as a number, i.e. Socioeconomic status, gender, religious preference
Three major features of qualitative methods
- Focuses on understanding humans within context of their lives - tries to build complete picture of thing of interest.
- Involves collecting info as expressed by people.
- Focuses on subjective info - don’t try to predict/control thing looking at
Three major features of quantitative methods
- Focuses on understanding/breaking down thing/phenom into parts to see how they do or don’t connect.
- Collect info that is specific and limited to what is being studied.
- Objective info - can predict and control
What is a useful tool for assessing websites? State the acronym and what each letter stands for.
CRAAP
C- currency - the timelessness of the info.
R- relevance - importance of info to your needs
A- authority - the source of the info
A- accuracy - the reliability, truthfulness and correctness of the content.
P- purpose - the reason the info exists
Why is it important to evaluate databases and search engines?
To identify the best tool for the search you need to make and to find how to use them effectively
When assessing the quality of a website, what 5 questions would you use?
- Author - who is the author?
- Host site - who is hosting the site?
- Audience- who is the page written for?
- Currency- is the site up to date?
- Content- is it any good?
What does the acronym PICO(T) stand for?
Population Intervention Comparison Outcome Timeframe
List three considerations that you would take into account before you used the results of a study to change your clinical practice. Why are they important?
- Is the research relevant and useful to your clinical problem
- Evaluate- has the research been done properly
- Patient preference
Why is EBP important to health professionals?
- accountability
- professional standards
- clinical competence and safety
- improved practice and service
- applying research to the real world of work
What are the 5 major components of research reports (articles), not including title and references?
- Abstract
- Introduction/background/ lit review
- Methods
- Results
- Discussion (inc. conclusions)
What would you expect to find in the methods section of a research study?
Research design
Sample selection from population group
Procedures and data collection methods
Data analysis
What would you expect to find in the discussion section of a research study?
- A summary of key findings
- Comparisons of these findings with previous findings
- Speculation about the reasons for the results of the study
- implications for practice
The benefits of EBP are..
Patients: best/safest practice based on the best evidence
Nurses: easier access to best practice interventions/knowledge
Healthcare organisations: provides quality healthcare; reduces litigation
Community: efficient use of resources, current effective care provided
Define population
- well defined group with specific characteristics
- all the individuals the researcher is interested in studying
Define sample
- subset of overall population
- set of elements that make up population
Define convenience sample
All members of the population with the relevant characteristics who can be readily found (and consent)
Define snowball sampling
A participant refers the researcher to more potential participants, who may then refer the researcher to further potential participants
Define purposive sampling
An intentional approach is made by the researcher to select participants with specific characteristics or participants within a specific area
Define quota sampling
A sample gathered to represent population as closely as possible
Define simple random sampling
Participants allocated ‘randomly’ to the study of part of a study
Define stratified random sampling
Members of the population allocated to groups according to characteristics important to the study and then subjects randomly chosen from these groups
Why are eligibility criteria so important?
Characteristics specific to allow generalisability of findings
What is the main purpose of sampling?
Increase efficiency of the study
Maintain representativeness of sample
Name the two major headings under which sampling falls
Probability
Non-probability
Advantages of random sampling?
No researcher bias
Maximise representativeness
What is the aim of stratified random sampling?
Increase representativeness
Disadvantages of non probability sampling?
Less rigorous
Limits generalisability
Not representative
Name 4 qualitative data collection methods
In depth interviews
Focus groups
Secondary data/document review
Observations
How is trustworthiness/rigor assured in qualitative research?
Credibility (truthfulness)
Auditability (consistency)
Transferability (fittingness/applicability)
Confirmability (no bias or distortion)
Why is rigorous so important?
Need to know methods can be trusted and can have confidence in results and using them
List 4 quantitative data collection methods
Physiologic/lab based experiments and clinical trials
Observation
Questions and self report scales
Interviews
Reliability means..
That a measure can be relied upon consistently to give the same result if the aspect being measured has not changed
Validity reflects..
How accurately the measure yields information about the true or real variable being measured. A measure is valid if it measures correctly and accurately what it is intended to measure
Descriptive statistics allow researchers to
Describe, organise, and summarise raw data
Inferential statistics allow researchers to
Estimate how reliably they can make predictions and generalise their findings based on the data
The purpose of descriptive statistics is to
Organise and summarise the data
Name 4 levels of measurement in quantitative data analysis and briefly define each of these..
Nominal- discrete categories
Ordinal- relative ranking
Interval- specific numerical distance between scores, treated as equal/continuous
Ratio- as above but has absolute 0
Name and briefly describe the 3 most common measures of central tendency?
Mean: average score
Median: middle score
Mode: most common score
What are cross sectional studies
Studies that collect data at one point in time
Longitudinal studies are
Studies that collect data at different points in time
Retrospective studies are
Studies that collect data on past events
Prospective studies are
Studies that collect data as they occur
What is an independent variable?
Manipulated variable (cause) Used to predict outcome of interest
What are dependant variables?
Measured variable (effect) Consequence/presumed effect that changes with change in independent variable
Name 2 types of validity and briefly define each
Internal validity - does the independent variable accurately measure what it says it will measure. Asks whether independent variables really made the difference - refers to the casual relationship.
External validity- deals with problems of generalisability of findings to other populations and other environmental conditions.
