Quantitative Designs in Nursing Research Flashcards
The purpose of research design? And some different types of research(3)
- to aid in the solution of research question; and to maintain control of how data collected
1) basic research- a research question is driven by a researchers curiosity or interest in a theoretical question(ex. Test assumption in nursing theory)
2) applied theory- designed to solve clinical problems rather than to acquire knowledge for knowledges sake(ex. To improve health of particular group of patients)
3) biomedical- lab research with animals; pharmacy
How is a research design chosen?
- usually the state of knowledge in a particular topic dictates the type of research design that is used
- the research problem, purpose, literature review, theoretical framework, and hypotheses should fit together to create a well designed research project
Another purpose of research design? Cont
-the contribution of a study’s find in to evidence based practice is related to the level of evidence provided by the study results
Objectivity of problem conceptualization?
- theoretical framework- used to guide the review or the literature
- review of the literature- provides researcher with knowledge about: what is known about the problem, methods used to study the problem, results, suggestions for future research, if replication of a study is recommended
What is accuracy?
- researcher should choose a design that is consistent with the research problem and one that offers maximum amount of control of variables
- if a problem has not previously been studied using a particular methodology, a pilot study is often conducted to test out whether the research design chosen will actually work with that particular patient population
What is feasibility?
- capability of study to be conducted successfully
- ex) available subjects, timing of research, time required for subjects to participate, costs, and analysis of data
What is control?
- Involves holding the conditions of the study constant
- helps to rule out extraneous or mediating variables that complete with the explanation of the study’s findings
- establishes strict eligibility criteria for the study participants and helps to eliminate bias( on the DV)
How can we establish control?
- use of homogeneous sample
- use of consistent data collection procedures
- manipulation of the IV consistent
- randomization- each member of the population for study has equal access of being selected
Internal and external validity?
- the results of a study must be credible and dependable. So how do we evaluate this?
- internal validity- asks whether the difference or change in DV is a result of the IV under study
- the researcher must be able to rule out other factors or threats that just explain the relationship between the IV and DV
- a number of threads may exist and must be considered by both the researcher, and consumer who is critiquing the study
Threats to internal validity? (6)
1) history- an event that occurs that may affect results or provide another explanation
- ex) researchers studying smoking behaviour of teens
- then federal government launches a big campaign aimed at teens half way through the study
Threats to internal validity?
2) Maturation- refers to a change that occurs over time and is external to the events of the investigation
- includes developmental, biological, and/or psychological processes that occur ex) changes that occur due to death of a spouse, changes in health status, depression
Threats to internal validity?
3) testing- repeated testing with the same instrument may result in a threat to internal validity
- ex. Knowledge test before an info session and then again right after, and then every week for six weeks using same test
Threats to internal validity?
- Instrumentation- calibration of equipment such as thermometer, BP machine, weight scales, glucometer
- can also include techniques/observational data ex. Measurement of waist/hip ratio, size of a bruise or wound
- making changes to a measure that has already been validated
Threats to internal validity
- Mortality- loss of patients in the study after the first measurement
- subjects who dropped out May be different from the group that stayed in study
- also includes loss due to death
Threats to internal validity?
- Selection bias
- need to representative sample for study
- occurs when subjects decide whether they want to be in the study
- ex. Smoking cessation program- only those who are interested in such a program will agree to be in study so this result is selection bias. Major bias problem in clinical research studies
External validity?
- asks: are results generalizable to additional populations and to other sites/conditions? Ex) if you repeated this study in another clinic in another provided would you get the same results?
Threats to external validity(3)?
1) selection bias
- are results generalizable to other populations
- patients at different sites may be very different
- ex. Gender of patients in a study- results may not able to be generalized to all patients if mostly one gender
- muti-site studies help to deal with selection bias
External validity? Threats
- Reactive effects: subjects response to being studied
- ex. Subjects may rate an intervention higher just b/c had more opportunity to interact with a researcher
External validity- threats
- Measurement effects
- administration of a pre-test may sensitize subjects so that answer the post-test differently
- ex- pre-test on nurses attitudes towards HIV patients
- workshop on how nurses are expected to treat HIV patients- measure post-test
- subjects learn from the session what answers are socially acceptable
Experimental designs?
- test cause and effect relationships because they can help to eliminate potential alternative explanations(threats to validity) for the findings
- the validity of conclusions of study depend on how well the researcher have controlled other variables that may further explain the relationships