Terms Flashcards
Nursing Research
A systematic process of inquiry that uses rigorous guidelines to produce unbiased, trustworthy answers to questions about nursing practice.
Peer Review
The process of subjecting research to the appraisal of a neutral third party. Common processes of peer review include selecting research for conferences and evaluating research manuscripts for publication.
Blinded
A type of review in which the peer reviewer is unaware of the author’s identity, so personal influence is avoided.
Replication
Repeating a specific study in detail on a different sample. When a study has been replicated several times and similar results are found, the evidence can be used with more confidence.
Magnet Status
A designation for organizations that have characteristics that make them attractive to nurses as workplaces.
National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR)
A federal agency responsible for the support of nursing research by establishing a national research agenda, funding grants and research awards, and providing training.
Journal Club
A formally organized group that meets periodically to share and critique contemporary research in nursing, with a goal of both learning about the research process and finding evidence for practice.
Systematic Review
A highly structured and controlled search of the available literature that minimizes the potential for bias and produces a practice recommendation as an outcome.
Evidence-based Practice Guideline:
A guide for nursing practice that is the outcome of an unbiased, exhaustive review of the research literature, combined with clinical expert opinion and evaluation of patient preferences. It is generally developed by a team of experts.
Principal Investigator
The individual who is primarily responsible for a research study. The principal investigator is responsible for all elements of the study and is the first author listed on publications or presentations.
Quality Improvement
The systematic, data-based monitoring and evaluation of organizational processes with the end goal of continuous improvement. The goal of data collection is internal application rather than external generalization.
Outcomes Measurement
Measurement of the end result of nursing care or other interventions; stated in terms of effects on patients’ physiological condition, satisfaction, or psychosocial health.
Nursing Process
A systematic process used by nurses to identify and address patient problems; includes the stages of assessment, planning, intervention, and evaluation.
Evidence-based Practice
The use of the best scientific evidence, integrated with clinical experience and incorporating patient values and preferences in the practice of professional nursing care.
Randomized Controlled Trial
An experiment in which subjects are randomly assigned to groups, one of which receives an experimental treatment while another serves as a control group. The experiment has high internal validity, so the researcher can draw conclusions regarding the effects of treatments.
External Validity
The ability to generalize the findings from a research study to other populations, places, and situations.
Paradigm
An overall belief system or way of viewing the nature of reality and the basis of knowledge.
Quantitative Research
A traditional approach to research in which variables are identified and measured in a reliable and valid way.
Qualitative Research
A naturalistic approach to research in which the focus is on understanding the meaning of an experience from the individual’s perspective.
Mixed Method
A research approach that combines quantitative and qualitative elements; it involves the description of the measurable state of a phenomenon and the individual’s subjective response to it.
Basic Research
Theoretical, pure, fundamental, or bench research done to advance knowledge in a given subject area.
Applied Research
Research conducted to gain knowledge that has a practical application and contributes in some way to a modification of practice.
Experimental Research
Highly structured studies of cause and effect, usually applied to determine the effectiveness of an intervention. Subjects are selected and randomly assigned to groups to represent the population of interest.
Quasi-experimental Studies
Studies of cause and effect similar to experimental design but using convenience samples or existing groups to test interventions.
Retrospective Studies
Studies conducted using data that have already been collected about events that have already happened. Such secondary data were originally collected for a purpose other than the current research.
Prospective Studies
Studies planned by the researcher for collection of primary data for the specific study and implemented in the future.
Longitudinal Studies
Studies conducted by following subjects over a period of time, with data collection occurring at prescribed intervals.
Cross-sectional Methods
Studies conducted by looking at a single phenomenon across multiple populations at a single point in time, with no intention for follow-up in the design.
Ethics
A type of philosophy that studies right and wrong.
Therapeutic Research
Studies in which the subject can be expected to receive a potentially beneficial treatment.
Nontherapeutic Research
Studies that are carried out for the purpose of generating knowledge. They are not expected to benefit the research subject, but may lead to improved treatment in the future.
Respect for Persons
A basic principle o ethics stating that individuals should be treated as autonomous beings who are capable of making their own decisions. Persons who have limited autonomy or who are not capable of making their own decisions should be protected.
Vulnerable Populations
Groups of people with diminished autonomy who cannot participate fully in consent process. Such groups may include children, individuals with cognitive disorders, prisoners, and pregnant women.
Beneficence
A basic principle of ethics that states that persons should have their decisions respected, be protected from harm, and have steps taken to ensure their well-being.
Justice
A basic principle of ethics that incorporates a participant’s right to fair treatment and fairness in distribution of benefit and burden.
Informed Consent
A process of information exchange in which participants are provided with understandable information needed to make a participation decision, full disclosure of the risks and benefits, and the assurance that withdrawal is possible at any time without consequences. This process begins with recruitment and ends with a signed agreement document.
Full Disclosure
Reporting as much information about the research as is known at the time without threatening the validity of the study. This practice allows the subject to make an informed decision as to whether to participate.
A Priori
Conceived or formulated before an investigation.
Right of Privacy
A person’s right to have his or her health information kept confidential and released only to authorized individuals and to have his or her body shielded from public view.
Institutional Review Board (IRB)
The board required in research institutions that reviews and oversees all research involving human subjects and ensures studies meet all federal regulation criteria, including ethical standards.
Exempt Review
A review of study proposals that pose no risk to subjects; the full IRB is not required to participate.
Expedited Review
A review of study proposals that pose minimal risk to subjects; one or two IRB members participate.
Full Review
A review of study proposals that pose more than minimal risk to subjects, that do not qualify for exempt status, and in which the full IRB committee participates.
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
Legislation passed by Congress in 1996, which protects the privacy of personal health information.
The Nuremberg Code
Contains guidelines requiring voluntary, informed consent to participate in medical experimentation. Further specifies that the research must serve a worthy purpose, that the desired knowledge must be unobtainable by other means, and that the anticipated result must justify the performance of the experiment. It further guarantees that no experiment is to be permitted when death or disability is an expected outcome.
The Declaration of Helsinki
An extension of the Nuremberg Code added in 1964 by the World Medical Association. Similar to the Nuremberg Code, this requires informed consent for ethical research, while allowing for surrogate consent when the prospective research subject is incompetent, physically or mentally incapable of providing consent, or a minor. It also states that research within these groups should be conducted only when this research is necessary to promote the health of the representative group and when this research cannot otherwise be performed on competent persons.
The Belmont Report
Published in 1978. The cornerstone statement of ethical principles in which regulations for protection of human subjects are based. Begins by stating, “Scientific research has produced substantial social benefits. It has also posed some troubling ethical questions. Public attention was drawn to these questions by reported abuses of human subjects in biomedical experiments…”. Three foundational ethical principles relevant to the ethics of human subjects are described in the Belmont Report: respect for persons, beneficence, and justice.
AKA: the Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects of Research report.
Hawthorne Effect
Same as placebo effect or treatment effect. Could lead subjects to behave differently simply because they are being treated.
Four Sources of Law that Affect Researchers
- Common law
- Administrative law
- Statutory law
- Tort law
Common Law
Derived from judicial decisions made during a trial and often applies rules from early English common law.
Example: Medical malpractice suits
Administrative Law
Formulated by the federal and state governments and other regulatory agencies and obtains its authority from Congress.
Example: HIPAA
Statutory Laws
Enacted, amended, and repealed by the legislature.
Tort Law
Civil wrongs committed against individuals or their property.
Examples: Negligence, malpractice, assault, battery, false imprisonment, invasion of privacy, and causing mental or emotional distress.
Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)
Created the IRBs, also known as human subjects committees, as safeguards against the inhumane treatment of individuals that had, in the past, been inflicted in the name of science.
Deductive
A process of reasoning from the general to the specific
Inductive
A process of reasoning from specific observations to broader generalizations
Concepts
Abstract ideas or topics of interest that must be narrowed to researchable questions to be investigated
Replication Study
A study generated from previous research studies in which the research is reproduced to validate findings, increase generalizability, or eliminate or minimize limitations
Problem Statements
Statements of the disparity between what is known and what needs to be known and addressed by the research
Purpose Statements
Declarative and objective statements that indicate the general goal of the study and often describe the direction of the inquiry
Research Question
A question that outlines the primary components to be studied and that guides the design and methodology of the study
Hypothesis
A restatement of the research question in a form that can be analyzed statistically for significance
Null Hypothesis
A statement of the research question that declares there is no difference between groups as a result of receiving the intervention or not receiving the intervention
Nondirectional Hypothesis
A two-sided statement of the research question that is interested in change in any direction
Directional Hypothesis
A one-sided statement of the research question that is interested in only one direction of change
Research Design
The overall approach to or outline of the study that details all the major components of the research
Exploratory Studies
Research to explore and describe a phenomenon of interest and generate new knowledge
Confirmatory Studies
Research in which a relationship between variables has been posed and the study is designed to examine this hypothesis
Variable
Characteristic, event, or response that represents the elements of the research question in a detectable or measurable way
Descriptive Variables
Characteristics that describe the sample and provide a composite picture of the subjects of the study; they are not manipulated or controlled by the researcher
Independent Variable
A factor that is artificially introduced into a study explicitly to measure an expected effect ; the “cause” of “cause and effect”
Dependent Variable
An outcome of interest that occurs after the introduction of an independent variable; the “effect” of “cause and effect”
Extraneous Variables
Factors that exert an effect on the outcome but that are not part of the planned experiment and may confuse the interpretation of the results
Descriptive Studies
Research designed to describe in detail some process, event, or outcome. Such a design is used when very little is known about the research question
Correlation Research
Research designed to quantify the strength and the direction of the relationship of two variables in a single subject or the relationship between a single variable in two samples
Predictive Research
Research designed to search for variables measured at one point in time that may forecast an outcome that is measured at a different point in time
Scholarly
Concerned with or relating to academic study or research
Theoretical Literature
Published conceptual models, frameworks, and theories that provide a basis for the researcher’s belief system and for ways of thinking about the problem studied
Empirical Literature
Published works that demonstrate how theories apply to individual behaviors or observed events
Seminal Work
A classic work of research literature that is more than 5 years old and is marked by its uniqueness and contribution to professional knowledge
Primary Sources
Reports of original research authored by the researcher and published in a scholarly source such as a peer-reviewed research journal or scholarly book
Secondary Sources
Comments and summaries of multiple research studies on one topic, such as systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and meta-syntheses, which are based on the secondary author’s interpretation of the primary work
Open Access
Information that is freely available online with few or non copyright restrictions
Peer Review
The process of subjecting research to the appraisal of a neutral third party. Common processes of peer review include selecting research for conferences and evaluating research manuscripts for publication
Bibliometrics
The study of publication patterns
Journal Impact Factor
A way to measure the visibility of research by calculating a ratio of current citations of the journal to all citations in the same time period
h-Index
An indicator of a researcher’s lifetime impact in his or her field
Altmetrics
The creation and study of new metrics based on the Social Web for analyzing and informing scholarship
Information Literacy
The competencies necessary to access, retrieve, and analyze research evidence for application to nursing practice
Evidence Pyramid
A pyramid diagram illustrating evidence-based information that depicts the potential quality of information, the amount available, and the amount of searching required to find evidence
Levels of Evidence
A scale that provides the user with a quick way to assess the quality of the study design and, therefore, the strength of the study conclusion
Systematic Review
A highly structured and controlled search of the available literature that minimizes the potential for bias and produces a practice recommendation as an outcome
Search Strategy
The identification of search concepts and terms and the way they are combined that will be used to search for resources for the literature review
Search Concepts
Major ideas or themes in a research question
Search Terms
Words or phrases that describe each search concept used to conduct the literature search. They may include variables in the research question, characteristics of the population of interest, or the theoretical framework of the research problem
Boolean Operators
The words AND, OR, and NOT, which are sued to join or exclude search terms
Subject Headings
Fixed “official” key words used by many databases to describe major concepts and assigned by indexers to bibliographic records
