Unit 4: Ch. 18 Flashcards
what do retrospective, prospective, longitudinal, repeated measures, time series designs, and cross sectional studies all have in common?
They all have to do with TIME in some way, shape, or form
retrospective study
researchers look backward in time
prospective study
researchers start in present and look forward into the future (often used in public health nursing, epidemiology)
-ex: get a group of smokers in a study, follow them for x amount of years, check in with them periodically to see who got lung CA and who didn’t
some prospective studies may be categorized as longitudinal (if they collect data at various points)
longitudinal study
collect data at particular points (multiple points) in time
repeated measures study
collect exactly the same data using the same instruments/measurements at different points in time
time series study
looking at things over time
cross sectional study
one slice in time; not comparing findings to anything else
what is the purpose of participative studies and action research?
to create some kind of CHANGE
mixed method (MM) research
research that integrates qualitative and quantitative methods in a single study or coordinated set of studies
some questions/hypotheses require MM
what are the advantages of MM? (4)
- complementary: use of 2 methods (qualitative and quantitative) avoids problems encountered when using 1 method; “double checking”
- practicality: some phenomena are very complex and need more than 1 approach to the problem
- incrementality: depending on how much is known about the topic the researcher can begin with a qualitative approach and move into quantitative research
- enhanced validity: when you’ve got a set of findings and both qualitative and quantitative findings indicate the same thing –> increases validity (b/c finding the same thing)
- gives you more confidence in the validity of your results
uses of MM research (4)
- developmental work
- such as when an area of research is new. MM can help to capture the complexity of the topic (ex: may be developing instruments to measure the topic) - hypothesis generation and testing
- do the qualitative research, learn something about it –> may develop hypothesis for quantitative piece - explication
- to explain aspects of quantitative studies - theory building, testing, and refinement
MM designs
Concurrent: qualitative and quantitative data are collected at the same time
Sequential: qualitative and quantitative data are collected at different times, one after the other
Morse notations system:
- QUAL/quan, QUAN/qual, or QUAL/QUAN
- —capital letters indicate the more dominant method/higher priority (equally dominant in “QUAL/QUAN”)
- ”+” = concurrent approach
- ”–>” = sequential approach
convergent parallel or triangulation
used to simultaneously obtain different but complementary data
embedded
may be sequential or concurrent; one type of data is used to support the other type of data; may be QUAL(quan) or QUAN(qual)
-qualitative may come first and take priority over quantitative (QUAL(quan)) or quantitative may come first and take priority over qualitative (QUAN(qual))
explanatory
sequential; quantitative data is collected first and qualitative data is collected second and used to explain the quantitative data
-trying to explain what’s going on
exploratory
sequential; qualitative method is used to collect in-depth information and quantitative method is used to measure it
-trying to explore what’s going on
health services and outcomes research
documents the quality and effectiveness of health care and nursing services
- usually done by an institution/hospital/administration
- very broad, interdisciplinary field that studies organizational processes and structure, technology, social factors, and behaviors that influence access to health care, cost of care, and ultimately people’s health and well-being
focuses on parts of a health care quality model developed by Donabedian; key concepts:
- structure of care (e.g. nursing skill mix)
- processes (e.g. clinical decision making)
- outcomes (end results of patient care)
what’s the criticism with health services and outcomes data?
it’s a huge study and has a ton of information to process
clinical trials
studies to develop a clinical intervention and test its efficacy and effectiveness
may be conducted in 4 phases
clinical trials often used by drug/pharmaceutical companies
in intervention research there is some type of intervention (exercise, medication, therapy, etc.) that is anticipated to change the status quo
phases of clinical trials (4)
Phase 1: establishes safety, tolerance, and dose
Phase 2: pilot test of tx effectiveness in a sample of people
Phase 3: full experimental test of the tx; examines efficacy (whether one tx is more effective than another tx); typically done in a controlled artificial condition
Phase 4: examines effectiveness, i.e. whether the tx is effective in the general population; typically done in real world conditions; emphasizes generalizability
which phase of clinical trials emphasizes generalizability?
phase 4
intervention = clinical trial = evaluation
the different terms for “clinical trials” in various groups
nursing: intervention studies
medicine: clinical trial is the term used in medicine for intervention studies
education and public safety: evaluation research is term used in education and public policy
nursing intervention research
a research approach for planning, developing, testing, and disseminating interventions specific to nursing
phases*:
- basic developmental research
- pilot research
- efficacy research
- effectiveness research
*these phases match up with the 4 phases of clinical trials
evaluative research is seen where?
epidemiology, community health, and public health nursing
evaluation research
examines how well a specific program, practice, procedure, or policy is working
-the program is the intervention
types:
- process analysis (FORMATIVE): done during the program w/ the aim of improving the program while the program is actually going on
- -ex: midsemester clinical evals
- impact analysis (SUMMATIVE): done at the end of the program to see how well the program went
- -ex: final clinical evals
- 3: economic analysis: can be done w/ either formative or summative; looking at money and how much money it takes to run a program, how feasible it is to run a program, etc…
formative is done when?
during the program w/ the aim of improving the program while the program is actually going on
-ex: midsemester clinical evals
summative is done when?
at the end of the program to see how well the program went
-ex: final clinical evals
survey research
data is obtained via self-report on the prevalence, distribution, and relationships between variables in a population
gathers data about actions, intentions, knowledge, characteristics, opinions, attitudes, and perceptions
may be cross-sectional or longitudinal
questionnaires are most commonly used but interviews may also be used
-personal interviews tend to yield the highest quality of data but are very expensive
secondary analysis
a study that uses previously gathered data to address new questions
advantages:
- can be used to collect qualitative or quantitative data
- cost effective b/c it’s data that was already collected for another purpose; researchers can use own previously collected data or someone else’s data
- can do secondary analyses on large, national data sets (“big data”)
disadvantage: data may not have been collected as it needed to be collected to answer the research question
- ex: using data for one research question and you come up with a second research question –> trying to use the data from the 1st research question may not yield everything you need for the 2nd research question
methodological research
studies that focus on development, validation, and evaluation of research tools and instruments
-about instrument development (may be interview development, questionnaire development…)
another name is psychometric research
can involve qualitative or quantitative data
recognized by:
- lengthy discussions of content, criterion, and construct validity
- use of Factor Analysis in the results
- ->not always used but very, very common. Factor Analysis talks about how researchers are developing validity
very important group of studies
