Clarifying Research Worksheet (ANSWERED)

First, nursing is considered both a science and an art; hence research is naturally inherent in the profession. Secondly, nursing research can help redesign healthcare delivery, improve working environments, and enhance patient care practices and outcomes. Thirdly, research supports EBP; it informs practice and clinical decision-making, ensuring nursing practices are grounded on evidence rather than tradition. Lastly, nursing research also helps answer questions regarding various patient care practices and nursing education.

Why BSN nurses must understand basic research principles

Nurses are expected to research to answer relevant practice questions. While doing so, nurses must conform to standards of research conduct. Research principles help promote accountability and ensure no human or animal subjects are harmed or exploited during the research. Failure to comply with these principles might deem one’s research invalid. The ethics committee might reject the work, costing the researcher valuable time and resources. Exposing participants to harm might lead to civil lawsuits, cause public mistrust and criticism, and reduce stakeholder support. Nurses can avoid these issues by understanding and honoring these ethical principles.

The rationale for completing this course

This course will equip students with the skills to critically appraise research and determine its quality, validity, and reliability. This information is crucial when determining whether or not to apply a study’s findings in clinical practice. The nurse also gains the skills to locate evidence and determine its relevance to their clinical practice problem. By the end of the course, the student will have a general understanding of basic scientific methods and reliable evidence sources. These skills are essential for EBP.

Research

Use your own words to summarize:

a) the need for nursing research.

b) the significance for all professional nurses (BSN) to understand the basic principles of research.

c) why this course is important to complete.

Use your own words to summarize:
a) quantitative research and what you learned about this type of research.

b) one quantitative design that you learned; explain one important feature that helped you understand this design.

c) the significance of this type of research and how it can be used to improve nursing practice problems.

Quantitative research systematically examines phenomena by collecting quantifiable/numerical data and conducting statistical, computational, or mathematical analyses of the data to draw conclusions. It examines relationships between variables, including causal relationships.

Research Design: Quasi-experiments

The key feature of the design is that, unlike RCTs, they lack randomization. The design establishes interventions’ outcome/effectiveness by comparing results between two groups/treatment modalities. For example, researchers collect and compare data before and after intervention implementation to ascertain an intervention’s effectiveness/outcomes.

Significance

If nurses want to determine the impact of an intervention but cannot randomize subjects due to logistical or ethical issues, they can use this design. They can also use these quasi-experiments to determine the impact of large-scale or population-level interventions and policy changes because they are resource-friendly.

Use your own words to summarize:

a) qualitative research and what you learned about this type of research.

b) one qualitative design that you learned; explain one important feature that helped you understand this design.

c) the significance of this type of research and how it can be used to improve nursing practice problems.

Qualitative research collects and analyzes non-numerical data to make sense of various phenomena. Instead of trying to generalize findings, qualitative studies try to understand individual experiences, motivations, and attitudes.

Design: Phenomenology

The key feature of phenomenology is that it seeks to gain insights into people’s life experiences and what these experiences mean to them. A phenomenological researcher asks, “What is the value of this phenomenon as experienced by these people, or how do they make sense of it?

Significance

Phenomenology is the only design that seeks to understand individual experiences of a particular phenomenon (Al Kalaldeh et al., 2017). The other qualitative designs, grounded theory and ethnography focus on examining social structures & interactions and culture and cultural behaviors, respectively. Therefore, nurses can use this design to understand common life experiences, e.g., suffering, pain, grief, etc., from the individual patient’s point of view. The value of this design is that it helps nurses elucidate patients’ individual experiences in everyday situations.

Use your own words to summarize:

a) what is sampling and why is sampling important.
b) one sampling strategy you learned that can be used in quantitative research. Include what you learned.
c) one other sampling strategy that you learned.

Sampling is a process through which individuals are selected from a target population or sample frame. Sampling is essential because it might affect a study’s generalizability or compromise statistical inference, which helps detect relationships of interest. Also, biased samples lead to erroneous conclusions; hence, researchers cannot infer conclusions from samples that lack representativeness. Therefore, sampling is crucial to prevent bias and errors in a research.

Sampling Design

Stratified random sampling is a probability sampling method. It involves subdividing a population into subgroups from which samples are randomly selected (Elfil & Negida, 2017). First, the researcher divides a whole population into homogenous subgroups (e.g., gender, age, diagnosis, education, etc.). Then, they select samples using a specified strategy from each subgroup or stratum.

Another Sampling Method

Another sampling strategy I learned about is snowball sampling, commonly used in qualitative studies. In snowball sampling, the researcher asks each subject or participant to make referrals or nominate other study participants (Elfil & Negida, 2017). The researcher might use inclusion or exclusion criteria to determine whether or not the referred subject should be included in the study.

Profession

Use your own words summarize:
a) How does research help make nursing practice safe.

b) Share a way you believe research has impacted nursing practice.

c) Why is research critical for creating an evidence-based nursing profession.

When clinical decision-making is based on empirical evidence, patient care becomes safer. The interventions have already been tested, and their effects or outcomes verified by research; hence nurses are assured their decision will improve patient care. Research also eradicates the need for “gut feeling” and trial-and-error decisions that might harm patients (Houser, 2018, p.15). Instead, it offers scientific data supporting a decision’s effectiveness or expected outcomes. When nurses use these interventions, they are assured of their possible outcomes.

Impact of Research on Nursing Practice

Research has helped streamline the contemporary nursing practice. For example, medical records research alerted the healthcare system to the prevalence of medical errors. Further nursing research provided the interventions for reducing these medical errors, e.g., e-prescribing information technology. Such information technology is now considered standard practice, thanks to medical/nursing research.

Importance of Research in creating an evidence-based nursing profession

Research supports an evidence-based profession by generating the evidence required to support clinical decision-making. It offers objective data to answer practice questions nurses ask while improving nursing practice or patient outcomes.

Use your own words summarize:

a) how you plan to utilize your learning to make a difference in your practice. Use your current area of nursing or where you hope to work as a nurse.
b) how you believe this course is meant to help you practice as a BSN.

c) what you learned from completing the clarifying research worksheet activity.

I plan to incorporate research evidence and patient/family values in my clinical practice. I will do this by identifying practice issues and making improvement recommendations supported by the best available evidence. This approach will be valuable during my quality improvement or continuous improvement initiatives.

Course Value

I believe this course prepares me for BSN practice by equipping me with the right skills, knowledge, and attitude required to support EBP in clinical settings. EBP is one of the core skills and competencies required from BSN nurses. By the end of the course, I will demonstrated proficiency in this competency area, meaning I am well-prepared for my BSN roles in practice.

Lesson Learned

What I learned from this activity is the value of research in practice. I learned that research is the only reason the nursing profession continues to evolve and advance, underscoring its importance.