Evidence Based Practice
CHAPTER
6
Nursing Research and
Evidence-Based Practice
Jill J. Webb, PhD, MSN, RN, CS
Additional resources are available online at: http://evolve.elsevier.com/Cherry/
Nursing research provides the foundation for evidence-based nursing practice.
VIGNETTE
I did not understand why I had to take a research class when all I wanted to do was be a staff nurse in a critical care unit. Research? Evidence-based practice? Why are these topics in the nursing program? I have enough to do just learning all the content in my clinical courses. What do research and evidence have to do with developing my nursing abilities? I trust the faculty, the textbooks, and clinical experience to prepare me for nursing. I’m already getting what I need …show more content…
As more nurses pursued a college education, staffing patterns in hospitals changed because students were not as readily available as when more students were enrolled in hospitalaffiliated diploma programs. During this period, researchers became interested in studying nurses. Questions such as what type of person enters nursing and how are nurses perceived by other groups guided research investigations. Teaching, administration, and curriculum were studies that dominated nursing research until the 1970s. By the 1970s more doctorally prepared nurses were conducting research, and there was a shift to studies that focused on the improvement of patient care.
The 1980s brought nursing research to a new stage of development. There were many more qualified nurse researchers than ever, widespread availability of computers for collection and analysis of data, and a realization that research is a vital part of professional nursing (Polit and Beck, 2006). Nurse researchers began conducting studies based on the naturalistic paradigm. These studies were qualitative rather than quantitative. In addition, instead of conducting many small, unrelated research studies, teams of researchers, often interdisciplinary, …show more content…
Quantitative Designs
Arising from early scientific models for doing research, the nursing discipline directly adopted the quantitative method of conducting research. Thus quantitative design has traditionally been prevalent in nursing research studies. Deriving meaning from the statistical analysis of numerical data obtained from samples and populations has yielded significant contributions to nursing knowledge. The usual intent of quantitative study is to apply or generalize knowledge from a smaller sample of subjects to a larger population. Quantitative studies usually produce knowledge about very precise topics, creating a need for multiple studies over multiple years before conclusive knowledge is yielded. The most common quantitative designs used in health care research are survey, needs assessment, experimental, quasi-experimental, methodologic, meta-analysis, and secondary analysis. A brief overview of these mostly quantitative study designs is given in Table 6-1. For in-depth understanding of particular methods and their suitability for studying particular phenomena,
6
Nursing Research and
Evidence-Based Practice
Jill J. Webb, PhD, MSN, RN, CS
Additional resources are available online at: http://evolve.elsevier.com/Cherry/
Nursing research provides the foundation for evidence-based nursing practice.
VIGNETTE
I did not understand why I had to take a research class when all I wanted to do was be a staff nurse in a critical care unit. Research? Evidence-based practice? Why are these topics in the nursing program? I have enough to do just learning all the content in my clinical courses. What do research and evidence have to do with developing my nursing abilities? I trust the faculty, the textbooks, and clinical experience to prepare me for nursing. I’m already getting what I need …show more content…
As more nurses pursued a college education, staffing patterns in hospitals changed because students were not as readily available as when more students were enrolled in hospitalaffiliated diploma programs. During this period, researchers became interested in studying nurses. Questions such as what type of person enters nursing and how are nurses perceived by other groups guided research investigations. Teaching, administration, and curriculum were studies that dominated nursing research until the 1970s. By the 1970s more doctorally prepared nurses were conducting research, and there was a shift to studies that focused on the improvement of patient care.
The 1980s brought nursing research to a new stage of development. There were many more qualified nurse researchers than ever, widespread availability of computers for collection and analysis of data, and a realization that research is a vital part of professional nursing (Polit and Beck, 2006). Nurse researchers began conducting studies based on the naturalistic paradigm. These studies were qualitative rather than quantitative. In addition, instead of conducting many small, unrelated research studies, teams of researchers, often interdisciplinary, …show more content…
Quantitative Designs
Arising from early scientific models for doing research, the nursing discipline directly adopted the quantitative method of conducting research. Thus quantitative design has traditionally been prevalent in nursing research studies. Deriving meaning from the statistical analysis of numerical data obtained from samples and populations has yielded significant contributions to nursing knowledge. The usual intent of quantitative study is to apply or generalize knowledge from a smaller sample of subjects to a larger population. Quantitative studies usually produce knowledge about very precise topics, creating a need for multiple studies over multiple years before conclusive knowledge is yielded. The most common quantitative designs used in health care research are survey, needs assessment, experimental, quasi-experimental, methodologic, meta-analysis, and secondary analysis. A brief overview of these mostly quantitative study designs is given in Table 6-1. For in-depth understanding of particular methods and their suitability for studying particular phenomena,