RESEARCH NOTES

RESEARCH

Research – systematic inquiry to answer questions or solve problems
 Primary objective: present facts
Nursing Research – application of scientific inquiry to the phenomena of concern to nursing Practice
Purpose:
 Build a body of nursing knowledge
 Validate improvements in nursing
 Make healthcare efficient and cost-effective

FUNCTIONS OF RESEARCH
1. Answer the question, solve problems, make decisions
2. Enable us to see & understand how & why a situation or problem exists – predict, explain and expand the body of knowledge
3. Help us discover new things & ideas
 New knowledge – new skills /practices = improve
 New technology – new tools = improve
4. Validate existing theories or generate new one

ETHICS IN NURSING RESEARCH
Ethics – set of moral behaviors, principles, rules, instructions that determine which action is right or wrong

Principles
1. The subject should be protected from harm and discomfort
2. Participation in the studies should be voluntary (right to self-determination)
3. Balancing the benefits and risk in a study
4. Protect the participants/ subject’s privacy
a. Anonymity –even the researchers don’t known the participants
b. Confidentiality – pledge any information given by the participants would be private; people who are not involve in the research have no access

GENERAL TYPES OF RESEARCH
Types of Non-Experimental Study - observational research (rather than interviewing)
 Correlational Research – interrelationship/association between variables; answer question: who, how, why, what  [in human adults, height & weight tend to be correlated]
 Descriptive Research – describe, to document and to observe aspect of situation [who, what, when, where, how]
 A researcher is interested in women’s experiences during menopause

Experimental Research – intervention or treatment (manipulation of dependent variable) – also called as intervention research

OTHER CLASSIFICATION OF RESEARCH
1. Basic Research – attempts to describe a situation; not aimed to find solution to a problem
 Discovering the principles of human behavior
 A research may do a study to better understand/determine normal grieving process without having explicit nursing applications in mind
2. Applied Research - solution to a problem
 A study to determine the effectiveness of a nursing intervention to ease grieving
3. Quantitative Research – numerical data (# of children, income)
 Often requires statistical analysis – objective measurement
 What causes the phenomena, samples of data
4. Qualitative Research – non- numerical data (ideas, perception) –subjective
 Explain how does phenomenon exist

 Shallow and labored breathing
 AVOID
o High altitude
o Crowded places
o Extremes of temperature
o Active exercises

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