- Introduction: objectives of the discussion paper

- Body (literatures with proper citations and paraphrasing)

- Reaction
- Conclusion

Practical Application of Statistics in Nursing. (2016, Sep 23). Retrieved from

https://studymoose.com/practical-application-of-statistics-in-nursing-essay

There are several reasons. First, in order to understand the numerous studies that will
impact your care, you need to understand how statistics are compiled, what the mean, how
they can be misused or misinterpreted, and what their weaknesses and strengths are.
Second, in most complex studies , including nursing, we learn by observing and using a
statistical mindset. If you don't understand what a convenience sample is, and why it is
virtually useless, then people can mislead you, or you can mislead yourself, easily.

There is actually a few good reasons why statistics are important in nursing. Even if you are
not going into nursing research or ever plan on running a spreadsheet, it is really important
to be able to discern the credibility of data. So to be a responsible consumer of research, it’s
important to be able to dissect the validity in what you are reading. Like any profession,
statistics does have it’s own language. By being fluent in statistics, you can begin to cypher
out the “fluffed” data, from the true evidence based science that governs our profession.

Nursing is a science and nursing care is based on scientific research in order to achieve
positive patient outcomes. Many people assume that the practice of nursing is simply doing
“what the doctor told you to do”. While implementing physician orders for administration of
medications and therapeutic interventions, there is the remainder of caring for the patient
that is the domain of nursing. I began practicing nursing in 1973. Nursing practice is
dramatically different now thanks to advances is nursing and medical research. Nurses at
the bedside are critical partners in nursing research. Bedside practitioners identify research
questions for further study and potential practice changes. We shouldn’t continue a practice
that doesn’t seem to make sense “because we’ve always done it this way” if there seems to
be a better way that would result in better patient outcomes, cost savings, reduced length
of stay or other positive measure. We should investigate the feasibility of a practice change.

All of this is my long-winded way of trying to convince nurses that statistics are an
important tool in your practice. You need to understand how statistics can be used, and
sometimes abused, in research. Statistical knowledge is vital to understand research studies
you are reading, to design a clinical study to ambulate ventilator-dependent patients in your
unit, to evaluate the effectiveness of a product you are thinking of purchasing, to analyze
the research and make a case for more staffing, to investigate a new medication you will be
administering in order to anticipate untoward effects, etc. Some common cautions to
observe when evaluating or conducting studies include:

 “correlation is not causation” meaning just because two things appear to be

related to one another does not mean that one of the things causes the
other to occur;
 biased samples - this is difficult for beginning researchers who are
conducting unit-based studies but should not discourage you. Just be
aware of and acknowledge the limitations of your study and the need for
expansion and replication of positive findings;
 Do your own literature search. For example if you believe you need more
staffing and are denied because one study shows no appreciable difference
in patient outcomes, see if there are other valid studies and what their
results show.
When I was in nursing school I complained bitterly about taking statistics. When I began
working in nursing regulation I utilized statistics and measurement daily. My job utilized
detailed results of periodic national job analysis studies for different levels various types of
nursing care providers and subgroup analyses of these studies. I loved the work. I wish I
hadn’t been such a grouchy student.
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Michael McPhail

Look into the career of Florence Nightingale and how she made the correlation between
hospital acquired infection and aseptic techniques. Easy theory to make and with the
addition of statistical analysis you can make the correlation that sterile techniques vastly
reduced mortality. There are plenty of other examples I’m sure you can find online. There is
a informatics pathway that nurses can work in that runs thru similar hypotheses and test.
The scientific method is useless without a statistical analysis to make it so.