Nursing Research

A Beginning

Professor Lisa High

University of Windsor
 Introduction to Nursing Research

Welcome to the world of “NURSING RESEARCH”

 Learning a unique new language

 Incorporating new rules
 Expansion of your perceptions and methods of reasoning
 Nursing Research

 Hallmark of any profession

 Search for new and unique body of knowledge

 Who was the first researcher is nursing?

 What did the research involve?

 How does the CNO fit into the practice of research?

 Definition of Nursing Research

Root meaning:
(1)
(2)

More specifically:
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
 What is the significance of Nursing
Research
 Primary goal – to develop a scientific knowledge base for
nursing practice.

Significance/Value:
(1) Description
(2) Explanation
(3) Prediction
(4) Control
 What Research Contributes To

 To acquire knowledge
 To build a theory base
 To validate reality
 To test reality
 A way of understanding the empirical world
 To test/confirm/refute a premise
 Importance of Nursing Research
 Continued improvement in patient care
 Evidence-based practice
 Reinforcement of nursing as a profession
 Today in this “cost containment” healthcare system to
document relevance and effectiveness of nursing practice
 To understand the varied dimensions of the profession
 To describe the characteristics of specific nursing
situations
 To explain phenomena
 To initiate activities to promote desired patient outcomes
 What is the Nurses Role?

 Every nurse is responsible (CNO Practice Standards)

 What is “research utilization”?

 Nursing Research: Past, Present and
Future
 Florence Nightingale – Notes on Nursing (1859)
 1900 and 1940’s – focused on problems confronting nurses
most studies on nursing education
 1950’s – established the Nursing Research Journal in US
 To study clinical topics/clinical nursing problems
 Canadian Journal of Nursing Research – 1969
 1970’s – need additional communication outlets – additional
journals – Advanced Nursing Science
- Research in Nursing & Health
- Western Journal of Nursing Research
- Journal of Advanced Nursing
 Nursing Research: Past, Present and
Future
 1970’s cont’d – shift to teaching, administration and nurses
themselves to the improvement of patient care
 1980’s – 1st review of the Annual Review of Nursing Research
- Federal funding – Canada - National Health Research
Dept.
- US – National Center for Nursing Research
- new journal – Applied Nursing Research
- McMaster – clinical learning strategy developed –
EBM
 Nursing Research: Past, Present and
Future
 1990’s – National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR)
- Canadian Health Services Research Foundation
(CHSRF)
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
- several more journals were introduced
 Future Directions for Nursing
Research
 Increased focus on outcomes research

 Promotion of evidence-based practice

 Development of a stronger knowledge base through multiple confirmatory strategies

= REPLICATION

 Greater emphasis on “Integrative Reviews”

 Involvement of “Transdisciplinary research”

 Outcomes research (performance indicator, benchmarking)

 Emphasis on the visibility of nursing research

 Expanded dissemination of research findings

 Sources of Knowledge - Ways of
Acquiring Knowledge
 Eight Methods:
- tradition
- authority
- borrowing
- trial and error
- assemble information
- personal/clinical experience
- intuition
- logical reasoning
- disciplined research
 Reasoning – What is it?

 Definition –

 Stevens (1994) identified 4 patterns of reasoning:

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)
 Two Types of Logical Reasoning

(1) DEDUCTIVE -

(2) INDUCTIVE -
 Thinking in Nursing

Nursing thought flows along a continuum of both –

(a) Concrete thinking –

(a) Abstract thinking –

 Thinking in Nursing

3 major abstract thought process:

(1)

(2)

(3)
 Paradigms

What is a paradigm:
 Paradigms for Nursing Research

 QUALITATIVE:

 QUANTITATVE:
 Paradigms
QUANTITATIVE QUALITATIVE
 Positivist or post-positivist paradigm  Naturalistic paradigm
 Assumption: reality can be studied  Soft science
and known
 Focus: usually broad
 Hard science
 Focus: usually concise
 Holistic
 Reductionistic  Subjective
 Objective  Reasoning: dialectic, inductive
 Reasoning: logistic, deductive  Basis of knowing: meaning,
 Basis of knowing: cause & effect discovery
relationships  Shared interpretation
 Tests theory  Communication and observation
 Control  Basic element of analysis: words
 Instruments
 Individual interpretations
 Basic element of analysis: numbers
 Statistical analysis
 Uniqueness
 Generalization
 Paradigms & Methods

 “research method” – techniques used to structure a study,

to gather and to analyze information relevant to a research
question

 Quantitative and qualitative researchers use different

approaches – to answer different questions
 Scientific Method & Quantitative
Research
Scientific Method:
General set of orderly, discipline procedures
Empirical evidence
- Systematic fashion of data collection
- A series of steps used by the researcher via of a pre-
specified plan of action
- Use mechanisms to control the study
- Minimizes biases
- Precision and validity are maximized
 Scientific Method & Qualitative Research

Scientific Method:

- Human complexity/depth of humans

- Idea of truth is a composite of realities
- Focus on the dynamic, holistic and individual aspects
- Flexible, evolving procedures
- Findings emerge over the course of the research
- Analysis progresses concurrently
- Researcher sifts through information, gain insight, new
questions emerge
 Paradigms Common Features
 Ultimate goals – knowledge

 External evidence – gather and analyze evidence

empirically

 Reliance on human cooperation – human study participants

 Ethical constraints – research that involves human beings

is guided by ethical principles

 Fallibility of disciplined research – all studies in either

paradigm have limitations, involves trade offs and
decisions
Purpose of Qualitative &Quantitative
Research
Specific Purposes:

(1) Identification
(2) Description
(3) Exploration
(4) Explanation
(5) Prediction and Control
 Basic & Applied Research

Basic research: undertaken to accumulate information,

extending the base of knowledge in a discipline – why?
 Pure science (ie. Bench scientists/natural science)

Applied research: focuses on finding an immediate solution

to an existing problem – what is the goal?
 Clinical science (ie. Practice setting, practice setting)
Understanding the “Research Process”
Quantitative Qualitative

Experimental Grounded Theory

Phenomenology

Non-experimental Ethnography
 Understanding the “Research Process”
 Major Steps – Quantitative:
Phase I – Conceptual Phase

Phase II - Design and Planning Phase

Phase III - Empirical Phase

Phase IV - Analytic Phase

Phase V - Dissemination Phase

 Understanding the “Research Process”

 Major Steps – Qualitative:

Identifying a research problem

Doing a literature review

Selecting and gaining entry into research sites

Designing qualitative studies

Addressing ethical issues