Research in Nursing

(NSC 440)
Adesola Ogunfowokan (PhD)
solafowokan@oauife.edu.ng

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Overview of Research Methods

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Introduction
• Nursing research is a type of research that provides
evidence for nursing practices.
• Evidence-based nursing has been evolving since the era
of modern nursing developed by Florence
Nightingale up to the present day.
• Rigorous nursing research provides a body of knowledge
that helps advance nursing practice.

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 What is Research?
Research is a diligent systematic enquiry to validate and
refine existing knowledge and generate new knowledge
(Burns and Grove, 2005)
Research is systematic inquiry that uses disciplined
methods to answer questions or solve problems. The
ultimate goal of research is to develop, refine, and
expand knowledge (Dennis and Polit, 2012)

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 What is nursing research?
• Nursing research focuses on developing knowledge of the
care of persons in health and illness. It also emphasizes the
generation of knowledge of policies and systems that
effectively and efficiently deliver nursing care; the
profession and its historical development ; ethical
guidelines for the delivery of nursing services and systems
that effectively and efficiently prepare nurses to fulfill the
profession’s current and future social mandate (ICN, 1987)
• Nursing research is systematic inquiry designed to develop
trustworthy evidence about issues of importance to the
nursing profession, including nursing practice, education,
administration, and informatics (Dennis and Polit, 2012).

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 Ways of acquiring knowledge -1
• Tradition: Knowledge can be handed down from one
generation to the other
• Authority: knowledge obtained from authorities such as
persons with specialized expertise, experience or power
in the field who are able to influence opinions and
behaviour. E.g. Supervisors, instructors e.t.c.

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 Ways of acquiring knowledge -2
• Logical reasoning: thinking through a problem using
induction or deduction
Inductive reasoning: process of developing generalizations
from specific observations
For example, a nurse may observe the anxious behavior of (specific)
hospitalized children and conclude that (in general) children’s
separation from their parents is stressful.
Deductive reasoning: developing specific observation in
general principle
For example, if we assume that separation anxiety occurs in
hospitalized children (in general), then we might predict that
(specific) children in a hospital whose parents do not room-in will
manifest symptoms of stress.

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 Ways of acquiring knowledge -3
• Experience: Previous encounter of the individual
• Trial and error: informal experimentation
• Intuition: sudden insight which arises without conscious
reasoning
• Borrowing: appropriation and use of knowledge from
other fields of disciplines
• The scientific method: has the following characteristics:
- Uses empirical enquiry (data are collected)
- Uses systematic approach (moves in orderly fashion)

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 Ways of acquiring knowledge - 4
- Makes empirical data public
- Uses control and objectivity
- Strives for the development of conceptual explanations or
theories
- Strives for generalizability
- Tends not to deal with metaphysical explanations that
cannot be empirically tested
- Uses tested reasoning or justifications

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Characteristics of research
• The results of research is an increase in knowledge and
contributes to existing knowledge
• Research is systematic and diligent: involves planning,
organisation and persistence, proceeds in an orderly
manner
• It is a process: there should be purpose, series of
actions and goals
• It is a scientific process: Science as a process implies
orderly, logical and public activity(research methods
and findings are publicized to research community)

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Qualities of a good researcher-1
Thirst for knowledge

Analytical Ability

Innovativeness

Adaptability

Focus

Perseverance
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Qualities of a good researcher-3

Collaboration
Communication
Foresightedness
Integrity
Passion 12
 Reasons for conducting nursing research
To:
• Improve nursing care
• Defend professional status
• Establish scientifically defensible reasons for nursing care
activities
• Find ways of enhancing cost effectiveness in nursing care
activities
• Provide basis for standard-setting and quality assurance
• Provide evidence of weakness and strength in nursing care
• Provide evidence in support of demands for resources in
nursing care services
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• Providing basis for self correction of misinterpretation
 Roles of nurses in research

• Acts as a member of a research team

• Undertake an independent research project
• Identify and evaluate research findings applicable to the
field
• Be a user of research findings
• Act as a patient advocate when patient is involved in
research

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Research Process

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Research Variables
• A variable is anything that has a quantity or quality that
varies
• Example are Weight, anxiety, and blood pressure—each
varies from one person to another.

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Research Variables
• When an attribute is extremely varied in the group under
study, the group is heterogeneous with respect to that
variable.
• If the amount of variability is limited, the group is
homogeneous.
• Degree of variability or heterogeneity of a group of
people has implications for study design.

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Research Variables- types

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Research Variables - Types

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Quantitative variable
• A variable that contains quantitative data is a quantitative variable;

• Quantitative data represents amounts.

• There are two types of quantitative

variables: discrete and continuous.

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Quantitative variable
• Discrete Variable: Variables hat have limited (finite) values
• Counts of individual items or values. E.g. Number of students in a
class; Number of patients who have breast cancer

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Quantitative variable
• Continuous variable (ratio variable):
• It has values along a continuum and, in theory, can assume an infinite
number of values between two points.
• E.g. Distance, Volume, Age

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 Qualitative Variable
• Qualitative variables are categorical in nature
• It contains categorical data
• Categorical variables represent groupings of some kind.
• They are sometimes recorded as numbers, but the
numbers represent categories rather than actual amounts
of things
• Examples are Male = 1, Female = 2, Others = 3

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Qualitative Variable
• There are three types of categorical variables:
• binary,
• nominal,
• ordinal

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Qualitative Variable
• Binary variables (aka dichotomous variables). Yes or no
outcome. Examples are: Heads/tails in a coin flip or
Win/lose in a football game

• Nominal variables: Groups with no rank or order

between them. E.g. Species names, Colors, Brands

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Qualitative Variable
• Ordinal variables: Groups that are ranked in a specific
order. E.g. Finishing place in a race, Rating scale
responses in a survey

• Note that sometimes a variable can work as more than one type!
An ordinal variable can also be used as a quantitative variable if
the scale is numeric and doesn’t need to be kept as discrete
integers. For example, star ratings on product reviews are ordinal
(1 to 5 stars), but the average star rating is quantitative.

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Dependent and Independent Variable
• Experiments are usually designed to find out what effect
one variable has on another
• Independent variables are manipulated and are usually
assumed to be the cause and dependent variables are the
effect

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 Dependent and Independent
Variable
• The independent variable is the variable the
experimenter changes or controls and is assumed to have
a direct effect on the dependent variable.

• E.g. The use of PowerPoint for teaching increases

students’ performance

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Dependent and Independent Variable
• The dependent variable is the variable being tested and
measured in an experiment, and is 'dependent' on the
independent variable.

• An example of a dependent variable is depression

symptoms, which depends on the independent variable
(type of therapy).

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Intervening variable
• An intervening variable (Moderator Variable) is a hypothetical
variable used to explain causal links between other variables.
• Intervening variables cannot be observed in an experiment (that’s
why they are hypothetical).

• For example, there is an association between being poor and

having a shorter life span. Just because someone is poor doesn’t
mean that will lead to an early death, so other hypothetical
variables are used to explain the phenomenon. These intervening
variables could include: lack of access to healthcare or poor
nutrition.

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Intervening variable
• Identifying moderators may be important in understanding when to
expect a relationship between the independent and dependent
variables, and often has clinical relevance.

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Extraneous variables
• Extraneous (confounding variables): A variable that hides
the true effect of another variable in an experiment.
• This can happen when another variable is closely related
to a variable the researcher is interested in, but has not
been controlled for.

• Example: ??????

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