This document discusses nursing research and its importance. Nursing research is a scientific process that generates new knowledge to directly influence nursing practice. It aims to develop an evidence-based practice that improves outcomes for patients, nurses, and the healthcare system. The document defines different types of nursing research, including quantitative, qualitative, descriptive, correlational, experimental, and historical research. It also outlines the steps of the nursing research process and discusses the importance of ethics and avoiding scientific misconduct in nursing research.

1. Nursing Research

2. Gaining knowledge in nursing
• Tradition:
• “It’s always been done this way”
• Information seeking:
• “Let’s see what the experts have to say”
• Experience:
• “I found that this works best…”
• Problem solving/trial & error:
• “If this doesn’t work, let’s try it this way…”
• Research…

3. What Is Research?
It means: “to search again”
It involves:
• Diligent and systematic inquiry
• Planning & organization
• Persistence
• Discovery
• New knowledge about topics
• Learning about new areas of study

4. Why Is Research Important?
• Develop an evidence-based practice for nursing that
promotes improved outcomes for:
• Patients and families
• Nurses
• Health care system

5. Definition of Nursing Research
• A scientific process that validates and refines existing
knowledge and generates new knowledge that
directly and indirectly influences nursing practice.
• Nursing research is essential for developing and refining
knowledge that can be used to improve clinical practice

6. Ultimate goal of nursing:
• Providing evidence-based care that promotes quality outcomes
for patients, families, health care providers, and the health care
system
Ultimate goal of nursing research:
• Generation of an empirical knowledge base to guide nursing practice

7. Through nursing research, scientific knowledge can be
developed to improve nursing care, patient outcomes, and the
health care delivery system

8. Scientific knowledge:
• Needed to improve nurses’ decision making in prioritizing and
organizing their nursing care
Solid research base:
• Needed to document the effectiveness of selected nursing
interventions in treating particular patient problems and
promoting positive patient and family outcomes

9. Types of nursing research
• Quantitative research: uses numbers, precise
measurement
• Examples: rates of wound healing, control of BP or blood
sugar
• Qualitative research: explores feelings, experiences,
cultures, philosophies
• Examples: what does it feel like to have cancer? How do
nurses define patient satisfaction?

10. Nursing research
• Both quantitative and qualitative approaches are
important for nursing research because they generate
different kinds of knowledge essential for nursing
practice…
• Quantitative:
• Which drugs are most effective in the treatment of hypertension?
• Qualitative:
• How does it feel to live with a family member who has a terminal
illness?

11. Descriptive research
• Exploring and describing phenomena in real-life situations
• Provides accurate data about the people or phenomena
being studied
• Researchers:
• discover new meaning
• describe what exists
• determine the frequency with which something occurs
• categorize information

12. Examples of descriptive research
• What is the occurrence of lymphoma among Hispanics living in
downtown Chicago?
• What are the risk factors for decubitus ulcers among paraplegics
under age 21?
• Which area of the U.S. has the lowest incidence of diabetes?
• What time of day is the most common for diabetics to
experience hypoglycemia?

13. Correlational research
• Purpose is to discover relationships between
variables through the use of statistics
• Main question for correlational research studies:
“What is the relationship between X and Y?”
• Note: Correlational research does not try to
determine what causes X and Y, just what type of
relationship is between the two

14. Examples of correlational research
• What is the relationship between knowledge of HIV and
condom use in high school students?
• What is the relationship among ICU stress and recovery
rate for patients recovering from cardiac surgery?
• What is the relationship between hardiness, depression
and coping in residents of nursing homes?

15. Experimental research
• Used to test the effectiveness of nursing
interventions
• Main goal: figure out cause and effect!
• Researcher looks to compare outcomes of patients
who receive a new nursing treatment as compared to
patients who received the traditional treatment

16. Experimental research
• Patients are randomly assigned to the group that
receives the new treatment or the group that receives
the traditional treatment
• Researchers conduct careful measurements to see
which treatment is most effective
• Researchers conduct experimental research very
carefully to make sure that the results are accurate
and true

17. Examples of experimental research
• What is the effect of a relaxation technique on patients’
postoperative pain and anxiety level?
• What is the effectiveness of a breast cancer screening
program for women residing in rural areas?
• What is the effect of a pre-admission teaching program
on patients’ postoperative activity level and length of
hospital stay?

18. Historical research
• Examines events of the past
• Philosophy: One can learn from the past, and the
search for wisdom in which the historian examines
what has been, what is, and what ought to be
• Examples:
• The early years of nursing in Ireland
• Determining the worth of nurses’ work: nursing salaries
from 1900-1930
• Women giving nursing care during the Civil War

19. BSN role in nursing research
• Identify research problems in own clinical
practice
• Assist with data collection for established studies
• Critique research studies for use in own clinical
practice
• Use research findings in clinical practice

20. You may think that nursing research
is kind of a drag…
• For many years, nurses have performed lots of
weird treatments in the hopes of healing
wounds. They really did…
• Pour bleach, iodine, or milk of magnesia into wounds, trying
to kill bacteria that caused infection
• Pack wounds with sugar to provide energy to the cells in the
wound and promote healing
• Power wash wounds to remove dead tissue and promote
healing

21. Ah, the power of research…
Solid nursing research showed that…
• Bleach, iodine, milk of magnesia and power washing actually
damage cells that work to heal wounds and form scar tissue
• Sugar provides an excellent medium for bacteria and promotes
development of infection
• Nurse researchers came up with enough evidence
to convince physicians to stop using these useless
(idiotic??) treatments

22. And now…
• Nurse researchers are working on studies in a
wide variety of areas, including:
• Nursing shortage and nursing education
• Roles of advanced practice nurse
• Disease management
• Health promotion
• Caregiver support
• Physician-nurse collaboration

23. Evidence-based practice
• Use of research findings to:
• Promote the understanding of patients’ and families’ experience of health
and illness
• Implement effective nursing interventions to promote optimal patient
health
• Provide quality, cost-effective care within the health care system

24. Steps of nursing research
1. Identify the problem
• Goal of the study
• Guides the development of the research objectives and
questions
• Area of concern where there is a gap in the knowledge
base needed for nursing practice
• Research is needed to generate knowledge to address
the problem  ultimate goal is evidence-based nursing
care

25. Steps of nursing research
2. Pick the study design
• Blueprint for the study
• Maximizes control over factors that interfere with the
study
• Is tailored to the individual study
• Precision and care within the study design increase the
odds that the study findings will be valid (an accurate
reflection of reality)

26. Steps of nursing research
3. Conduct the study
• Gather subjects for the study
• Collect the data
• Accuracy & consistency are very important to ensure
that the data is correct and truthful
• Researchers must work to minimize error in the data
collection process

27. Steps of nursing research
4. Analyze the data
• Statistical procedures are used to examine the numerical
data gathered in a study
• Enter data into computer and check for errors
• Perform analysis of the data using statistics designed for
the research process
• Interpret the data to develop findings and conclusions

28. Steps of nursing research
5. Use the findings
• Adapt the research study findings so that they can be
used in clinical practice
• Spread the word about the study and findings through
journal articles and conferences
• Come up with recommendations for further research
• * Research is not done when a study is completed- more
research is always waiting to be done!

29. Ethics and nursing research
Right to anonymity and confidentiality
• Anonymity: when subject’s identity cannot be linked, even by the
researcher, with his/her individual responses
• Confidentiality: when subjects’ identity and information is kept
anonymous from others

30. Confidentiality
• Researcher’s management of private information shared by a
subject
• Researchers must not share this information without consent of
the subject
• Breach of confidentiality:
• when researcher allows unauthorized person to gain access
to confidential study information
• When subject’s identity is revealed when study is
published/reported

31. Scientific misconduct
Plagiarism:
• Intentionally representing someone else’s work as your own
• Rewording your own paper to create a new paper based on the same data
• Sharing confidential information from others

32. Research misconduct
• Fabrication: making up results
• Falsification: changing results
• Plagiarism: copying results