Nursing Research I

(NRCM 0111)
Macy Josephine C. Batol, RN
College of Nursing and Midwifery
Bataan Peninsula State University
Research Process in Quantitative
and Qualitative Studies
Objectives
1. Understand the major phases of research process
2. Formulate a Research Problem and delimit a research problem
Introduction
• The research process involves conceptualizing a research study,
planning and implementing that study and communicating the
findings.
• The process involves a logical flow as each step builds on the previous
steps.
• Research studies to be carried out must have a methodology.
• Research methods are the techniques researchers use to structure a
study and to gather and analyze information relevant to the research
question.
• Quantitative
• Qualitative
Quantitative
• a formal, objective, systematic process in which numeric data are
used
• Deriving meaning from the statistical analysis of numerical data
obtained from samples and populations has yielded significant
contributions to nursing knowledge.
Characteristics of Quantitative Research
a. The intent is to apply or generalize knowledge from a smaller sample
of subjects to a larger population.
b. It produces knowledge about very precise topics, creating a need for
multiple studies over multiple years before conclusive knowledge is
yielded.
c. It uses deductive reasoning to generate predictions that are tested in
the real world.
d. It typically moves in a systematic fashion from the definition of a
problem and the selection of concepts on which to focus, to the
solution of the problem.
e. It is systematic and progress logically through a series of steps,
according to a prespecified plan.
Characteristics of Quantitative Research
f. It uses mechanisms designed to control the research situation so that
biases are minimize and precision and validity are maximized
g. It uses formal instruments to collect needed information. The
numeric information that results from some type of formal
measurement and is analyzed with statistical procedures

Example Designs: The most common quantitative designs used in

health care research are survey, needs assessment, experimental,
quasi-experimental methodologic, meta-analysis, and secondary
analysis.
Qualitative
• a systematic approach used to describe and promote understanding
of human experiences related to health.
• Concepts such as pain, caring, caregiving, and depression are of
primary importance to nursing thus qualitative research design
provides a dimension of understanding to nursing science that adds
to traditional quantitative methodology.
Characteristics of Qualitative Research
a. It is a method for discovery rather than verification. It is used to
explore little-known or ambiguous phenomena. The researcher is
looking to explain phenomena or process rather than to verify a cause
and effect.
b. Qualitative methods can be important to the complex study of
humans. Concepts that are important to health care professionals often
are difficult to reduce in a quantitative way.
c. Interviewing is the main technique used in qualitative methods to
explore the meaning of certain experiences to individuals.
d. This method is time consuming and costly and uses small samples;
therefore, generalizations cannot be made from findings.
e. It carefully collects and analyzes materials that are narrative and
subjective.
Characteristics of Qualitative Research
f. It tends to emphasize the dynamic, holistic, and individual aspects of
phenomena and attempt to capture those aspects in their entirety,
within the context of those who are experiencing them.
g. It yields rich, in-depth information that can potentially clarify the
varied dimensions of a complicated phenomenon (e.g., the process by
which mid-life women adapt to menopause).
h. The findings from in-depth qualitative research are typically
grounded in the real-life experiences of people with first-hand
knowledge of a phenomenon.

Example Designs: The main types of qualitative research designs

include phenomenology, ethnography, and grounded theory.
Phases of Research Process
Quantitative
• move from the beginning point of a study (the posing of a question)
to the end point (the obtaining of an answer) in a reasonably linear
sequence of steps that is broadly similar across studies.
Phase 1: The Conceptual Phase
• The early steps in a quantitative research typically involve activities
with a strong conceptual or intellectual element.
• The conceptualization requires the skills of creativity, deductive
reasoning, and a grounding in existing research evidence on the topic
of interest is critical.
Step 1: Formulating and Delimiting the
Problem
• It begins by identifying an interesting, significant research problem
and formulating good research questions.
• In developing research questions, nurse researchers must pay close
attention to the following substantive issues, Ask self:
1. Is this research question important, given the evidence base?
2. Are there theoretic issues (Is there a conceptual context for enhancing
understanding of this problem?)
3. Are there clinical issues (Could study findings be useful in clinical practice?)
4. Are there methodologic issues (How can this question best be answered to
yield high-quality evidence?)
5. Are there ethical issues (Can this question be rigorously addressed in an
ethical manner?)
Step 2: Reviewing the Related Literature
• Quantitative research is typically conducted within the context of
previous knowledge.
• It typically strives to understand what is already known about a topic
by undertaking a thorough literature review before any data are
collected.
Step 3: Undertaking Clinical Fieldwork
• Researchers who has an interest on a clinical study often will benefit
from spending time in appropriate clinical settings, discussing the
topic with clinicians and health care administrators, and observing
current practices.
• The fieldwork can provide perspectives on recent clinical trends,
current diagnostic procedures, and relevant health care delivery
models.
• Likewise, it can also help researchers better understand clients’
perspectives and the settings in which care is provided.
Step 4: Defining the Framework and
Developing Conceptual Definitions
• When quantitative research is performed within the context of a
conceptual framework, the findings may have broader significance
and utility.
• Even when the research question is not embedded in a theory,
researchers must have a conceptual rationale and a clear vision of the
concepts under study. This will ensure that the study is well founded
on a framework.
Step 5: Formulating Hypotheses
• Hypotheses are statements of researchers’ expectations about
relationships among study variables.
• Hypotheses are predictions of expected outcomes; they state the
relationships researchers expect to observe in the study data; a
hypothesis is the predicted answer.
• Most quantitative studies are designed to test hypotheses through
statistical analysis.
Phase 2: The Design and Planning Phase
• In the second major phase of a quantitative research study, a decision
about the study site and about the methods and procedures to be
used to address the research question is critical.
• These decisions have crucial implications for the integrity and
generalizability of the study findings.
Step 6: Selecting a Research Design
• The research design is the architectural backbone of the study.
• It is the overall plan for obtaining answers to the questions being
studied.
• In designing the study, researchers decide which specific design will
be adopted and what they will do to minimize bias and enhance the
interpretability of results.
• In quantitative studies, research designs tend to be highly structured
and controlled.
• As such, it indicates other aspects of the research as to how often
data will be collected, what types of comparisons will be made, and
where the study will take place.
Step 7: Developing Protocols for the
Intervention
• In experimental research, researchers create the independent
variable, which means that participants are exposed to different
treatments or conditions.
• An intervention protocol for the study would need to be developed,
specifying exactly what the intervention will entail (e.g., who would
administer it, how frequently and over how long a period the
treatment would last, and so on) and what the alternative condition
would be.
• The goal of well-articulated protocols is to have all subjects in each
group treated in the same way. In nonexperimental research, of
course, this step is not necessary.
Step 8: Identifying the Population
• The researcher needs to know what characteristics the study
participants should possess and clarify the group to whom study
results can be generalized that is, they must identify the population to
be studied.
• A population is all the individuals or objects with common, defining
characteristics. For example, the population of interest might be all
adult male patients undergoing chemotherapy in Bataan.
Step 9: Designing the Sampling Plan
• Researchers typically collect data from a sample, which is a subset of
the population.
• Using samples is clearly more practical and less costly than collecting
data from an entire population, but the risk is that the sample might
not adequately reflect the population’s traits.
• In a quantitative study, a sample’s adequacy is assessed by the
criterion of representativeness (i.e., how typical or representative the
sample is of the population).
• The sampling plan specifies in advance how the sample will be
selected and how many subjects there will be.
Step 10: Specifying Methods to Measure
Variables
• Researchers must develop or borrow methods to measure the
research variables as accurately as possible.
• Based on the conceptual definitions, researchers select or design
methods to operationalize the variables and collect their data.
• A variety of quantitative data collection approaches exist for example,
the primary methods are self-reports (e.g., interviews), observations
(e.g., observing children’s behavior), and bio- physiologic
measurements.
Step 11: Developing Methods to Safeguard
Human/Animal Rights
• Most nursing research involves human subjects. The procedures need
to be developed to ensure that the study adheres to ethical
principles.
• Each aspect of the study plan needs to be scrutinized to determine
whether the rights of subjects have been adequately protected.
Step 12: Reviewing and Finalizing the
Research Plan
• Before actually collecting data, researchers often perform a number
of “tests” to ensure that procedures will work smoothly.
• For example, they may evaluate the readability of written materials to
determine if participants with low reading skills can comprehend
them, or they may pretest their measuring instruments to assess their
adequacy.
Phase 3: The Empirical Phase
• The empirical portion of quantitative studies involves collecting
research data and preparing the data for analysis.
• The empirical phase is often the most time-consuming part of the
study.
• Data collection may require months of work.
Step 13: Collecting the Data
• The actual collection of data often proceeds according to a
preestablished plan.
• It typically articulates procedures for training data collection staff,
describing the study to participants, the actual collection of data (e.g.,
where and when the data will be gathered), and recording
information.
Step 14: Preparing the Data for Analysis
• Data collected in a quantitative study are rarely amenable to direct
analysis.
• Preliminary steps are needed. One such step is coding, which is the
process of translating verbal data into numeric form (e.g., coding
gender information as “1” for females and “2” for males).
• Another preliminary step involves transferring the data from written
documents onto computer files for analysis.
Phase 4: The Analytic Phase
• Quantitative data gathered in the empirical phase are not reported as
a mass of numbers.
• They are subjected to analysis and interpretation, which occurs in the
fourth major phase of a project.
Step 15: Analyzing the Data
• To answer research questions and test hypotheses, researchers need
to analyze their data in an orderly, coherent fashion.
• Quantitative information is analyzed through statistical analyses,
which include some simple procedures (e.g., computing an average)
as well as complex and sophisticated methods.
Step 16: Interpreting the Results
• Interpretation is the process of making sense of study results and of
examining their implications.
• It attempts to explain the findings in light of prior evidence, theory,
and their own clinical experience and in light of the adequacy of the
methods they used in the study.
• Interpretation also involves determining how the findings can best be
used in clinical practice, or what further research is needed before
utilization can be recommended.
Phase 5: The Dissemination Phase
• In the analytic phase, researchers come full circle: the questions
posed at the outset are answered.
• The researchers’ job is not completed, however, until the study
results are disseminated.
Step 17: Communicating the Findings
• A study cannot contribute evidence to nursing practice if the results
are not communicated.
• Another and often final task of a research project, therefore, is the
preparation of a research report that can be shared with others.
Step 18: Putting the Evidence into Practice
• Ideally, the concluding step of a high-quality study is to plan for its use
in practice settings.
• Although nurse researchers may not themselves be in a position to
implement a plan for utilizing research findings, they can contribute
to the process by developing recommendations regarding how the
evidence could be incorporated into nursing practice, by ensuring
that adequate information has been provided for a meta-analysis, and
by vigorously pursuing opportunities to disseminate the findings to
practicing nurses.
Qualitative
• Qualitative studies progression is closer to a circle than to a straight
line.
• Qualitative researchers are continually examining and interpreting
data and making decisions about how to proceed based on what has
already been discovered.
Characteristics of Qualitative
1. Flexible approach to the collection and analysis of data
2. It is impossible to define the flow of activities precisely the flow
varies from one study to another, and researchers themselves do not
know ahead of time exactly how the study will unfold.
3. It may not pose refined research questions at the outset.
Phase 1: Conceptualizing and
Planning a Qualitative Study
Step 1: Identifying the Research Problem
• Qualitative researchers usually begin with a broad topic area, often
focusing on an aspect of a topic that is poorly understood and about
which little is known.
• The researchers often proceed with a fairly broad initial question that
allows the focus to be sharpened and delineated more clearly once
the study is underway.
Step 2: Doing a Literature Review
• Qualitative researchers do not all agree about the value of doing an
upfront literature review.
• Some believe that researchers should not consult the literature
before collecting data.
• The concern is that prior studies might influence the
conceptualization of the phenomena under study.
• According to this view, the phenomena should be elucidated based
on participants’ viewpoints rather than on prior information.
• Others believe that researchers should conduct at least a brief
literature review at the outset.
• In any case, qualitative researchers typically find a relatively small
body of relevant previous work because of the type of questions they
ask.
Step 3: Selecting and Gaining Entrée into
Research Sites
• Before going into the field, qualitative researchers must identify a site
that is consistent with the research topic.
• For example, if the topic is the health beliefs of the urban poor, an
inner-city neighborhood with a concentration of low-income
residents must be identified.
• Gaining entrée typically involves negotiations with gatekeepers who
have the authority to permit entry into their world.
Step 4: Addressing Ethical Issues
• Qualitative researchers, like quantitative researchers, must also
develop plans for addressing ethical issues—and, indeed, there are
special concerns in qualitative studies because of the more intimate
nature of the relationship that typically develops between
researchers and study participants.
Conducting a Qualitative Study
• In qualitative studies, the tasks of sampling, data collection, data
analysis, and interpretation typically take place iteratively.
• Qualitative researchers begin by talking with or observing people who
have first-hand experience with the phenomenon under study.
• The discussions and observations are loosely structured, allowing
participants to express a full range of beliefs, feelings, and behaviors.
• Analysis and interpretation are ongoing, concurrent activities that
guide choices about the kinds of people to question next and the
types of question to ask or observations to make.
• The actual process of data analysis involves clustering together
related types of narrative information into a coherent scheme.
Conducting a Qualitative Study
• As analysis and interpretation progress, researchers begin to identify
themes and categories, which are used to build a rich description or theory
of the phenomenon.
• The kinds of data obtained become increasingly focused and purposeful as
the theory emerges.
• Concept development and verification shape the sampling process as a
conceptualization or theory develops, the researcher seeks participants
who can confirm and enrich the theoretic understandings, as well as
participants who can potentially challenge them and lead to further
theoretic insight.
• The sampling decisions are guided by the data themselves. Many
qualitative researchers use the principle of saturation, which occurs when
themes and categories in the data become repetitive and redundant, such
that no new information can be gleaned by further data collection.
Conducting a Qualitative Study
• Qualitative researchers are the main data collection instrument and
must take steps to demonstrate the trustworthiness of the data while
in the field.
• The central feature of these efforts is to confirm that the findings
accurately reflect the experiences and viewpoints of participants,
rather than researchers’ perceptions.
• One confirmatory activity, for example, involves going back to
participants and sharing preliminary interpretations with them so that
they can evaluate whether the researcher’s thematic analysis is
consistent with their experiences.
• Qualitative nursing researchers also strive to share their findings at
conferences and in journal articles.
Conducting a Qualitative Study
• Qualitative findings often are the basis for formulating hypotheses
that are tested by quantitative researchers, for developing measuring
instruments for both research and clinical purposes, and for designing
effective nursing interventions.
• Qualitative studies help to shape nurses’ perceptions of a problem or
situation, their conceptualizations of potential solutions, and their
understanding of patients’ concerns and experiences.
Video Presentation
1. Research Design (Quantitative) - https://youtu.be/10nMNh3RMp0
2. Research Design (Qualitative) - https://youtu.be/wbdN_sLWl88
- https://youtu.be/_0HxMpJsm0I