PHASES OF NURSING RESEARCH • Interpreting the results

• Conceptual phase The Dissemination Phase

• Design and Planning Phase • Communicating the Findings
• Empirical Phase • Utilizing Research Evidence in Practice
• Analytical Phase
• Dissemination Phase THE RESEARCH PROCESS1.
CONCEPTUAL PHASE
The Conceptual Phase Identifying a Research Problem
• Formulating and Delimiting the Problem • What is the problem?
• Reviewing the Related Research – Area of concern
Literature – A perceived difficulty
• Undertaking clinical Field Work – A feeling of discomfort of the ways things
• Defining the framework and Developing are
Conceptual Definitions
• Formulating Hypothesis THE RESEARCH PROCESS
Gap in the knowledge base for practice
The Design and Planning Phase ◦ Not previously studied
• Selecting a Research Design ◦ No known answer
• Developing Protocols for the Intervention ◦ Conflicting findings
• Identifying the Population to be Studied ◦ When existence of phenomenon requires
• Designing the Sampling Plan explanation

The Design and Planning Phase Significant for Nursing

• Specifying Methods to Measure Variables
• Developing Methods to Protect Identifying a Research Problem
Human/Animal Rights • Research Problem
• Finalizing and Reviewing the Research – an enigmatic, perplexing, or troubling
Plan condition that the researcher wants to
address through disciplinary inquiry
The Empirical Phase
• Collecting the Data • Problem Statement
• Preparing Data for Analysis – articulates the problem to be addressed,
an expression of a dilemma or disturbing
The Analytic Phase situation that needs investigation
• Analyzing the Data
• Interpreting the results
Guidelines in Selection of Research
Problem
The Empirical Phase • Chosen by the researcher himself
• Collecting the Data • Within the interest, intellectual curiosity
• Preparing Data for Analysis and drive of the researcher
The Analytic Phase • Relevant and useful to a specific group of
• Analyzing the Data people
• Novel – possesses the element of Purpose & Type of Study
newness or freshness • The purpose of this study was to
– describe..
Guidelines in Selection of Research .– determine differences between groups…
Problem – examine relationships among…
• Well-defined or specified – set the scope – determine the effect of…
and limits of the study
• Measurable Example Research PurposePurpose of
• Time bounded Study :
• Availability of data and method The purpose of this mixed-method
• Cost and return descriptive study is to survey pre-licensure
nursing faculty in New York State About
their knowledge, beliefs ineffectiveness and
Sample Research Problem use of evidence-based teaching strategies
• A study on the health condition of a group which transfer knowledge between theory
• Define Major concepts and practice.
–– Health condition
– Poverty group
Research Objective
Sample Research Problem • Describe the aims and goals which are
• Health condition expected to be attained at the end of the
– Physical research process
– Mental • Stated right after the well-defined research
– both problem on which they are based and from
• Poverty group which they logically follow
– Total annual income of ______– With
_____ member of the family Classifications of Research Objective
• General objective
Sample Research Problem – broad statement of purpose which uses
• Specifies the issues or concerns abstract unmeasurable concepts
– number of family members who had been • Specific objectives
ill for the past year – a statement of purpose which uses well-
• Area of coverage defined and measurable concepts, the
• Who are the respondents - head of the formulation of which should be based on
family…. and logically flow from the general objective.
• The study will be completed within a year
• Data gathering - Quantitative
Sources of Information
• Primary source:
Purpose Statement – Research reports which are descriptions
• Clear, concise statement of studies written by the researchers who
• Goal, aim, focus, or objective of the study conducted them
• Includes variables, population, & setting – First hand accounts of events such as
death
– Include letters, eyewitness accounts,
journals, ethnographies, information from Where to Locate the Sources of Related
questionnaires and interviews. Literature and Studies
• Libraries
Sources of Information • Government and Private Offices
• The National Library
• Secondary Source • The Library of Department of Education
– Research documents are description of
studies prepared by someone other than the Characteristics of Good Related Literature
original researcher • Must be as recent as possible
– Include histories, biographies and • Must be objective and unbiased
textbooks • Must be relevant to the study
• Must have been based upon genuinely
original and true facts or data to make them
Locating Relevant Literature for a Research valid and reliable
Review• • Must not be to few or too many
Electronic Literature Searches
A. Electronic Databases:
Huge bibliographic files that can be Theoretical and Conceptual Framework
accessed by computer Theory
Mapping - set of interrelated construct,definitions,
– a feature that allows you to search for and prepositions that present a systematic
Topics in your own words view of phenomena by specifying relations
among variables with the purpose of
Example topic: Anorexia Nervosa explaining and predicting the phenomena
Look under: anorexia, eating disorders, (Kerlinger, 1973).
weight loss, appetite, eating behavior
Theoretical and Conceptual Framework
Locating Relevant Literature for a Research
Review Relationship of Theory to the research
• Key Electronic Databases for Nurse process
Researchers: A theory, conceptual model or
1. CINAHL theoretical framework identifies parameters
– Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied for the study guide data collection and
Health Literature provides a perspective in the interpretation
2. MEDLINE – Medical Literature OnLine of data to enable the researcher to structure
3. AIDSLINE – AIDS Information OnLine facts into an orderly system.
4. Cancer Lit – Cancer Literature
Concepts
Locating Relevant Literature for a Research – are abstractions that categorize
Review observations based on commonalities and
B. Electronic Catalogue SystemBooks and differences. They are building blocks of
other holdings of libraries can be scanned theories and they vary in level of
electronically. abstraction.
Construct – a group of concepts that are 1. It is a pre theoretic basis from which
directly or indirectly observable. They are substantive theories may be derived.
derived from a combination of academic 2. It is highly abstract.
and clinical knowledge and add meaning 3. Concepts are related and
and scope to a theory. multidimensional.
4. It provides a perspective for science.
5. It is derived from systematic observation
Conceptual models and intuition.
– are concepts that provide a structure or 6. It is developed through the process of
pattern for organizing phenomena of intuition.
interest in the practice or research. 7. It must be evaluated through logical
grounds and cannot be empirically tested.
Paradigm
– used to mean a model or worldview about Theoretical Model or Framework
a major phenomena of concern to a 1. It proposes a framework derived from
discipline. theories.
Conceptual framework – represents a less 2. It is less abstract than conceptual
formal attempt at organizing phenomena. It models.
was assembled by virtue of its relevance to 3. Concepts are narrowly bounded, specific,
a common theme. and explicitly interrelated.
4. It postulates relationships.
Model – represents some aspects of reality, 5. It is constructed from available theories
concrete or abstract, by means of a likeness and findings of empirical research
that may be structural, pictorial, .6. It is developed through the process of
diagrammatic or mathematical (Bush 1979) induction and deduction.
7. It permits empirical tests.
Theoretical framework
– derived from one or more theories or Conceptual Model: Swanson’s theory of
paradigms through the processes of caring (1999)
induction or deduction. It postulates INPUT
relationships among concepts and permits Prenatal Context of Caring:1. As
empirical testing. experienced by women who miscarried
2. As provided by parents and professionals
Theoretical model in the newborn ICU3. As released by at risk
– a group of interrelated theories that mothers who had received a long term
provide rationale for the hypotheses, public health nursing intervention
policies and curricula of science whereas
theory encompasses fewer phenomena. PROCESS
Caring Process Knowing Being with Doing
Difference Between Conceptual and for Enabling Maintaining belief
Theoretical Models
OUTPUT
Conceptual Model or Paradigm Development of Caring – based Counseling
Intervention
Assumptions phenomenon and the variable being
Assumption studied.
– is a statement describing a fact or
condition that is accepted to be true on the 4. Non Directional Hypothesis
basis of logic and reason. –predicts only that there is a relationship
Example: between the variables being studied but
1. All nurses like to give adequate nursing does not specify what it is
care, but there are factors that prevent them .5. Null Hypothesis
from devoting their full time to the care of – is an assumption that there is no
patients. difference between the studied variables. In
2. The patient who faces surgery has fears stating the hypothesis, the researcher
and anxieties, which may be manifested or hopes to reject the statement of no
not. difference.
Scope, Limitations and Delimitations
Variables
Scope – deals with the extent to which the ● In quantitative studies, concepts are
study will be made. referred to as variables
Limitation – are perceived weaknesses that ● Is a characteristics or quality that
are discussed and reported. takes on different values
Certain limitations of research are: ● Varies from one person or object to
1. Insufficient background and skills to study another
the subject area, identify the problem, and
carry through the research process; Different Types of Variables
2. Lack of available information regarding Attribute variables
the study to be undertaken; – are inherent characteristics of a person
3. Insufficient measurement tools to assess that the researcher measures and observes
and analyze the data. (age, health beliefs, or weight).

Delimitation Active variable

– are restrictions that the researcher places – when a researcher actively creates a
on the study prior to data gathering. They variable, as when a special intervention is
may come up in decision making in the introduced.
course of the study and are intermeshed
with the operational definitions in the written Continuous variables
report. – variables that can take an infinite range of
values along a continuum (height & weight)
Formulate the Hypothesis
Hypothesis Discrete variables
– is a shrewd guess or inference that is – by contrast, is one that has finite number
formulated and provisionally adopted to of values between two points (number of
explain observed facts or conditions and to children)
guide further investigation. Also a statement
of the relationship between the
Categorical variables
– with distinct categories that do not students having a skills laboratory
represent a quantity (gender and blood experience and students having a free day
type). preceding the day of test administration.

Dependent variable
– is the behavior, characteristics, or
outcome the researcher is interested in
understanding, explaining, predicting or
affecting.

Independent variable
– is the presumed cause of, antecedent to,
or influence on the dependent variable.

Identify the independent and dependent

variables
1. Performance in College of Nursing is
related to success in the nurses’ licensure
examination.
2. Heredity, home environment and quality
of instruction are related to intelligence,
motivation, and performance in school.
3. People who smoke are more prone to
lung cancer than those who do not smoke.
4.There is a difference in the level of pre-
surgical patients who receive preoperative
instruction than those who do not receive
such instruction.
5.There will be no correlation between
liberalization of attitudes and completion of
a course in human sexuality.
6. Graduates of the baccalaureate degree
program are more proficient at the bedside
than graduates of the diploma program
.7. The use of tranquilizers is more effective
than shock therapy in treating disturbed
mentally ill patients.
8. There is a more significant increase in the
rate of healing of decubitus ulcer among
subjects who receive regular application of
topical insulin than in those who do not.

9. There is no significant difference in skills

inventory performance test between