Research Methodology Chapter 1 Dr. Areefa Albahri Assistant Professor

The Importance of Research in Nursing & midwifery Nurses& midwives increasingly are expected to adopt an evidence-based practice (EBP), which is broadly defined as the use of the best clinical evidence in making patient care decisions. Nurses are accepting the need to base specific nursing actions and decisions on evidence indicating that the actions are clinically appropriate, cost-effective, and result in positive outcomes for clients.

The Importance of Research in Nursing Nursing research is essential if nurses are to understand the varied dimensions of their profession. Research enables nurses to describe the characteristics of a particular nursing situation about which little is known; to explain phenomena that must be considered in planning nursing care; to predict the probable outcomes of certain nursing decisions; to control the occurrence of undesired outcomes; and to initiate activities to promote desired client behavior. s.

PURPOSES OF SCIENTIFIC RESEACH 1- Description: it means description of phenomena relevant to midwifery by observation. Example: bed sores in the unconscious patients. The researcher seek to document the degree of severity of bed sore.

In a descriptive study, researchers observe, count, delineate, and classify. Nurse researchers have described a wide variety of phenomena. Examples include patients’ stress and coping, pain management, adaptation processes, health beliefs. Description can be a major purpose for both qualitative and quantitative researchers. Quantitative description focuses on the prevalence, incidence, size, and measurable attributes of phenomena. Qualitative researchers, on the other hand, use in-depth methods to describe the dimensions, variations, and importance of phenomena.

Quantitative example of description Bohachick, Taylor, Sereika, Reeder, and Anton (2002) conducted a study to describe quantitative changes in psychological well-being and psychological resources 6 months after a heart transplantation. Qualitative example of description: Bournes and Mitchell (2002) undertook an in-depth study to describe the experience of waiting in a critical care waiting room.

2- Explanation: explanatory research attempts to offer understanding of the underlying causes of phenomena. (why question) Example: why aging process can cause elevation in blood pressure.

*causal relationship: means that one variable 3- Predication: the researcher predicts if there is a causal relationship between the variable under study. *causal relationship: means that one variable cause changes in the other variables. For example, research has shown that the incidence of Down syndrome in infants increases with the age of the mother. We can predict that a woman aged 40 years is at higher risk of bearing a child with Down syndrome than is a woman aged 25 years.

4- Control: the process that used by the researcher to hold or control the extraneous or confounding variables that might affect the dependent variable [DV] under investigation. Example Smoking and lung cancer. smokers person are at higher risk to develop lung cancer than nonsmokers person. Control: the researcher should control family history of cancer, hormonal therapy, living condition, the same area of the subject ( air pollution, environmental pollution ).

NURSING RESEARCH: PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE Most people would agree that research in nursing began with Florence Nightingale in 1950s. Her landmark publication, Notes on Nursing (1859), Nightingale’s most widely known research contribution involved her data collection and analysis relating to factors affecting soldier mortality and morbidity during the Crimean War.

Most studies conducted between 1900 and 1940 concerned nurses’ education. For example, in 1923, a group called the Committee for the Study of Nursing Education studied the educational preparation of nurse teachers, administrators, and public health nurses and the clinical experiences of nursing students.

Paradigms and Methods: Quantitative and Qualitative Research The two alternative paradigms have strong implications for the research methods to be used. The methodological distinction typically focuses on differences between quantitative research , which is most closely allied with the positivist tradition, qualitative research, which is most often associated with naturalistic inquiry— researchers sometimes collect both types.

THE PURPOSES OF NURSING RESEARCH The general purpose of nursing research is to answer questions or solve problems of relevance to the nursing profession. . For example, a researcher may perform an in-depth study to better understand normal grieving processes, without having explicit nursing applications in mind. Applied research focuses on finding solutions to existing problems. For example, a study to determine the effectiveness of a nursing intervention to ease grieving would be applied research. Basic research is appropriate for discovering general principles of human behavior and bio physiologic processes; applied research is designed to indicate how these principles can be used to solve problems in nursing practice

RESEARCH PROBLEMS SOURCES OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEMS Personal experience: personal experience and observation are the most common sources to identify the research problem. (PIH and Hereditary) 2- Literature: the existing literature is an excellent sources of ideas for research studies by reading midwifery journals. (obesity and GD)

3- Ideas from others: these ideas may be given as a direct suggestion or discussion group. (QOL among pregnant women in USA) 4- Pervious study: mainly at the end of the study, the researcher gives some recommendation to conduct other study related to the same problem. (QOL among pregnant women in London)

Research study paradigms nursing R is conducted within two broad paradigms—world • the positivist paradigm: it is assumed that there is an objective reality and that natural phenomena are regular and orderly. The related assumption of determinism refers to the belief that phenomena are the result of prior causes and are not haphazard. In the naturalistic paradigm, it is assumed that reality is not a fixed entity but is rather a construction of human minds—and thus “truth” is a composite of multiple constructions of reality.