NURS3151 Foundations Nursing Research
Week 1 Discussion
Choosing the Type of Research for a Research Problem
How do you choose the type of research to conduct to address a research problem? What information should you keep in mind to ensure that your research process will adequately address your research problem?
Understanding the different types of research is a critical skill for the nurse researcher and nursing professional. As a current nursing professional, consider how understanding the different types of research may be conducive to achieving a particular mission in your health care setting, such as developing an intervention to address a quality or patient safety problem. This knowledge can also be a step toward assuming a nursing leadership position. As a critical component of your nursing toolkit, differentiating between the types of research is a fundamental step toward enacting change through the process of research.
For this Discussion, please review the following:
Think about clinical practice problems you have seen in health care that compromise patient safety and health outcomes. For example, nursing-sensitive indicators reflect high-priority practice problems, which are described in the article by Martinez, Battaglia, Start, Mastal, and Matlock (2015).
Choose one of the clinical practice problems you have seen in your current or past job in a health care setting. Consider the possible causes of this problem and how you think it is, or was, affecting patient outcomes.
Some patient safety problems are solved by making changes in clinical practice. For example, decreasing catheter-associated urinary tract infections in hospitalized patients often requires changes in clinical practice such as better adherence to preventive measures when catheters are inserted (e.g., use of disposable gloves, maintaining sterile fields, cleansing urethral meatus). For the problem you identified, what specific change in practice do you think is needed?
When a practice change is implemented, it is important to verify whether or not the change has improved patient outcomes. One way to determine this is by conducting research. One of the first steps in the research process involves developing a research question that will later serve as the foundation for your study. Using information from Chapter 5 in your textbook and the handout on developing research questions, think about a research question and about the effectiveness of the practice change you proposed in improving patient outcomes.
Another step in the research process involves identifying which type of research could be conducted to best answer your research question. In Chapter 5 of your textbook you will find a list of different types of research in the first column in Table 5-1, Table 5-2, and Table 5-3. You can learn more about these different types of research in both Chapter 2 and the Glossary in your textbook. To locate even more information, you can also use an Internet search engine for more in-depth descriptions and examples. After learning more about the different types of research, think about which one you think is best for determining how well the clinical practice change you identified will improve patient outcomes.
By Day 3
Post a description of how you would address the following:
Part 1: Patient Safety Problem
Describe the patient safety problem you identified, its causes, and the impact you think it has on patient outcomes. For this problem, describe a specific change in practice that could help improve patient outcomes.
Part 2: Research on Patient Safety Problem
Develop a research question that tests the effectiveness of your practice change in the improvement of one or more patient outcomes. What type of research would you use to answer this question? Describe the reasons why you think this is the best approach and why you would not use the other three types of research.
Note: Post a three paragraph (at least 250–350 words) response. Be sure to use evidence from the readings and include in-text citations. Utilize essay-level writing practice and skills, including the use of transitional material and organizational frames. Use the writing resources to develop your post.
By Day 7
Read two or more of your colleagues’ postings from the Discussion question.
Respond to two or more of your colleagues with a comment that asks for clarification, provides support for, or contributes additional information.
Post a Discussion entry on 3 different days of the week. See the Rubric for more information.
NURS3151 Foundations Nursing Research
Week 2 Discussion
Conducting a Literature Review
For this Discussion, view the webinar in this week’s resources by a Walden University librarian on strategies to conduct a successful literature search. The webinar provides information on available databases, the use of search engines, and the selection of search terms. Then, you will conduct a literature search on research conducted in the last 5 years on the patient safety problem you identified in Week 1.
By Day 3
Post the following:
For the literature search, describe the following in your post:
The databases, search engines, and search terms you used in your literature search
The number of research articles you found on your patient safety problem that were published in the last year
The challenges you encountered locating research articles and how you overcame them
Who you would go to for help in your work setting if you needed help with a literature search
Note: Post a three paragraph (at least 350 words) response. Be sure to use evidence from the readings and include in-text citations. Utilize essay-level writing practice and skills, including the use of transitional material and organizational frames. Use the writing resources to develop your post.
By Day 7
Read two or more of your colleagues’ postings from the Discussion question.
Respond to two or more of your colleagues with a comment that asks for clarification, provides support for, or contributes additional information.
Post a Discussion entry on 3 different days of the week. See the Rubric for more information.
NURS3151 Foundations Nursing Research
Week 3 Discussion
Selection of the appropriate sample is critical to the reliability and validity of research methodology. The sample must be representative of the population that is being studied. Researchers often report both the inclusion and exclusion criteria for the sample. There are many different methods for selecting a sample and random sampling provides the high control of outside variables but is often difficult to utilize in many studies.
For this Discussion, please review the following:
For this assignment, read the article by Labrague, L. & McEnroe-Petitte, D. (2016). Influence of music on preoperative anxiety and physiological parameters in women undergoing gynecologic surgery. Clinical Nursing Research, 25(2), 157-173, listed in the resource section for this week.
By Day 3
Prepare a 350-word post discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the sampling method used in this study and if the sampling method promoted reliable and valid results. Include in the discussion if there is anything the researcher could have done to improve the sampling process.
Note: Post a three paragraph (at least 350 words) response. Be sure to use evidence from the readings and include in-text citations. Utilize essay-level writing practice and skills, including the use of transitional material and organizational frames. Use the writing resources to develop your post.
By Day 7
Read two or more of your colleagues’ postings from the Discussion question.
Respond to two or more of your colleagues with a comment that asks for clarification, provides support for, or contributes additional information.
Post a Discussion entry on 3 different days of the week. See the Rubric for more information.
Click on the Reply button below to reveal the textbox for entering your message. Then click on the Submit button to post your message.
NURS3151 Foundations Nursing Research
Week 4 Discussion
Basic Characteristics of Qualitative Research
As a nursing professional, you will likely engage in research for your health care setting. Depending on the research question you seek to address, you might choose to use a qualitative research design. Understanding when and why it is appropriate to choose a qualitative research design will be important as you develop research skills for nursing practice. As you continue throughout this course, think about what considerations you should keep in mind when choosing to engage in qualitative research. In what ways might qualitative research be more preferred than quantitative research for informing nursing practice?
For this Discussion, be sure to review the qualitative article by Sarvestani et al. (2015). Then, view this week’s Qualitative Research Design PowerPoint webinar that describes each step of the qualitative research process and different approaches used to conduct qualitative research.
By Day 3
You will need to prepare and post at least 350-word response that addresses the following:
Qualitative research often is viewed as not having the same rigor and adherence to objective standards as quantitative studies. Using the references provided to assist you, prepare an argument to either support or refute this claim and post it to the Discussion. In your response, explain if qualitative research does or does not have the controls needed to generate the results that contribute to the nursing knowledge base.
Then, explain if qualitative research could be used to investigate the patient safety problem you identified in Week 1.
Note: Post a three paragraph (at least 350 words) response. Be sure to use evidence from the readings and include in-text citations. Utilize essay-level writing practice and skills, including the use of transitional material and organizational frames. Use the writing resources to develop your post.
By Day 7
Read two or more of your colleagues’ postings from the Discussion question.
Respond to two or more of your colleagues with a comment that asks for clarification, provides support for, or contributes additional information.
Post a Discussion entry on 3 different days of the week. See the Rubric for more information.
Click on the Reply button below to reveal the textbox for entering your message. Then click on the Submit button to post your message.
NURS3151 Foundations Nursing Research
Week 5 Discussion
Access to Existing Databases on Patient Safety, Quality of Care, and Clinical Practice
Quantitative health care databases are developed and published to give health care providers and consumers information about patient quality and safety outcomes. These reports are often distributed to staff in patient care units and shared with health agencies. Understanding the variables and findings described in these databases is important.
By Day 3
Post a description of one existing source of data you found with variables related to a patient quality and safety problem in your practice. Locate the data posted for your agency/facility. If you are unable to find this information for your agency, locate a national database that can be accessed by health professionals, e.g., Medicare Hospital Compare. (Data are also available for home health and nursing homes.) Include the citation and the link to use for web access. Identify three variables found in the database that are important in better understanding a patient safety problem. Explain how you would interpret the results and how they might help improve nursing practice and patient outcomes. Explain how data is used in your own agency, including nursing involvement in the process.
Note: Post a three paragraph (at least 350 words) response. Be sure to use evidence from the readings and include in-text citations. Utilize essay-level writing practice and skills, including the use of transitional material and organizational frames. Use the writing resources to develop your post.
By Day 7
Read two or more of your colleagues’ postings from the Discussion question.
Respond to two or more of your colleagues with a comment that asks for clarification, provides support for, or contributes additional information.
Post a Discussion entry on 3 different days of the week. See the Rubric for more information.
Click on the Reply button below to reveal the textbox for entering your message. Then click on the Submit button to post your message.
NURS3151 Foundations Nursing Research
Week 6 Discussion
Use of Research in Clinical Practice
Throughout this course, you have examined and considered how the research process contributes to the field of clinical nursing practice. More than just an exercise in developing a research question, searching the literature to guide future research, and performing actual data collection/data analysis, the conclusions you draw from your research findings are useful in helping to develop and enact effective clinical practice. In essence, the process of conducting research contributes to positive social change in that the solutions that you might propose as a nurse researcher and professional will likely impact quality of care and patient safety.
For this Discussion, read the book chapter by Titler (2008) presented in this week’s resources that describes evidence-based practice and translational science, as well as the kind of research needed for both. Then, reflect on how the knowledge you gained about research will support your effort as a nursing professional to improve patient quality and safety.
By Day 3
Describe how you will use evidence-based practice to improve patient quality and safety in your health care setting. Be specific and provide examples. Then, explain how the knowledge gained about research in this course will support your role in practice as a nursing professional. Then, describe how you will use evidence-based practice to improve patient quality and safety. Be sure to include in your Discussion any unanswered questions that need to be considered by your classmates and/or Instructor.
Note: Post a three paragraph (at least 350 words) response. Be sure to use evidence from the readings and include in-text citations. Utilize essay-level writing practice and skills, including the use of transitional material and organizational frames. Use the writing resources to develop your post.
By Day 7
Read two or more of your colleagues’ postings from the Discussion question.
Respond to two or more of your colleagues with a comment that asks for clarification, provides support for, or contributes additional information.
Post a Discussion entry on 3 different days of the week. See the Rubric for more information.
Click on the Reply button below to reveal the textbox for entering your message. Then click on the Submit button to post your message.
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