Foundations Of Nursing Research Discussion
Week 1 Discussio
To support your work, use your course and text readings and also use resources from the Online Library. As in all assignments, cite your sources in your work and provide references for the citations in APA format. You may use this APA Citation Helper as a convenient reference for properly citing resources.
Begin reviewing and replying to peer postings/responses early in the week to enhance peer discussion. See the rubric for participation points. Participate in the discussion by asking a question, providing a statement of clarification, providing viewpoints with a rationale, challenging aspects of the discussion, or indicating relationships between two or more lines of reasoning in the discussion. Always use constructive language, even in criticism, to work toward the goal of positive progress.
TASK
Post your initial response to one of the two topics below.
Topic 1
- How is research used in your facility?
- Find out if there is a research committee at your facility or who is involved in developing policy based on research.
- Discuss strategies for promoting research in your facility.
Topic 2
- Have you had an experience when evidence-based research had a significant impact on the quality of your patient care that resulted in policy making?
- Please discuss and state the issue and policy.
- Identify who was involved in developing the policy.
Introduction to Nursing Research
Know the Problem
Knowing the problem means being able to identify a gap in nursing practice that can be addressed with evidence.
“First we need to ‘know’ the problem. We have to think about why nurses are leaving,” Nurse Brown said.
“There are many ways of knowing. Which way of knowing will be useful here?” I asked.
Refer to the Watson Caring Science Institute opens in new window to read more on related topics from the Caring Science Library of the Watson Caring Science Institute.
“We need to know empirically,” Nurse Burns said.
Everyone had something to say since they often interacted with many dissatisfied nurses on a day-to-day basis. From the discussion, we could make out that there were three main concerns—low morale, lack of motivation, and stress. Nurse Cynthia Jones said, “It looks like all of them exhibit decreased job satisfaction,” and all of us agreed.
“So if we increase job satisfaction, we should be able to hold them here longer,” she continued.
It seemed simple.
Increased Job Satisfaction = Decreased Turnover
Ways of Knowing There are four fundamental patterns or ways of knowing or obtaining knowledge:
- Aesthetic knowing is the art of nursing. It includes the technical skills we, as nurses, develop with experience. This is made visible to others through the “bearing, conduct, attitude, and interactions of the nurse in response to others.” An aspect of this way of knowing would be empathy for patients the ability of the nurse to actually feel what the patient is feeling. This type of knowing is the basis for the caring theorists like Watson. It answers the question, “What does this mean?”
Refer to the Webliography of this course to learn more about the caring theorist, Jean Watson.
- Ethical knowing focuses on what ought to be done. It refers to understanding the difference between right and wrong while having respect for human life. It, however, is not just knowing the difference but taking the correct moral action. It answers the question, “Is this right and for whom?” An example of ethical knowing would be understanding why and knowing how to respond to a Jehovah’s Witness patient who will not agree to a blood transfusion.
- Personal knowing is the knowledge of self. It is the idea that one must know oneself before one can know another person. This type of knowing is obtained when a nurse approaches a patient as a person instead of as a list of diagnoses or problems. Personal knowing refers to understanding the meaning of our own health and the health of others. It answers the questions, “Do I know what I do? Do I do what I know?”
- Empirical knowing is the science of nursing. This is the factual part of nursing that can be verified by others. It answers the question, “What is this, and how does it work?”
Nursing Research
“How will we increase job satisfaction?” I asked. Apparently, the hospital administration had tried several things, including an “across the board” raise, with no change in the turnover rate. Nurse Jones suggested, “It’s better to ask the nurses themselves. Empirical knowledge, again, is the best possible way to ‘know’ here.”
“It sounds to me like we are actually going to conduct some nursing research here!” I said excitedly. Though we did have a couple of research reviews as part of the nursing program, this would be my first experience of an actual nursing research after my training. The prospect seemed really interesting.
Refer to the Nursing research topic opens in new window to learn more on the nursing research topic.
I told the committee that we could conduct a survey to find out what would make the nurses happy. I told them about the research class that I had taken in my nursing program. While I did not remember all the details of the course, I had kept my notes from the class. I said that I would review my notes from the class and see if I could come up with some ideas for the next meeting.
We decided to adjourn for the day and meet later in the week. Each of us would think about the problem at hand and come back with suggestions.
As we walked back to the unit, I told Nurse Jones how excited I was to be part of a research project.
“You will get many opportunities to research here, Nurse Marge. All the initiatives we start here are based on some form of nursing research. The role of research is immense. We cannot do anything without it!” Nurse Jones said.
Back home, I looked up my research notes. A brief look at my notebook and I knew exactly what to review.
I glanced at my watch. It was 9:00 p.m. I decided to have dinner and then go to sleep as I was quite exhausted. It had been a hectic as well as an exciting day for me.
I could not get much sleep as I was excited about my new role. I rose early the next morning, made myself a cup of coffee, and sat down to read again.
I reviewed all the different types of research and put together a table presenting the various approaches for the Nurse Retention Committee. Back at the hospital, I gave examples to the nurses of each type of approach as it was related to job satisfaction.
We decided that the best way to approach our problem of high turnover rate and job dissatisfaction would be “descriptive survey research.” It is an important and useful method of data collection by asking the nurses some questions and recording their responses. We decided to use the descriptive survey study method for our research since we would not be performing any interventions.
We also decided that a quantitative approach would be the most beneficial way to approach the research question because the results could be presented as data (numbers) to the hospital administration.
In “survey method research,” participants answer questions administered through interviews or questionnaires. After participants answer the questions, researchers describe the responses given. It is important to emphasize that descriptive research methods can only describe a set of observations or the data collected. These methods cannot draw conclusions from that data about which way the relationship goes—does A cause B or does B cause A?
At the end of our meeting, we felt that we were on the right track to addressing our problem. First, we determined what the issue to be addressed was and then we reviewed the many ways to approach the issue. After determining what type of research would be the best, quantitative or qualitative, we formulated our research question.
As we ended the meeting, we assigned the next task to several members of the committee. I was one of the volunteers for this task. I agreed to help do a review of the literature to see what other research studies were available to us. This step of the research process would be very valuable to us as our review took shape.
In Week 2, you will explore and review research sources and literature, research problems, purposes, objectives, questions, and hypotheses. You will learn about the common sources used to gather information for medical research. In addition, you will learn how to choose a research design appropriate to a research problem.
References
American Nurses Association. (n.d.). Official ANA position statements. Retrieved from http://www.nursingworld.org/positionstatements
Houser, J. (2015). Nursing research: Reading, using, and creating evidence (3rd ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett.
Additional Materials
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