Reading Research Literature – Credibility and Significance

This week, we finish our review of the steps of the research process by examining the discussion and conclusion of the study report. The researcher looks at the results of data analysis and considers whether they address or answer the research question posed earlier in the process. An opinion may be formed regarding the implications of the findings and how they may be applied to clinical practice.

ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE

The researcher ends the research process by disseminating or communicating information about the research study, usually in a publication, such as the research report. Many readers only look at the abstract and conclusion of the research report. They skip over the methods and results sections because this information may seem too technical or difficult to understand. This course gives you the knowledge necessary to read the entire report and decide for yourself if the evidence from the research should be applied to your practice. Don’t simply rely on the researcher’s interpretation of the findings. Reading Research Literature – Credibility and Significance. Utilize research only if you understand how it was conducted and how the findings were determined. If you read only the conclusion, you risk basing your practice on evidence that is irrelevant, inappropriate, or worse—inaccurate.

The discussion and conclusion section brings the process full circle by referring back to the earlier steps. The conclusion addresses whether the research serves to help close the knowledge gap that was identified at the beginning of the process. The discussion summarizes important findings and compares them to other studies described in the literature review. The researcher may interject personal opinion and speculation when deciding if the findings support the conceptual or theoretical framework. The conclusion also acknowledges the limitations of the study and how these may impact the credibility and applicability of the findings. Reading Research Literature – Credibility and Significance.

The meaning of the findings proposed by the researcher varies depending upon whether the nature of the research question is descriptive, quantitative, or qualitative. Last week, the lesson described how the analysis of the data is influenced by the type of question asked. This week, we will look at how this influences the interpretation of the results.

Descriptive research uses a basic design that seeks to understand phenomena.

• Descriptive questions ask about what is happening.
• Relational questions examine relationships between variables, but the variables are not manipulated. Reading Research Literature – Credibility and Significance.

The data may be collected from surveys, questionnaires, interviews, and observation. Descriptive statistics may be reported for a descriptive question, including the mean, median, and standard deviation. If a relational question was asked, correlation statistics, such as the correlation coefficient, may be done. Regression analysis is performed if a prediction was sought. The researcher explains the meaning of these results in the discussion and conclusion and how the results relate to the questions.

Although descriptive research uses a basic design, the researcher may make predictions based on the findings, ut the researcher should avoid over interpreting the findings. As its name implies, descriptive research is only meant to describe and does not necessarily seek to infer generalizability. Reading Research Literature – Credibility and Significance. Credibility and confidence in the ability to generalize the conclusion to your situation depends primarily on the strength of the sampling strategy. If the strategy was well designed, and the subjects reflect your population, you will have more confidence in utilizing the evidence.

Although the evidence produced by descriptive research is not the strongest level of evidence, it may still be beneficial to the nurse. The in-depth information that is produced by descriptive research serves to develop theories, to discover problems, and to form decisions.

You may recall that earlier in the course we compared the steps of the research process to the nursing process. All of the steps of the nursing process rely on observing and understanding phenomena and describing it accurately. This is similar to the goals of descriptive research. Reading Research Literature – Credibility and Significance.

Descriptive research may be useful to nurses throughout the entire nursing process; however, its application requires an understanding of strengths and limitations.

Quantitative questions in research are stronger levels of evidence when compared to descriptive questions. Descriptive research seeks to describe only what exists. Quantitative research seeks to make conclusions about the effectiveness of an intervention. This type of research uses probability to identify relationships, make predictions, and sometimes infer cause and effect.

Quantitative questions can be broken down into PICO elements—population, intervention, comparison, and outcome. Each element may become a variable in the quantitative study that could have an experimental or quasi-experimental design. The ability to demonstrate causality from interventions leads the nurse to expect certain outcomes when quantitative research-based evidence is applied.

Quantitative findings may improve the use of the nursing process. Their impact differs from the findings of descriptive research because quantitative research links interventions to outcomes.

Quantitative findings are arguably the strongest evidence that research can produce. They are powerful tools that nurses use to integrate evidence to their practice.

Qualitative research questions produce a different type of evidence when compared to quantitative research. Qualitative studies do not seek to manipulate variables or to control them. The researcher is not attempting to show cause and effect relationships. Instead, qualitative research is looking for meaning in the lived experience of its subjects. The phenomena are not measured, and numbers are not reported, except in a limited way. Instead, the phenomena are analyzed to understand their meaning. Reading Research Literature – Credibility and Significance.

Most qualitative research is descriptive in nature. Qualitative questions ask about perceptions, feelings, motivations, attitudes, and other subjective information.

According to Houser (2018), credibility, confirmability, and dependability are all hallmarks of a trustworthy study. The nurse should look for these when deciding whether to apply evidence from qualitative research findings.

Once again, let us see how the nursing process can be improved by research-based evidence. This time the focus is on qualitative research.

Qualitative research findings help the nurse understand the holistic nature of nursing care. The strength of the evidence from qualitative research is based on how it was conducted and the quality of the information it yielded. The link between the findings of qualitative research to practice is more indirect but as valuable as those from quantitative research.