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Introduction
Nursing research is crucial if the profession is to move forward into the 21st century and beyond. Think for a moment about evidenced-based practice. Once it was just a theory in someone's imagination. Now it is a part of every nurse's practice. Quality improvement is another area that has come into practice because of the researches done on its behalf.
Doing research follows pretty much the same route regardless of research type, except for the case study approach. Data is gathered the same as in any other research effort. But that data is verbal, obtained in sometimes exhausting interviews with only a few subjects. The point with case studies is to delve as deeply as possible into some cultural phenomena, and to report what was discovered (Creswell, 2012).
Whatever type of research study one engages, there are some definitive steps one takes to arrive at an understanding of the phenomenon being studied.
Nine Steps
Creswell (2012) outlines 9 steps that the researcher(s) follow. They usually occur in order, but some researchers vary the steps sometimes, depending on the type of research that is being done. It all begins with understanding the problem to be solved. This is really close to the third step, formulating research questions and hypotheses. In fact, research questions and hypotheses naturally follow if the problem is identified properly. In between identifying the problem and generating research questions and hypotheses comes the literature review.
The literature review is crucially important. The researcher reviews as much scholarly information as possible. The literature review can be either pro or con, and perhaps both. The purpose is to get a deeper understanding of the problem and if it really is a problem. (Duke Transitional Nursing Institute, n. d. ). Perhaps there is merit on both sides. The research study may be able to answer that, and a mountain of studies showing the same thing will likely result in positive changes in how that part of nursing is done.
After the literature review and the selection of research question(s) and/or hypotheses, the researcher then proceeds to collecting data. There should be a consistent way the data is collected, so that it can be analyzed properly. If data is collected differently by different researchers doing the same study, the data is pretty nearly useless. That's why most studies rely on surveys to collect data, or by noting how often someone goes outside to smoke. The answers are similar, and can be compared (Creswell, 2012).
Next comes the analysis of data (in the two upcoming steps, the process is repeated for qualitative data, which must be handled differently than quantitative data. But some studies are of the mixed method variety, so an effort would have to be made to go through both kinds of data collection and analysis. The analysis stage is where the statistical work is done (Creswell, 2012). Computers now can do most of that, but it still requires at least a passing knowledge of statistical techniques and their uses. A perfectly good study otherwise could be ruined if the wrong statistical technique is employed.
After the data analysis the researcher(s) then interpreting the data and then reporting on it (Creswell, 2012). The report is the actual "study" that people will see. This is how the information the researcher(s) gleaned gets passed on for others to duplicate or discredit, and both of those things occur. At that point, though, the researcher(s) would probably be elbow-deep in their latest research project.
Nursing Research Goals
Clearly, nursing research is rarely, if ever, conducted without having a specific goal in mind. Nieswiadomy (2011) presents four effective goals for conducting nursing research. They are all, of course, geared to the nursing profession. They don't fall in any particular order, and sometimes one of them may be the goal while the others are not. Those goals are 1) "promote evidence-based nursing practice, 2) ensure credibility of the nursing profession, 3) provide accountability for nursing practice, and 4) document the cost effectiveness of nursing care" (Nieswiadomy, 2011). All four of those are worthy goals, and meet the purpose of moving the nursing profession forward.
Conclusion
It goes without saying that nursing is quite a difficult undertaking even in the best of times. The nurse's day is fraught with decisions that have to be made quickly and irretrievably, with people's lives at stake with many of those decisions. Having a research base to support those decisions is invaluable, and brings science and mathematics into the art of nursing, which is, at its heart, a matter of caring and passing that care on.
It is a good pairing, and has, in the past 50 or 75 years, brought nursing from a subservient necessity to a place in the forefront of medical practice. It only gets better from here.
References
Creswell, J. W. (2012). Educational research: Planning, conducting and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research. 4th ed. New York: Pearson. Retrieved from http://basu.nahad.ir/uploads/creswell.pdf
Duke Transitional Nursing Institute. (n.d.). Identifying clinical research questions that fit practice priorities. Retrieved from http://nursing.duke.edu/sites/default/files/centers/_reduced_1a_findingclinicalquestions_1-11-2011_website1.pdf
Nieswiadomy, R. M. (2011). Foundations in nursing research. 6th ed. New York: Prentice Hall.. Retrieved from http://health.prenhall.com/nieswiadomy/pdf/NIESWIADOMY1.pdf
