Graduate: Nursing Research (2)
Graduate: Nursing Research (2) is a continuation of the tab entitled Graduate: Nursing Research. This tab provides in depth resources on research design, study types, critically appraising literature and more. Whether you are a nursing student or practicing nurse, we hope that you find this pertinent information helpful in your studies and career.
Level of Evidence
Evidence-based medicine (EBM), is about finding evidence and using that evidence to make clinical decisions. A cornerstone of EBM is the hierarchical system of classifying evidence. This hierarchy is known as the levels of evidence. Physicians are encouraged to find the highest level of evidence to answer clinical questions (Burns, Rorich, & Chung, 2011).
EBM Levels of Evidence Pyramid
EBM levels of evidence. EBM Pyramid and EBM Page Generator, ? 2006 Trustees of Dartmouth College and Yale University. All Rights Reserved. Produced by Jan Glover, David Izzo, Karen Odato, and Lei Wang.
Case and Study Types
Case Report - a write up of the case of an individual patient; a clinical presentation. Often the first report of a new disease or disease trend.
Case Series - a write up of the cases of several patients all undergoing similar treatment.
Case-Control Study - a comparison of study subjects with a particular disease/risk factor (cases) to those without (controls). These have also been called retrospective studies. A good design for rare diseases but easy to get poor data.
Clinical Trial - an experimental study in which subjects receive an intervention. Preferably subjects are assigned to either treatment or no treatment/placebo (see Controlled Clinical Trial). Some trials compare multiple treatments, e.g. the subjects could be assigned to: Treatment A, Treatment B, No treatment/placebo. The different groups are called arms. This is the best study design for testing effect of interventions.
Cohort Study - a group of subjects followed through time. Cohort studies can be used to track effect of an exposure, e.g. all subjects had been exposed to lead in their housing, or they can track a cohort not exposed. They have also been called prospective studies. This is a strong design for determining risk and incidence.
Controlled Clinical Trial - a Clinical Trial where there is a control group receiving a comparison treatment or no treatment/placebo.
Cross Sectional Study - a descriptive study that documents the number of people with a particular disease or risk factor.
Nursing Resources for Writing Scholarly Projects
- A Nurse’s Step By-Step Guide to Writing a Dissertation or Scholarly Project, Second Edition Feeling overwhelmed by the mere thought of writing your dissertation or scholarly project? Wondering how to begin and where to find the time? You are not alone. Earning your advanced degree is an extraordinary accomplishment, but completing those final stages can be a daunting task. A Nurse's Step By-Step Guide to Writing a Dissertation or Scholarly Project, Second Edition, is a straightforward how-to guide.
Types of Research Study Designs
Research Design Articles
Critical Appraisal
Critical appraisal is the process of carefully and systematically examining research to judge its trustworthiness, and its value and relevance in a particular context.
Research Design- E-Book Collection
- Clinical research study designs: The essentials Abstract In clinical research, our aim is to design a study which would be able to derive a valid and meaningful scientific conclusion using appropriate statistical methods. The conclusions derived from a research study can either improve health care or result in inadvertent harm to patients. Hence, this requires a well‐designed clinical research study that rests on a strong foundation of a detailed methodology and governed by ethical clinical principles. The purpose of this review is to provide the readers an overview of the basic study designs and its applicability in clinical research.
- Nursing Research Using Case Studies : Qualitative Designs and Methods in Nursing Once considered to be a lesser pedagogical method, the case study is indeed a powerful, in-depth tool with which to examine evidence-based practice around patient care, family dynamics, professional roles, and organizational systems. Here is a unique “how-to” guide to conducting research using case studies.
- Nursing Research Using Ethnography : Qualitative Designs and Methods in Nursing '[A]n excellent book for researchers who want to conduct nursing research using ethnography... Weighted Numerical Score: 99 - 5 Stars!'-- Doody's Book ReviewsEthnography is a qualitative research design that focuses on the study of people to explore cultural phenomena.
Cross Sectional versus Longitudinal
A cross-sectional study is a type of research that looks at a sampling of subjects from a particular group to see how many exhibit a particular trait. The study is observational, which means the researchers only look for the trait in which they have an interest and do nothing to alter or change the behavior of the study subjects. Cross-sectional studies are limited to a particular moment in time and do not look backward or forward in gathering information; they do not consider subjects who had the trait in question in the past or who will have it in the future. These studies are useful for studying more than one trait at a time and their results can be applied to a larger group of subjects, which makes them more cost-effective than some other types of studies. However, they only provide a snapshot of the subjects at the time studied and provide no information on causes of the traits in question (Ungarvsky, 2020)
A longitudinal study is a form of research that follows the subject of the study over a certain period. These studies are also known as cohort studies or prospective observational studies. To conduct the study, the researchers select a person or group of people to serve as the study subject. The researchers will keep track of these people and observe them several times over a period of weeks, months, or years. Observation is key; the researchers do not interfere with the subjects they are studying. Instead, they observe some trait or behavior of the subjects over time and compare the results from each observation. This sequence of observations allows the researchers to look for patterns of change and cause-and-effect relationships. Such studies are useful for many purposes, including determining causes of diseases (Ungvarsky, 2020).
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