Reasons for Undertaking Research in Nursing

The comparison is mainly undertaken to analyse and evaluate the findings which enables the researchers to understand whether significant variance has taken place within the data in course of time. This plays a very important role in helping the researchers to evaluate the accuracy of the data and information that has been obtained from past research studies.  For example with advances in the fields of medical science, there has been an increase in the positive health outcomes for the patients in recent times (Kazdin, 2008). Many diseases which were previously considered to be life threatening are easily treatable with modern advancements in medicine.

The hypothesis testing is a crucial component of any deductive research which helps the researchers to evaluate the accuracy of the theories and postulates that have been considered by past researchers for their research.  The main objective of the hypothesis test is to understand the correlation between the independent and dependent variable that have been considered in the research (DeMaris & Selman, 2013).  For example in a previous research if researchers have tried to establish a link between smoking and lung cancer, the hypothesis testing would help us to establish whether there is really a relationship between smoking and lung cancer.

The trend identification process helps the researchers to understand the latest trends about the particular chosen research topic. The process of trend identification invariably involves analysing and examining the current and existing data and information about a selected event or subject which is to be studied in the research and this plays a vital role in creating the groundwork for the entire research process (Taylor et al., 2015).  

Own knowledge extension process is really crucial as this would enable us to approach the research with an open mind which is crucial for ensuring the highest levels of ethical approach during the research process. Our knowledge extension process is a crucial prerequisite which would enable us to ensure an unbiased and impartial approach during the entire research process (Blessing & Chakrabarti, 2009).  

This can be accomplished by understanding the ethical aspects of a research and ensuring that all those practices are strictly followed and implemented during the entire research process (Fook, 2011).   

There are various sources of information that could be utilised during a research process and some among them include:

1) Books and journals obtained from the library.’

2) Online Medical Journals obtained from online databases such as PubMed, CINAHL, etc.

3) Science magazines and journals which are published and are available upon monthly subscription (McMillan & Schumacher, 2010).  

According to Dr. David Sackett, the evidence based practice is considered to be the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of existing best evidences in the process of making decisions about the care of the individual patients (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2011). The three main principles which underpin the Evidence based research are as follow:

1) Utilising the clinical expertise/expert opinions

2) Utilising the external scientific evidence,

3) Utilising the client/patient/caregiver perspectives while providing the highest quality of services that would reflect the interests, values, needs, and choices of the patients that are being served (Kazdin, 2008).

Credible Sources for Research

There are various models of Evidence-based practices which could be utilised in a health and social care setting and these are mentioned below:

1) PICO (Population, Intervention, Control and Outcome) Framework (Dang & Dearholt, 2017).

2) Research Evidence Appraisal Tool.

3) PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) model (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2011).

The ACE Star Model of Knowledge Transformation is an effective model that enables us to understand the cycles, natures and characteristics of knowledge which could be utilised for satisfying the principles of evidence based practice. The main advantage of this model is that it makes use of both old and new concepts of care and treatment provisions which eventually enables the care providers to further improve the quality of care by incorporating the diverse processes and approaches of evidence based practices (Norcross & Wampold, 2011). This plays a vital role in improving the health outcomes for their service users. It is often configured as a five point star which represents the five main stages of knowledge transformation and these include knowledge discovery, evidence synthesis, translation into practice recommendations, integration into practice and evaluation (Kazdin, 2008).

The four main rules of an evidence based research are as follows:

1) Asking the Right Questions.

2) Searching for the Evidence.

3) Appraising the Evidence.

4) Acting on the Evidence.

The duty of care is a vital component of the evidence based practice which helps in ensuring that the individual rights of the patients are never violated and the care providers along with the medical practitioners could be held accountable to the patients for their actions. Under the provisions of duty of care, it is the moral responsibility of the care providers to always act in the best interests of their patients and take necessary actions for ensuring their personal safety and wellbeing (Norcross & Wampold, 2011). Furthermore, the care providers must take the verbal consent from the patient or their family members (in case the patient is not capable of giving their consent) before beginning any medical treatment procedure and they have to clearly explain the long term consequences that could arise from the treatment process.

The main difference between evidence based practice and continuous quality improvement is that while the evidence based practice is a scientifically approved practice that is aimed at producing better health outcomes for the service users of healthcare establishment while the continuous quality improvement is a quality control approach that deals with a constant improvement of the service quality that is eventually being delivered by the healthcare establishment to their patients. The evidence based practice is already considered to be a good practice that is widely approved by modern medical research establishments which helps in ensuring that the patients are always provided with the best care and treatment provisions that are presently available in the market (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2011). On the other hand the continuous quality improvement mainly emphasis on the aspect of ensuring the highest levels of priority towards the individual patient safety and well being while making sure that the care providers always act in the best interests of their patients (Cartwright, 2018).    

Trilateral Principles of Evidence-Based Practice

1) Authors evaluate internet information resources since it is a significant part of the research. Not all the internet or other mode of information are authentic, nor will all the resources are suitable for research or project. The print and internet resources vary in their accuracy, coverage and objective. Author needs to critically evaluate the authenticity and appropriateness of all kind of resources before applying the information. The authenticity and quality of internet information could be ensured by obtaining data and information from reliable sources only such as CINAHL and PubMed (McMillan & Schumacher, 2010).  

2) Moreover importance should be provided to the use of specific keywords for the research process. This would help the researcher to filter down the searching process while enabling them to gather reliable information pertaining to the research topic (Oliver, 2010).

3) Emphasis should be given to the use of peer reviewed articles which have been already been established and validated as accurate and reliable sources of information.  

There are various steps in the research process and these are mentioned below:

1) Introduction to the Research topic or event which is going to be studied.

2) Obtaining the available literature pertaining to the research.

3) Explaining the methodology adopted for conducting the entire research process.

4) Collecting the data and information pertaining to the research (data can include either primary data or secondary data or both)  

5) Analysing the collected data and information to arrive at effective outcomes.

6) Concluding the research by providing the recommendations (Taylor et al., 2015).    

The cultural considerations that need to be taken into account while developing any research include the following:

1) Evaluating and understanding the culture and diversity of a population on whom the research is going to be undertaken (Simonsen et al., 2008).

2)  Protecting the privacy of the research respondents who have participated in the research process.

3) Ensuring that the findings and outcomes obtained from the research could be eventually utilised to benefit the local communities and the larger society as a whole (Gjersing et al., 2010).

1) Ensuring that the contributions of the previous authors are clearly acknowledged (in the Reference/Bibliography section) whose work has been utilised in the research process (Oliver, 2010).

2) Taking the permission and approval from the researchers before incorporating their findings and explanation into the existing research process.

3) In case of academic research, the researcher has the moral responsibility of ensuring that their research is going to be utilised only for academic purpose and not for commercial purpose (Miller et al., 2012).

The process of comparing and contrasting could be done by utilising a wide variety of academic sources for the process of information gathering. This would help the researcher to ensure that only accurate and reliable information are being utilised for the research process (McMillan & Schumacher, 2010).    

The challenging aspect of the research occurs when the researcher is unable to find out any reliable data or information pertaining to any research topic that he/she has chosen for evaluation. This usually occurs when the researcher has chosen a relatively unusual topic which has not be adequately researched before by previous scholars (Noor, 2008).   

Models of Evidence-Based Practice

This aspect would help the researcher in their self learning and development process. The researcher would be able to gather new knowledge and information from the research which would eventually help them to enhance their understanding about the research topic (Fook, 2011).   

Use of specific keywords during the information searching process is a must as it would help the researcher to filter the entire searching process thereby getting access to only accurate and reliable information pertaining to their chosen research topic. This would help them to eliminate the possibility of utilising any kind of irrelevant information about the research topic (Oliver, 2010).  

The researcher would draw interdisciplinary connections by making use of a wide variety of information from various sources and medical disciplines and this would enable them to conduct a thorough and accurate research from their end (McMillan & Schumacher, 2010).

The strength of the information can be assessed by evaluating the sources from where the information has been gathered. Searching important keywords in a research article would also provide the researcher with a better understanding about the strength of information (DuBois, 2008).  

The relevance of information could be evaluated by searching for specific keywords which are associated with the chosen research topic.     

 Reliability of the information could be accessed by searching up the chosen information source such as research articles and journals in medical databases such as PubMed and CINAHL (Polit & Beck, 2008).  

Assessing the currency of information:

The currency of information can be evaluated by examining the time period (year of publishing) in which the research has been conducted by the researcher. Notably, the researcher could utilise sources of information that are no more than 10 years old as they are still considered to be appropriate and reliable (Taylor et al., 2015).

The feasibility of information could be gathered by evaluating whether any previous research on a similar research topic has been undertaken by the previous researchers. If there are few information available about a chosen research topic due to the lack of accurate data and information from past researches, the feasibility of getting information would become extremely tough and challenging for the researcher (Oliver, 2010).

 Information helps us to back up our explanation and understanding about a particular event or research subject with hard core evidence and fact. This helps in validating the findings from the research.  

Information misuse is a major risk which must be strictly dealt with by the researcher. The researcher should always strive to maintain the confidentiality of the data and information that have been collected for the research (Noor, 2008).     

Reference:

Blessing, L. T., & Chakrabarti, A. (2009). DRM, a design research methodology. Springer Science & Business Media.

Cartwright, S. M. (2018). Continuous Quality Improvement. Anesthesiology CA-1 Pocket Survival Guide.

Dang, D., & Dearholt, S. (2017). Johns Hopkins nursing evidence-based practice: model and guidelines. 3rd ed. Indianapolis, IN: Sigma Theta Tau International.

DeMaris, A., & Selman, S. H. (2013). Testing a Hypothesis. In Converting Data into Evidence (pp. 23-37). Springer, New York, NY.

DuBois, J. M. (2008). Ethics in mental health research: Principles, guidance, and cases. Oxford University Press.

Fook, J. (2011). Developing critical reflection as a research method. In Creative spaces for qualitative researching (pp. 55-64). SensePublishers.

Gjersing, L., Caplehorn, J. R., & Clausen, T. (2010). Cross-cultural adaptation of research instruments: language, setting, time and statistical considerations. BMC medical research methodology, 10(1), 13.

Kazdin, A. E. (2008). Evidence-based treatment and practice: new opportunities to bridge clinical research and practice, enhance the knowledge base, and improve patient care. American psychologist, 63(3), 146.

McMillan, J. H., & Schumacher, S. (2010). Research in Education: Evidence-Based Inquiry, MyEducationLab Series. Pearson.

Melnyk, B. M., & Fineout-Overholt, E. (Eds.). (2011). Evidence-based practice in nursing & healthcare: A guide to best practice. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Miller, T., Birch, M., Mauthner, M., & Jessop, J. (Eds.). (2012). Ethics in qualitative research. Sage.

Noor, K. B. M. (2008). Case study: A strategic research methodology. American journal of applied sciences, 5(11), 1602-1604.

Norcross, J. C., & Wampold, B. E. (2011). Evidence-based therapy relationships: Research conclusions and clinical practices. Psychotherapy, 48(1), 98.

Oliver, P. (2010). The student’s guide to research ethics. McGraw-Hill Education (UK).

Polit, D. F., & Beck, C. T. (2008). Nursing research: Generating and assessing evidence for nursing practice. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Simonsen, B., Fairbanks, S., Briesch, A., Myers, D., & Sugai, G. (2008). Evidence-based practices in classroom management: Considerations for research to practice. Education and treatment of children, 351-380.

Taylor, S. J., Bogdan, R., & DeVault, M. (2015). Introduction to qualitative research methods: A guidebook and resource. John Wiley & Sons.