NURS 3150/ NURS 3151 Week 5: Analysis of Quantitative and Qualitative Data
Jaime has just completed gathering quantitative and qualitative data on causes of hospital acquired infections (HAIs) on a medical/surgical unit in his hospital. After collecting data on different patients, physicians, procedures, and infections, Jaime is ready to begin analyzing the data. However, how should Jaime proceed? What data is most telling for indicating to the hospital that the medical/surgical unit is experiencing an unexpected increase in the rate of HAIs? How will Jaime determine what type of analyses will be most important for articulating his research question and proposed nursing practice solutions? NURS 3150 3151: Foundations of Nursing Research
Once you have collected and gathered data, the next step in the research process is to engage in the analysis of the data. Whether you perform statistical tests to determine if your data is significant or pool responses to interview questions to indicate emerging themes and patterns, understanding the types of analysis available for the research process is important in order to draw necessary conclusions to inform nursing practice. As a nursing professional, if you engage in research for your health care setting, you will likely engage in the analysis of your data to help inform, implement, and evaluate nursing practice solutions.
This week, you examine the analysis of data, including a focus on common statistical techniques: (a) descriptive analyses (e.g., frequency distributions and mean scores with standard deviations) and (b) comparative analyses (e.g., t-test, chi square). You will also consider the importance of using existing quantitative health care data to address clinical questions in nursing practice, including electronic medical records and local, regional, and national quality and safety databases. For qualitative research, you will explore an overview on the common techniques used to understand themes and patterns in narrative data.
Learning Objectives
Students will:
Identify available local, regional, and national quantitative databases on health care issues
Analyze nursing quality indicators in relation to patient safety
Conduct descriptive analyses of quantitative and qualitative data