Nursing and Healthcare Research at a Glance

Alan Glasper, Colin Rees, Alan Glasper, Colin Rees

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781118778791
• eBook ISBN: 9781119267140
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Nursing

Nursing and Healthcare Research at a Glance is perfect for nursing and healthcare students, as well as newly qualified practitioners and anyone looking for a refresher or introduction to research.

Covering a broad range of topics gathered under key sections, this essential book combines informative diagrams and images to provide memorable information for students on one page, and accessible, clearly written text on the facing page. It includes information on a range of quantitative and qualitative research methods, the process of gaining ethical permission, conducting research with special groups including children, and successfully conducting reviews of the literature.

Key features include:

• Clear and informative full colour illustrations throughout
• An emphasis on need-to-know research information for busy students and healthcare staff
• A wide range of research methods, currently used in modern healthcare research
• An impressive line-up of specialist and well-known experts in the field of health and nursing research

This book provides quick access to the principles and reality of research and its implementation within the education and practice environment. It is essential reading for anyone in health service education and service settings with limited time who need to draw on research evidence.

Part 1 What is healthcare research?

Chapters

1. 1 The research journey
2. 2 Types of review and their purpose
3. 3 Using databases to search the literature
4. 4 Undertaking a Cochrane systematic review
5. 5 Undertaking a Joanna Briggs Institute systematic review
6. 6 Using End Note
7. 7 Using the PICO framework
8. 8 Using the SPICE framework
9. 9 Using grey literature in the quest for evidence
10. 10 Why does research need evaluating?
11. 11 Key issues in evaluating research
12. 12 Critically reviewing a research paper
13. 13 The hierarchy of evidence
14. 14 Factors influencing research design
15. 15 Patient and public involvement in research
16. 16 Descriptive studies
17. 17 Action research
18. 18 Participatory health research
19. 19 The ethics of healthcare research
20. 20 Preparing a research proposal
21. 21 Developing a patient research information pack
22. 22 Getting the most from supervision
23. 23 Writing a research report
24. 24 Implementation of healthcare research
25. 25 Barriers to research utilisation
26. 26 Designing service evaluations
27. 27 Designing audit tools for measuring compliance

1 The research journey

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Figure 1.1 The steps of the nursing research journey: it begins and ends with nursing practice.

Figure 1.2 Planning: the pivotal step.

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Clinical curiosity

The first step in the research journey is to begin to wonder about something. A vibrant research culture will foster this clinical curiosity. If the patient or client’s best interests are truly at the heart of a healthcare organisation, then its employees will always be on the lookout for how things might be done better, for how some vexing recurring problem might finally be solved. The first step of research is to observe, to notice, to look around, to wonder why things are happening the way they are, and to envision how they might be improved (Figure 1.1).

Literature searching

The next step is to see if our curiosity can be immediately satisfied by what is already known in the existing body of research evidence available at our fingertips. This step includes finding the research literature, then appraising it both for quality and for applicability to our own practice context. If there have already been a number of rigorously conducted studies and they concur on the best approach after studying populations that are similar to our own clients, then we can immediately apply that evidence to our own practice without the need to conduct further research. This process of translation of research evidence into the practice setting requires excellent leadership and change management skills, as well as project management. Evidence must be presented, appraised and discussed before any change can, or indeed should, occur.

Planning a research study

However, an exhaustive search of the current body of research evidence may fail to unearth a compelling, congruent body of work. The clinician may still be left wondering how best to care for their client. Once such a gap in the literature has been identified, this gap may justify the expenditure of human and material resources to conduct a study to answer the clinical question. This is where the fun really begins!

Research question

It is vital to carefully delineate exactly what it is that you are trying to discover in any research project, as that research question will drive all the other decisions you will need to make as you devise your research plan (Leedy & Ormrod, 2013) (Figure 1.2).

Methodological paradigm

Once you know your question, you can begin to select the best methodological paradigm to use to frame your research plan (Schneider & Whitehead, 2013). If you are trying to test an intervention for effectiveness, the ‘gold standard’ is to conduct a randomised controlled trial (RCT) in the positivist paradigm, by gathering quantitative data to use in statistical comparisons. However, there are many other types of research questions you may be wondering about, and if you choose the wrong paradigm you are still going to get an answer, but not to your question.

Research design/methods

Once you have chosen the most appropriate and relevant methodological paradigm, you can begin to plan the ‘nuts and bolts’ of your study (Leedy & Ormrod, 2013). Who will be your participants – your sample? Where will you recruit your participants? What kind of data will you collect from them: numbers, words or both kinds of data? Will it come from interviews, chart audits, questionnaires, focus groups, observations, document analysis? Will the data be collected once or a number of times, and how far apart? Who will collect the data and how will they be hired and trained? How much time and money will you need to conduct the study? Are there ethical or legal considerations that you need to address in your research plan?

Obtain support

Ethical approval

Most research requires the oversight and approval of a human research ethics committee (HREC), which evaluates all your carefully considered plans to ensure two things. First, that you are conducting research properly, so that it will have merit and usefulness, and not be trivial and a waste of everyone’s time. Second, that you have included safeguards to ensure that the ethical rights of the participants in your study are maintained. You will need to prepare a participant information sheet and an informed consent form for the HREC to review and approve. The committee will also wish to see any questionnaire you want participants to complete, or the questions you may ask during an interview or focus group, or the kinds of ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• QR Code
• Title page
• Copyright
• Contributors
• Preface
• Part 1 What is healthcare research?
• Part 2 Quantitative research
• Part 3 Qualitative research
• Part 4 Research techniques
• Part 5 Conducting research with special groups
• Part 6 Historical research
• Part 7 Educational research
• Part 8 Appendices
• Index
• EULA