¶ … nursing because a solution to it directly impacts the level of quality care that staff can provide to patients. The research is quantitative.

The underlying purpose of the study is to test whether providing information from assessments about patient-caregiver hospice dyads to interdisciplinary teams is effective in improving hospice outcomes. The purpose does correspond to an EBP focus -- namely, therapy/treatment.

Greater awareness leads to a greater ability to provide care.

This study could have been undertaken as a qualitative study by conducting interviews with caregivers and/or patients to assess personal reactions to the issue at hand.

Example 2: Qualitative Research

The research problem is very relevant to the actual practice of nursing because it regards how patients deal with suffering, self-blame, guilt, etc., all of which nurses will encounter when treating them.

The research is qualitative.

The underlying purpose of the study is to provide description of a situation. The purpose does correspond to an EBP focus -- namely, meaning.

4. Researchers taped and transcribed interviews so as to be able to read them carefully and identifies common themes, terms, etc.

5. The research may have been conducted quantitatively as well because a numerical data set of results can be equally helpful in understanding a situation.

Chapter 2

Example 1: Research Translation Project

1. Diagnosis/Assessment

2. For (patients), does tube placement yield accurate and appropriate diagnostic/assessment information about tube clogging incidents.

3. This project had a knowledge-focused trigger as it focused both on assessing the method and on educating nurses.

Chapter 3

Example 1: Project Schedule for a Quantitative Study

1. This study was about an assessment of PDSS (Postpartum depression screening scale) developed by Beck and Gable (2001). The researchers tested...

The main phenomena under investigation is postpartum depression and the PDSS scale in identifying it accurately.
2. The IV is postpartum depression. The DV is the PDSS scale.

3. The researchers did examine relationships or patterns of association among variables and concepts: "Statistical tests were performed to determine a cut-off score on the PDSS above which mothers would be identified as having screened positive for postpartum depression. Data analysis also was undertaken to determine the accuracy of the PDSS in predicting diagnosed postpartum depression." The study does not imply the possibility of a causal relationship, merely a correlating one.

4. Key concepts are defined both conceptually and operationally. The conceptual phase is defined (it says that the same concept used in the first study is used in the new study -- although it is not explicitly stated what this is) and the empirical phase is also explained. How the scale is developed would explain the conceptual phase.

5. The type of study it appears to be is non-experimental/observational.

6. The report does provide precise information on how long the study took to complete. For example, it notes that the conceptual phase took 1 month, the design and planning phase took 6 months, the empirical phase took 11 months, the analytic phase took 3 months, the dissemination phase took 18 months, and all told the research study took 3 years to complete.

7. The population for this study consists of both postpartum women and nurses who use the PDSS.

8. The method of data collection should not be described as self-reported observation because the process involved conducting a psychiatric diagnostic interview.

9. The dissemination plan of the researchers was to submit their report to the journal Nursing Research for publication, where it was accepted within 4 months, though it took more than a year to actually be published. The authors nonetheless presented their findings at conferences and summarized their findings in a report for the agency that funded their research. Therefore, their dissemination plan was strategic,…