Research is very vital in the profession of nursing. Research designs can simply be defined as a framework that is used when planning and implementation of analyzed studies. There are four main types of research designs that are used by nursing practitioners to analyze results, which are quantitative research design, non-experimental research design, experimental designs, and lastly selection quantitative research design. This paper aims at expounding on research designs used in the health care and nursing field, and also examining the sources of evidence that contribute to professional nursing practice. The paper will also expound on the purpose of research designs and how research outcomes are analyzed.
To start with, different analysis in the health care and nursing demand different designs of research to be used, therefore, it is important for nurse professionals to be familiar with different research designs. The most commonly used designs are quantitative research designs, non-experimental, experimental designs, and selective quantitative research design. By using selective quantitative research design, medical nurses adopt different systematic strategies for coming up with knowledge whereby deductive form of reasoning is normally applied in that the researcher may opt to begin with an already established theory in which concepts have already been put into variables. The researcher gathers the variables and uses evidences available to test them.
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This form of research design is mostly used by nurse practitioners when qualifying relationships of different variables that is the independent variable and the dependent variable of the outcome. Non-experimental research designs on the other hand are designed to have groups compared and also manipulation of variables. Using this design, a nurse practitioner observes what happens naturally without having any interactions. This design is normally used in the health care field for a number of reasons, one of the main reasons being the upholding of the ethics in the nursing field, another reason why this design is important is because some variables are not subjected to manipulation during research. There are different methods used by nurses when using this design, they include questionnaires where nurses ask questions as patients answer and the answers are not subjected to any changes by the person conducting the questionnaire, and explanatory surveys (QSEN, 2018). This research design can either be classified as descriptive or correlational. Descript is where by exploratory studies applied when a nurse does not have little knowledge about a particular phenomenon, here, the researcher observes and makes a documentation of important aspects of the phenomenal.
Experimental design is also used by nurse professional, by this design, nurses typically use random variables, by using variable design, nurse professional have a wide range of freedom in determining results, and it helps them in eliminating the factor of biasness. Under this design, few classified designs are used, that the pretest-posttest control group design, Solomon- Four group design where variables are assigned to one of the four groups, Cross-over design, where variables are given different treatments one of them is experimental.
Selection of qualitative research design is also a common design used in the health care and nursing field; this design is normally based on the phenomenal that are being studied. This is the strongest design that is used in conducting research, because it makes establishment of casual effects and also shows its relationship with internal validity which are the controlling factors in the research that may end up making an influence of the outcomes of the research despite the intervention of the experiment.
The above research designs used in the nursing field provides nurse practitioners with evidence in their practice (AACN, 2008). Evidence based practice is very important in health care and nursing, because it helps practitioners to make sound decisions, information from research made using different designs also helps in a greater way in the improvement of the literacy of nurses. Evidence based practice has a very positive influence to the future of the nursing field because some of the finding made today can still be used when making decisions in future because they can act as evidence.
There is a greater purpose for research to be conducted in the nursing field, unlike other professionals; nurses have a need of being aware of emerging and new trends in their field so as to have comprehensive information on how to deliver quality services to their patients. Qualitative and quantitative research designs have been used around the world in generating new knowledge and information about the nursing profession. For example, qualitative research design aims at producing information that provides the general understanding of the human conditions.
To conclude, different research designs such as qualitative designs and quantitative designs have continued to be used in the nursing field around the world. This research designs provides nurses with the right evidence they require in their day to day activities as professionals. This evidence-based practice has continued to hold greater promises for the improvement of the health care system all around the world. The evidence-based practice which only began as a relationship between what nurses knew verses what they did not know, has continued to be vital in the health care and nursing field, it is continuing to be important in the elimination of unpredictable outcomes in healthcare. However, it encourages the individualization of health care because it promotes the inclusion of the preferences of the patient. In spite of so many advances done in the nursing field, nurses still have so much to achieve and that has led evidence-based practice to be greatly applied in the world.
References
American Association of Colleges of Names (AACN) (2008). Executive Summary: The Essentials of Baccalaureate education for professional nursing practice (2008) Retrieved from: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwi-iLfuxfzjAhWSN8AKHVDLDPwQFjAAegQIABAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aacnnursing.org%2Fportals%2F42%2Fpublications%2Fbaccessentials08.pdf&usg=AOvVaw1A0P1nOXYg021rCp2TRZ02
Quality and Safety Education for nurses (QSEN) (2018). QSEN Knowledge, skills, and attitude competencies. Retrieved: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=13&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwj28YGOxfzjAhVJVsAKHVhXD-4QFjAMegQIABAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Flibguides.webster.edu%2Fc.php%3Fg%3D98020%26p%3D633889&usg=AOvVaw3An1UON-UFYI2tB-Xe0R5T
