Test 1 study guide NURS 5366

persons averaging fewer than 7 hours of sleep per night, attributable to insomnia. . . . Presumably by increasing endorphin levels, massage seems to provide an immediate relaxation and an ability to sleep immediately following the session, but it is unclear whether these benefits actually extend to total sleep, despite anecdotal support. The claim that massage increases total hours of sleep has been inadequately researched. . . . Does massage increase the total number of hours of daily sleep? . . . It was posited that provision of daily late-morning massage would affect total hours of sleep per 24hour day. The study’s causational explanation was based on the physiologic matrix of McCarthy, which includes effects of endorphins on sleep, learning ability, pain, digestive function, and cardiac output. . . . It was taken as established fact that massage is pleasant, that research subjects getting fewer than 7 hours of sleep per night were sleep-deprived, and that endorphins mediated the changes observed.” What is the research problem?

Answers: a.

This study was undertaken to explore the effect of massage on total hours of sleep per 24-hour day, in persons averaging fewer than 7 hours of sleep per night, attributable to insomnia.

Presumably by increasing endorphin levels, massage seems to provide an immediate relaxation and an ability to sleep immediately following the session, but it is unclear whether these benefits actually extend to total sleep, despite anecdotal support. c.

It was taken as established fact that massage is pleasant, that research subjects getting fewer than 7 hours of sleep per night were sleepdeprived, and that endorphins mediated the changes observed. d.

It was posited that provision of daily late-morning massage would affect total hours of sleep per 24-hour day.

Response

Feedback: A research problem is an area of concern or phenomenon of interest about which there is a gap in the knowledge base needed for nursing practice. The problem identifies an area of concern or phenomenon of interest for a particular population and often indicates the concepts to be studied.

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Question 5

All of the following have the potential to generate new knowledge for nursing

EXCEPT

Answers a.

:

quantitative research b.

Research that tests a new sling scale for safety of patients and nurses c.

editorials published in nursing journals d.

qualitative research

Response

Feedback: Nursing research is defined as a scientific process that validates and

refines existing knowledge and generates new knowledge that

directly and indirectly influences the delivery of evidence-based

nursing. Nurses use a variety of research methods to test their reality

and generate nursing knowledge, including quantitative research,

qualitative research, outcomes research, and intervention research.

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Question 6

A researcher studies the effect upon dental caries formation of a year-long regimen of daily rinsing with a particularly noxious-flavored oral solution, only to discover than 285 of the 300 subjects in the study have withdrawn from it by the end of the first month. Which step in the research process was not properly undertaken?

Answers a.

:

Defining the purpose

b.

Performing a pilot study

c.

Selecting study variables

d.

Conducting the literature review

Response

Feedback: A pilot study is commonly defined as a smaller version of a proposed study conducted to refine the methodology. It is developed much like the proposed study, using similar subjects, the same setting, the same treatment, and the same data collection and analysis techniques. Some of the reasons for conducting pilot studies are to determine feasibility, to develop a treatment or intervention, to develop an implementation protocol, to identify problems with the design, to evaluate the sampling method, to examine instrument reliability or validity, to refine instruments, to refine plans for data collection and analysis, to provide research experience, and to evaluate data analysis techniques.

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Question 7

A research study contains the following in its Introduction section: “This study was undertaken to explore the effect of massage on total hours of sleep per 24-hour day, in persons averaging fewer than 7 hours of sleep per night, attributable to insomnia. . . . Presumably by increasing endorphin levels, massage seems to provide an immediate relaxation and an ability to sleep immediately following the session, but it is unclear whether these benefits actually extend to total sleep, despite anecdotal support. The claim that massage increases total hours of sleep has been inadequately researched. . . . Does massage increase the total number of hours of daily sleep? . . . It was posited that provision of daily late-morning massage would affect total hours of sleep per 24hour day. The study’s causational explanation was based on the physiologic matrix of McCarthy, which includes effects of endorphins on sleep, learning ability, pain, digestive function, and cardiac output. . . . It was taken as established fact that massage is pleasant, that research subjects getting fewer than 7 hours of sleep per night were sleep-deprived, and that endorphins mediated the changes observed.” What is the purpose of the study?

Answers: a.

This study was undertaken to explore the effect of massage on total hours of sleep per 24-hour day, in persons averaging fewer than 7 hours of sleep per night, attributable to insomnia.

b.

It was posited that provision of daily late-morning massage would affect total hours of sleep per 24-hour day.

c.

The study’s causational explanation was based on the physiologic matrix of McCarthy, which includes effects of endorphins on sleep, learning ability, pain, digestive function, and cardiac output. d.

Presumably by increasing endorphin levels, massage seems to provide an immediate relaxation and an ability to sleep immediately following the session, but it is unclear whether these benefits actually extend to total sleep, despite anecdotal support. The claim that massage increases total hours of sleep has been inadequately researched.

Response

Feedback: The research purpose is generated from the problem and identifies the specific focus or aim of the study. The focus of the study might be to identify, describe, explain, or predict a solution to a situation. The purpose often indicates the type of study to be conducted (descriptive, correlational, quasi-experimental, or experimental) and usually includes the variables, population, and setting for the study. p. 48

Question 8

What does a quantitative research instrument measure?

Answers a.

:

The level of measurement

b.

A study variable

c.

A statistical test

d.

Itself, for validity

Response

Feedback: When conducting a quantitative study, the researcher attempts to use the most precise instruments available to measure the study variables.

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Question 9

Why is operational reasoning necessary for research?

Answers a.

:

Abstract concepts are of no use to nursing.

b.

Standard interventions are obtained from operational reasoning. c.

It allows the researcher to measure the concepts studied. d.

It facilitates the researcher’s rapport with families

Response

Feedback: Operational reasoning involves the identification of and discrimination among many alternatives and viewpoints. It focuses on the process (debating alternatives) rather than on the resolution. Nurses use operational reasoning to develop realistic, measurable health goals. Thus, operational reasoning takes abstract concepts and makes them focused, concrete, and, therefore, researchable. p. 6

Question 10

A master’s student knows next to nothing about Maslow’s theory related to hierarchy of needs but, on her advisor’s recommendation, decides to use it as a theoretical framework for her theory paper. The student goes to the library and accesses an old master’s thesis that also uses the theory and copies three pages, word for word. She uses the other student’s reference to Maslow’s work. This is an example of which of

the following?

Answers: a. Fabrication

b.

Plagiarism

c.

Falsification

d.

Nonmaleficence

Response

Feedback: Plagiarism is the appropriation of another person’s ideas, processes,

results, or words without giving appropriate credit, including those obtained through confidential review of others’ research proposals and manuscripts. Fabrication in research is the making up of results and recording or reporting them. Falsification of research is manipulating research materials, equipment, or processes, or changing or omitting data or results such that the research is not accurately represented in the research record. The principle of beneficence requires the researcher to do good and “above all, do no harm.

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Question 11

A graduate student receives a mailed survey asking her to participate in research about unpleasant experiences in graduate school. She is asked to return the survey, and the instructions say, “Return of this instrument implies consent.” Why does this constitute consent?

Answers: a.

The study is anonymous, so there is no risk of disclosure. b.

Studies like this are exempt from institutional review board oversight, so consent is not required.

Not returning the survey constitutes refusal, and subjects may indeed refuse by not completing the survey. The opposite is equally true.

d.

Only interventional research requires consent.

Response

Feedback: The requirements for written consent may be waived in research that “presents no more than minimal risk of harm to subjects and involves no procedures for which written consent is normally required outside of the research context.” For example, if questionnaires are used to collect relatively harmless data, a signed consent form from the subjects would not be required. The subject’s completion of the questionnaire may serve as consent. The top of the questionnaire might contain a statement such as “Your completion of this questionnaire indicates your consent to participate in this study.” p. 179

Question 12

A researcher conducting a study to examine linkages among age, gender, driver’s license suspension, and zip code poverty, educational level, and income, sourced

from the records of the State Department of Motor Vehicles, is using which of the following types of research?

Answers a.

:

Correlational research

b.

Descriptive research

c.

Triangulation

d.

Problem solving

Response

Feedback: Through descriptive research, concepts are described and relationships are identified but not examined. A researcher conducting a study to examine linear relationships between two or more variables is using the quantitative research process for correlational research. In descriptive and correlational studies, no treatment is administered, so the study design centers on describing variables, examining relationships, and improving the precision of measurement. In descriptive research concepts are explored and phenomena are described in real-life situations. This approach is used to generate new knowledge about concepts or topics about which limited or no research has been conducted. In correlational research linear relationships between two or more variables are explored and the strength between variables is quantified.

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Question 13

A researcher who desires to determine the cause-and-effect relationship between the use of a new car seat restraint and the subsequent rate of children’s spinal cord injury will utilize which form of nursing research?

Answers a.

:

Descriptive research

Quantitative research

c.

Qualitative research

Response

Feedback: Quantitative research, the most frequently used method, is a formal, objective, systematic methodology to describe variables, test relationships, and examine cause-and-effect interactions. Quantitative research includes experimental research, which is the method for testing cause-and-effect relationships between and among specific variables. Qualitative research methods are used for explaining meanings and describing experiences in context. Descriptive research involves identifying and understanding the nature of phenomena and, sometimes, the relationships among them. Outcomes research examines the end result of care in huge populations, most often retrospectively, using a database. page 38

Question 14

A nurse researcher works on a subacute orthopedic hospital floor. She notes that elders with knee replacements sleep as many as 16 hours a day, waking only for physical therapy and meal. She also notices that those with many visitors sleep fewer hours and seem to experience more pain. She wonders whether sleep in elders after knee replacement prevents pain, or whether elders select the coping strategy of sleeping more, in response to pain. She wants to identify the possible relationship

between sleep and pain so she conducts a literature search which reveals only three descriptive studies on this topic (one quantitative and two qualitative). What is “the relationship between elders’ hours of sleep following knee replacement and its relationship with report of pain”?

Answers a.

:

The research purpose

b.

The research problem

c.

The research question

Response

Feedback: Research topics are concepts, phenomena of interest, or broad problem areas that researchers can focus on to enhance evidencebased nursing. A research problem is an area of concern where there is a gap in the knowledge base needed for nursing practice. Research topics contain numerous potential research problems, and each problem provides the basis for developing many research purposes. p 47

Question 15

The right an individual has to be told that he is a potential participant in a research study and may decide not to be so best defines which of the following human rights?

Answers: a.

Self-determination

b.

Privacy

c.

Justice

d.

Beneficence

Response

Feedback: The right to self-determination holds that because humans are capable of self-determination, or controlling their own destiny, they should be treated as autonomous agents who have the freedom to conduct their lives as they choose without external controls. Privacy is an individual’s right to determine the time, extent, and general circumstances under which personal information will be shared with or withheld from others. Justice holds that each person should be treated fairly and should receive what he or she is due or owed. The right to protection from discomfort and harm is based on the ethical principle of beneficence, which holds that one should do good and, above all, do no harm.

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Question 16

What is the relationship between a conceptual definition and an operational definition?

Answers: a.

The conceptual definition is concrete, and the operational definition is abstract.

b.

The operational definition allows the researcher to create a measurable variable from a concept.

c.

They are the same, in most instances.

Response

Feedback: Operationalizing a variable or a concept involves developing conceptual and operational definitions. A conceptual definition provides the theoretical meaning of a concept or variable. The conceptual definition provides a basis for formulating an operational definition. An operational definition is derived from a set of procedures and progressive acts that a researcher performs either to manipulate an independent variable or to measure the existence or degree of existence of the dependent variable.

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Question 17

A researcher conducts a study to determine the effectiveness of a special program of sensitivity training for nurse managers upon several outcomes, all related to the staff’s ability to identify and intervene appropriately when medication errors occur.

This is an example of what type of quantitative research?

Answers a.

:

Descriptive research

b.

Basic research

c.

Qualitative research

Applied research

Applied, or practical, research is a scientific investigation conducted to generate knowledge that will directly influence or improve clinical practice. The purpose of applied research is to solve problems, to make decisions, or to predict or control outcomes. Basic, or pure, research is a scientific investigation that involves the “pursuit of knowledge for knowledge’s sake,” or for the pleasure of learning and finding truth. The purpose of basic research is to generate and refine theory and build constructs; thus, the findings are frequently not directly useful in practice. However, because the findings are more theoretical in nature, they can be generalized to various settings. Descriptive quantitative research and qualitative research describe what exists but do not test specific interventions used in practice. p.42

Question 18

Control occurs when the researcher imposes “rules” to decrease the possibility of error and thus increases the probability that the study’s findings are an accurate reflection of reality. Which type of research design has the highest level of control in a study?

Answers a.

:

Experimental research

b.

Quasi-experimental research

c.

Correlational research

Descriptive research

Control occurs when the researcher imposes “rules” to decrease the possibility of error and thus increases the probability that the study’s findings are an accurate reflection of reality. Descriptive and correlational studies are usually conducted with minimal control of the study design, because subjects are examined as they exist. In experimental research, the independent and dependent variables are highly controlled, the researcher exerts high control over the planning and implementation of the study, and often these studies are conducted in a laboratory setting on animals or objects. If a research study randomly assigns subjects to two different groups, applies an intervention to one of the groups, and then measures both groups and compares them, it is experimental design.

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Question 19

Hospital nurses are observed in order to determine exactly how long nurses swab IV ports with alcohol. Because they are being observed, they “scrub the hub” longer than they ordinarily would have. This is an example of what threat to validity of the the study design relevant to quantitative research?

Answers a.

:

Hawthorne effect

b.

Control

c.

Bias

Inaccurate operationalization of variables

Subjects’ knowledge of a study could influence their behavior and possibly alter the research outcomes. This threatens the validity or accuracy of the study design. An example of this type of threat to design validity is the Hawthorne effect, which was identified during the classic experiment at the Hawthorne plant of the Western Electric Company during the 1920s and 1930s. The employees at this plant exhibited a particular psychological response when they became research participants: they changed their behavior simply because they were subjects in a study, not because of the research treatment.

Question 20

What is the first step in the critical appraisal of a study?

Answers a.

:

Identifying the research design

b.

Determine the strengths and weaknesses

Identification of the steps of the research process d.

Discussing the implications for nursing practice