Searching for Research Evidence

Research Evidence Search

• NUSC 2P70 Week Two, taught by Stephen Shears, MN RN
• Paired assignment due March 28th
• Guess lecture not tested

Types of Research Reports

• Presentations at professional conferences (oral, poster)
• Journal articles (most common)
• Peer reviewed; often 'blind' reviews

Content of Research Journal Articles

• Follows IMRAD format (Title & abstract, introduction, method, results, discussion, references)
• Standardized layout

Title and Abstract

• Qualitative studies: titles generally include central phenomenon and group under investigation
• Quantitative studies: titles define key variables and populations (PICO components)
• Abstract: brief summary of major aspects of a study at beginning of article

Components of the Introduction

• Description of central phenomena, concepts, or variables
• Study purpose, research questions, or hypotheses
• Literature review (important for context)
• Theoretical/conceptual framework (e.g., nursing theories)
• Study significance or need for study

Method Section: Quantitative Studies

• Research design
• Sampling plan (e.g., convenience sampling)
• Methods of measuring variables and collecting data (details and justification)
• Study procedures (protecting participants ethically, addressing reduction in psychological and physical stress)
• Analytic methods and procedures

Method Section: Qualitative Studies

• Discusses many similar aspects to quantitative research, but with different emphases (related to lived experiences)
• Provides details about the research setting and study context
• Describes researchers' efforts to ensure study integrity

Results Section (Quantitative)

• Findings (statistical tests used, calculated statistic values, statistical significance)

Results Section (Qualitative)

• Findings organized by major themes, processes, or categories
• Almost always includes raw data (quotes directly from study participants)

Discussion Section

• Interpretation of results (not simply the data, but explanations of the results' meaning)
• Clinical and research implications
• Limitations (e.g., financial restrictions, sample size, conflicts of interest)

Review of Literature Section of a Study.

• Typically found in the introduction section of a research report; NOT the method section.

Why Research Articles Are Hard to Read

• Compactness (page constraints)
• Jargon (concise scientific language)
• Objectivity and impersonality (no personal flare)
• Statistical information (especially prominent in quantitative studies)

Tips on Reading Research Articles

• Read regularly and get used to the style
• Copy articles and underline/highlight/take notes
• Read slowly
• Read actively (underline, highlight, note-taking)
• Look-up technical terms in glossaries
• Don't be intimidated by statistics, grasp the gist of the story
• Translate articles or abstracts

Research Critique

• Objective assessment of a study's strengths and limitations
• Focus on whether evidence is accurate, believable, and clinically relevant
• Evaluate researcher's decisions
• Various purposes (student assignment, publishing decision, EBP)

Key Research Challenges

• Designing studies to yield reliable and valid (quantitative) or trustworthy (qualitative) inferences
• Inferences are conclusions drawn from evidence using logical reasoning and acknowledging the methods used to generate that evidence.

Criteria for Evaluating Quantitative Research (Scientific Merit)

• Reliability: Accuracy and consistency of information obtained. Often associated with the methods used. (e.g., a measuring device that consistently measures the same value).
• Validity: Addresses the soundness of the evidence; whether the findings are convincing and support the desired inferences. Concerns whether the methods really measure the intended concepts. (e.g., a survey instrument to measure satisfaction should not be measuring happiness).

Evaluative Criteria in Qualitative Studies

• Trustworthiness: The degree of confidence in qualitative data and analyses. Assessed by credibility, transferability, dependability, confirmability, and authenticity.
• Credibility: Measuring the confidence that researchers can engender in the truth of the data and their interpretations.
• Confirmability: Objectivity and neutrality of data and interpretations.
• Dependability: Data stability over time and contexts; similar to reliability in quantitative studies.
• Transferability: The extent to which findings can be transferred to other groups or settings. Similar to generalizability, focusing on how useful the findings might be in a different context
• Authenticity: Extent to which researchers portray a wide range of realities during data collection, analysis, and interpretation.

Triangulation

• Using multiple sources to draw conclusions that accurately reflect the truth.
• Aids credibility and is helpful in both quantitative and qualitative research

Bias (Major Challenge)

• Distortion or influence leading to errors in inferences.
• Examples:
  • Lack of participant candor (suppressing info on purpose)
  • Faulty data collection methods
  • Researcher preconceptions (unconscious bias)
  • Participants' awareness of being in a study (placebo effect)
  • Faulty study design

Research Control

• Holding constant extraneous variables in quantitative studies to better understand independent-dependent variable relationships.
• Method used to reduce bias

Bias Reduction: Randomness and Blinding

• Randomness: Allowing for chance rather than researcher or participant choice to reduce bias in study elements.
• Blinding (Masking): Concealing information from participants, data collectors, or care providers to enhance objectivity. Used in quantitative studies.

Reflexivity

• Critical self-reflection to understand and manage how personal values and interpretations impact data collection and interpretation.
• Utilized in qualitative studies, self-awareness and introspection are helpful for any study type,

Generalizability and Transferability

• Generalizability: Measuring how applicable quantitative findings are to other groups and settings. Relevant to health research topics. Important issue in studies involving humans.
• Transferability: The equivalent of generalizability for qualitative research. How well qualitative findings apply to other settings. Depends heavily on rich descriptive data that researchers provide about the study context

Purposes of a Literature Review

• Summarizing known and unknown research evidence
• Communicating the current state of evidence
• Providing a foundation for future research
• Helping researchers interpret their findings

Types of Information for Review

• Primarily relying on primary sources (original research reports)
• Minimizing reliance on secondary sources (summaries)
• Utilizing clinical anecdotes, opinion articles, case reports to highlight issues and needs for research.

Flow of Tasks in a Literature Review

• Formulate questions
• Develop search strategies (databases, keywords, methods, etc.)
• Identify references
• Document process details
• Read, and critique sources
• Analyze and summarize information
• Prepare a critical summary

Key Databases for Nurse Researchers

• CINAHL: Comprehensive database of nursing and allied health literature (1982-Present).
• MEDLINE: Contains biomedical and health-related information (access via PubMed)

Example CINAHL Reference

• Information about journal name, year, month, volume, issue, and pages, for a given research study.