2. • Managing clinical responsibility is a challenge for
nurses and nursing profession. Nurses require
extraordinary
• range of knowledge, skills, and talents to provide
quality care to their patients.
• Historically,nurses’ practices were based on
certain types of knowledge. The mechanisms that
nurses usually used toprovide patient care were
as follows: traditions and customs, common
sense, authority, experience, intuition,logical
reasoning, and assembled knowledge
3. HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF
NURSING RESEARCH
• The need of research was emphasized in modern
nursing practice from its inception. Florence
Nightingale established her system of nursing and
nursing education over a hundred years ago.
• However, she envisioned the development of nursing
as a scholarly human and scientific discipline.
• She used the researchprocess and records to formulate
ideas for improving nursing and health care.
• This incidence directs theneed of observation and
documentation in the practice of nursing.
4. • This may be the reason why she is still
• remembered by the statisticians as a pioneer in statistics.
• Florence Nightingale focused on the importance
• of a healthy environment for patients.
• She used aspects of research such as ventilation, cleanliness,
• purity of water, and healthy diet.
• She began her research during the Crimean War (1853–1856) and
• collected data based on her observations.
• She used statistics and graphs to present results.
• She had based
• her nursing care on research findings.
• .
5. • Her most important findings were that mortality rate
decreased from 42 per cent to 2 per cent for wounded
or ill soldiers after the environment was cleaned.
• Although Florence Nightingale paved way for scientific
basis for nursing practice, nurse’s education was mainly
based on apprenticeship training model in early period.
• During this period, the primary emphasis was on the
availability of student’s services in patient care rather
than on developing knowledge base for the nursing
profession.
6. NEED AND IMPORTANCE OF NURSING
RESEARCH
• The most important purpose of nursing research is to
develop a scientific knowledge base for nursingpractice.
• Practitioners of human care and treatment throughout
history have been viewed with respect,and their services
were unquestioned compared with those in other
professions.
• However, these differences are diminishing. Now, nurses
must account for what they do, why they do, what they
produce and how much it costs.
• So, nursing is accountable to society for providing cost-
effective state-of-the-art quality care, and nurses are
accountable to their patients.
7. • A solid research base will provide evidence of the
nursing action that is effective in promoting
positive patient outcomes in terms of positive
aspects of health including survival rates, states
of physiological, physical and emotional health,
and satisfaction with health care services.
• The classic definition of outcome of medical
treatment of death, disease,disability, discomfort,
and dissatisfaction (5 Ds) need not be the
outcome of nursing research.
8. • So, the care given must be routinely assessed and
remedial measures must be taken to decide the
outcome of nursing practice.
• Nurses need to seek ways to improve nursing care
through research.
• Research results create a strong scientific base for
nursing practice, especially when deliberately and
carefully evaluated for application to specific clinical
topics.
• During the career of a nurse, many practice issues and
clinical questions will be raised, which require research
to answer such queries confidently.
9. • Pursuing research in such areas will help nurses to acquire
valid and reliable information that would enable them to
provide equality care.
• Findings of nursing research not only aim at affecting the
direct provision of nursing and health care to recipients of
nursing care but also need to generate knowledge in areas
that affect nursing care processes indirectly.
• Burns and Groove stated that research within the realms of
nursing education, nursing administration, health services,
characteristics of nurses and nursing roles provides
evidence for effectively changing these supporting areas of
nursing knowledge.
10. • In a nut shell, nursing research does the following for nursing as a
profession:
• 1. Validates nursing as a profession (by providing distinguishing
criteria to consider nursing as a
• profession, a service, occupation)
• 2. Provides scientific basis for practice by explaining, describing,
predicting, and controlling phenomena
• important to nursing and nurses
• 3. Helps in formulating theories
• 4. Helps in formulating models and frameworks for practice
• 5. Helps in testing the proposed theory
• 6. Helps in testing models for practice
• 7. Helps in developing cost-effective quality nursing interventions
11. DEFINITION OF RESEARCH
ANA
Defines nursing research as the development of
knowledge about health and the promotion of health over
the full life span, care of persons with health problems and
disabilities, and nursing actions to enhance the ability of
individuals to respond effectively to actual or potential
health problems.
12. NURSING RESEARCH VERSUS
RESEARCH IN NURSING
• Nursing research focuses on the practice of nursing.
Research in nursing studies the nursing profession and the
characteristics of the nurse.
• Nursing research is mainly concerned with clinical
problems.
• Research in nursing is the broader study of the nursing
profession and includes historical, ethical and political
studies. Nursing research includes all studies concerning
nursing practice, education, and administration.
• Studies concerning nurses themselves also can be included
in nursing research.
• It provides objective and reliable nursing knowledge to
improve the quality of nursing practice.
13. CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD
RESEARCH
• 1. Research is a systematic process that identifies variables and tests the relationship between
them.
• 2. It is logical and so it can be duplicated by others.
• 3. It has clearly defined purposes.
• 4. It exerts control over situations or extraneous variables and the variables under study.
• 5. It is reductive, as it investigates a small sample and findings can be generalized to a larger
• population.
• 6. It creates empirical evidences as decisions are based on the data collected.
• 7. It produces reliable results that can be replicated as others may find the same results.
• 8. It produces valid findings that are reproducible.
• 9. It maintains accuracy in all steps.
• 10. It maintains originality.
• 11. It meets ethical principles.
• 12. The informed consent is obtained from the participants.
• 13. It tests a whole theory or the parts of a theory.
• 14. It develops theory.
• 15. It uses logical reasoning in generation of knowledge both deductively and inductively.
• 16. The findings can be used for description, prediction, and explanation of phenomenon of
interest
14. SCIENTIFIC METHOD
• Scientific method is the basis of scientific investigation. It involves
experiments on samples or specimens.
• In scientific method, the scientist poses a question and formulates
hypotheses.
• The hypothesis stays as the potential explanation or answer to the
question.
• Here, the researcher with empirical evidence and rigorous control
attempts to answer the question under consideration.
• So, it is a process that starts with a question.
• It is a systematic and objective method of enquiry. Scientific
method helps a researcher to develop new knowledge, expand and
validate existing knowledge, and reaffirm previous knowledge.
15. RESEARCH PROCESS
• Research process covers all branches of research with a
whole lot of methodology and not only the scientific
method of experimentation.
• Research uses non-experimental observations for gathering
information.
• In a historical research, the researcher may collect data on
experiences of people in a retrospective perspective.
• However, in scientific the method, the researcher performs
the observation as a by-product of some intervention.
• Research process refers to the actual gathering of
information
16. Scientific method is specific and often
uses the following steps:
• 1. State a hypothesis—a tentative prediction of
relationship between variables.
• 2. Design an experimental procedure to test the
hypothesis and construct equipment and tools
necessary for testing.
• 3. Conduct experiment.
• 4. Analyse data collected from experiment.
• 5. Refine or correct hypothesis and continue the
experiment if necessary.
17. NURSING RESEARCH AND PROBLEM-
SOLVING
• problem is a situation that can be quantitative or
qualitative, confronts an individual or a group of
• individuals, and requires resolution. Problem-solving is
a powerful human activity. It is a process, an
• activity, whereby the best value is determined for an
unknown, subject to a specific set of conditions.
• It is a means by which an individual uses previously
acquired knowledge, skills, and understanding to
• satisfy the demands of an unfamiliar situation.
18. • There are different steps involved in
• problem-solving and different experts give several types of steps. However, all
these experts agree on
• the following steps:
• 1. Specify the Problem: This involves evaluating the present state and determining
how it differs
• from the stated goals.
• 2. Analyse the Problem: Analysing the problem involves learning as much as you
can about it.
• 3. Formulate Possible Solutions: Identify a wide range of possible solutions.
• 4. Evaluate Possible Solutions: Weigh the advantages and disadvantages of each
solution.
• 5. Choose a Solution: Consider three factors: compatibility with your priorities,
amount of risk, and
• practicality.
• 6. Implement the solution.
• 7. Evaluate and revise if necessary.
19. • Research Problem-solving
• 1. Start with selection of a research topic. Target a single problem.
• 2. Perform the rigorous process of collecting and
• analysing data using statistical methods.
• No statistical analysis is used.
• 3. Control the extraneous and confounding variables. No control is
imposed.
• 4. Informed consent of participants is necessary. No informed
consent is needed.
• 5. Findings of the research study can be generalized. No
generalization is needed.
• 6. Replication of the study is possible. No replication is possible and
is situation based.
20. Differences between Research and
Problem-solving
S.
No.
Research Problem-solving
1 Start with selection of a research topic. Target a single problem.
2 Perform the rigorous process of collecting and
analysing data using statistical methods.
No statistical analysis is used.
3 Control the extraneous and confounding variables. No control is imposed.
4 Informed consent of participants is necessary. No informed consent is
needed.
5 Findings of the research study can be generalized No generalization is needed.
6 Replication of the study is possible No replication is possible and is
situation based
21. TyPES OF RESEARCH
• Nursing research activities may be classified into two types.
• Purpose
• Basic Research
• It is the fundamental or pure research for establishing new
knowledge with the development and refinement
• of theories. The findings are not immediately applicable to practical
problems, but they provide
• scope for further research to expand the body of knowledge. In
basic research, a specific purpose is not
• delineated by the researcher like that of applied research, but it
stimulates new ways of thinking about
• divergence that have the potential to change and improve how
practitioners deal with a problem.
22. • Major aims of basic research are as follows:
• 1. Gather and generate information.
• 2. Expand the body of knowledge of the particular
discipline in which the study is conducted.
• 3. Refute or support theories.
• 4. Refine existing knowledge or theories and principles.
• Example: A researcher conducts a study on adolescents’
attitude towards hero worship. Here, the
• researcher observes that the adolescents believe in positive
role modelling rather than hero worship. So, a
• theory can be evolved on the benefits of role modelling in
developing positive attitude among adolescents.
23. • Applied Research
• This type of research also helps in generating new
knowledge but can be applied to practical setting
• without undue delay. It has functional purposes and
practical use. Applied research is done to find a
• solution to a problem that requires an impending solution.
It is action oriented and involves collection
• and analysis of data to arrive at a solution for existing
problems in any organization or practice area. So,
• applied research attempts to solve problems in the
organization, make decision, evaluate programmes,
• and develop new strategies for pursuing change in existing
practice
24. • Example: A researcher might have seen that
there is a wide variation in oxygen saturation of
patients
• receiving different modes of oxygen delivery after
giving the same amount of oxygen. So, the
researcher
• may conduct a study to identify the reasons and
the best method of oxygen delivery to improve
saturation
• within a prescribed period of oxygen delivery.
25. S.NO Basic Research Applied Research
1 Basic research is the pure or
fundamental
research.
It is used in the field of practice to solve
a problem.
2 It is done to study a general
phenomenon,
a process.
It is targeted at solving a specific
problem for a
utilitarian purpose
3 It is abstract or theoretical A theory or part of the theory is tested
to find the utility
4 It is knowledge for the sake of knowledge
and is believed as a starting point in
knowledge expansion
It is useful in creating evidences
26. Approach to Research
• The following are the various approaches to
research:
• 1. Descriptive research:
• (a) Classified as surveys
• (b) Qualitative strategies
• 2. Experimental research:
• (a) Purely experimental
• (b) Quasi-experimental
• 3. Historical (documentary)
