1. The Scientific
Approach

2. SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE
 Tradition – truths or beliefs based on
customs and trends
 Authority – a person who knows more
in a given area than others do
 Borrowing – the appropriation and
use of knowledge from other fields or
disciplines to guide nursing practice

3. SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE
 Experience (Trial & Error) – an
approach with unknown outcomes
that is used in a situation of
uncertainty in which other sources of
knowledge is unavailable
 Personal Experience – involves gaining
knowledge by being personally involved
in an event, a situation, or a
circumstance

4. SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE
 Role Modeling – learning by imitating the
behaviors of an expert
 Intuition - (gut feeling) an insight into or
understanding of situation or event as a
whole that usually cannot be explained
logically
 Reasoning – the processing and
organizing of ideas in order to reach
conclusions

5. THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD
 Is a systematic approach to problem
solving and to the expansion of
knowledge
 Refers to a general set of orderly,
disciplined procedures used to acquire
information

6. Problem
Design
Solution
Data Collection

7. Characteristics of the
Scientific Approach
 Order and Control in a scientific
study, the researcher moves in an
orderly fashion
 Systematic means the investigator
progresses logically through a series of
steps, according to a pre-specified plan
of action
 Control involves imposing conditions on
research situation so that biases and
confounding factors are minimized

8. Characteristics of the
Scientific Approach
 Empiricism
 The process whereby evidence is rooted
in objective reality and gathered directly
or indirectly through the human senses
is used as a basis for generating
knowledge

9. Characteristics of the
Scientific Approach
 Generalization
 Understanding a phenomena where
pursuit of knowledge is focused on a
more generalized understanding of
phenomena and how they are
interrelated
 The degree to which research findings
can be generalized to individuals other
than those who participated in the study

10. LIMITATIONS of Research
 General Limitations
 Expensive
 Time Consuming
 Moral and Ethical Issues
 Concerns constraints on what is
acceptable in the name of science with
regards to the rights of living organisms
 The kind of problems that can be solved
using the scientific method

11. LIMITATIONS of Research
 Human Complexity
 Biologic & physical functioning is
considerably more regular & consistent &
less susceptible to external influences
than is psychological functioning. Each
human being is essentially unique with
respect to his/her personality, social
environment, mental capacity, values &
lifestyle

12. LIMITATIONS of Research
 Measurement Problems
 Accurate measures of psychologic
phenomena have not been developed
 Control Problems
 Adequate control is often difficult to
achieve. Confounding factors may be
difficult to even identify let alone control
especially with humans in naturalistic
settings

13.  Reference:
Polit, D. F., & Beck, C. T. (2008).
Nursing Research: Generating
and Assessing Evidence for
Nursing Practice (8th
ed.)