Chapter 11-Specific Types of Quantitative Research Flashcards
Clinical Trials
studies designed to assess clinical interventions
Many nurse researchers are involved in clinical trials, often as members of interprofessional teams
Phase 1- occurs after initial development of the drug or therapy and is designed primarily to establish safety and toelrance and to determine optimal dose. Small scale study using simple designs
Plase 2- involes gathering preliminary evdience about the interventions practicability. During this phase researchers assess teh feasibility of launching a rigorous test, seek evidence that the treatment holds promise and identify refinesment to improve the intervention. A pilot test for treaement may be designed either a sa small scale experiment or a quasi-experiment.
Phase 3- full test of intervention- RCT with randomization to treatment groups under controlled conditions. Goal is to develop evidence about treatment efficacy- whether treatment is more efficacious than usual care. or alternative counterfactual
Phase 4- studies of effectiveness of an interventin in a general population. The emphasis is on the external validity of an intervention that has shown promise of efficacy under controlled (but often artificial) conditions
clinical trials registry
registries provide transparency about research and offer info for accessing the trial.
Pragmatic clinic Trials
Phase III RCT efforts to enhance internal validity in support of causal inference cal lead to designs so tightly controlled that their relevance to real-life application can be qeustions.
This has led to pragmatic clinical tirals- Researchers strive to maximize external validity with a minimal negative effect on internal validity
Address practical questions about the benefits and risks of an intervention as they would unfold in routine clinical practice.
Evaluation Research
Focuses on developing information needed by decision -makers about wether to adopt, modify, or abandon a program, practice, procedure or policy.
Outcomes analysis
Outcome evaluation- simply documents the extent to wish the goals of the program are attained, that is, the extent to which positive outcomes occur.
Focus on whether a program or policy is meeting objectives
Help decide whether the program should be continued or replicated.
Impact analysis
assess a program’s net impact- impact that can attributed to the program, over and above effects of a counterfactual.
Use an experimental or quasi-experiment design because their aim is to facilitate causal inferences about program effects.
Outcomes research
a subset of health service research comprises efforts to understand the end results of the structures and processes of health care and to assess the effectiveness of health care services.
outcomes research is more global assessment of the value of health care services.
Seek evidence about te nursing professional’s contribution to care.
What do health care staff accomplish?
Attribution is a major obstacle- linking patient outcome to specific nursing actions , distinct form the actions of other members of the health care team.
Has used a variet of traditional nonexperimental designs and methodologic strategies in the past.
Nursing-Sensitive Outcomes
Understanding the link between patient outcomes and nursing actions is critical in making improvements to nursing quality.
Nursing-sensitive outcomes are patient outcomes that improve if there is greater quantity or quality of nurses’ care
Challenges out Outcomes Research
“empirical evidence to support the unique contribution to quality outcomes is currently lacking”
Nursing care more difficult to conceptualize and measure than medical actions
Need further research documenting the link between nursing actions and patient outcomes which may lead to greater appreciation of nursing’s important role in improving health outcomes
Challenge in developing and validating nursing-sensitive process variables
Delphi survey
developed as tools for a short-term forecasting
the technique involves a pnael of experts who are asked to complete several rounds of a questionnaire focusing on their judgments about a topic of interest.
Multiple iterations are used to achieve concensus
Secondary analysis
Involves the use of data from a previous study (or a large database) to test hypotheses or answer questions that were not initially envisioned.
often are based on quantitative data from a large data set (national surveys),
but second analyses of data from qualitative studies have also been undertaken.
Translational Research
translation science
an interdisciplinary field that involves systematic efforts to convert basic research knowledge into practical application to enhance well-being
