Nursing: Designs, Essay Example

Research designs which justify themselves in nursing are qualitative; quantitative; multiple and mixed methods. My selection is the mixed method. Analysts have advanced that mixed and multiple methods are becoming increasingly popular in nursing research science. Importantly, the mixed method utilize both qualitative and quantitative research designs. When qualitative design is taken into consideration with its limitations matured researchers feel that it is inadequate for analyzing data in a scientific manner. As such, combining quantitative statistical properties to qualitative exploration conclusions are more profound (Sousa, Driessnack & Mendes, 2007).

Five distinct reasons have been offered justifying the use of more than one design in nursing research.They offer scope for triangulation which is data corroboration; complementarity or provision of in-depth insights of a phenomenon, development uses data from one method to create another one; initiation pertains to intentionally producing new perspectives; and expansion allows for extending the scope and breath of the study towards sound generalizations (Onwuegbuzie & Leech, 2006).

More importantly, mixed methods create applications whereby one single study such as aninvestigation into attrition of nurses the researcher uses more than one strategies to answer the research questions. If there are no research questions then hypotheses are tested both using theory as well as statistics. These strategies are implemented concurrently and sequentially. For example, during the exploration supporting statistical data is used to draw inferences. This is very important to nursing research because strong evidence has to bedeveloped for application to clinical practice. If research methods lack validity, reliability and generality misinterpretations in practice can occur and patients’ incorrectly diagnosed and treated ( Creswell, 2003).

References

Creswell, J. (2003).Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

Onwuegbuzie, A., & Leech, N.(2006). Linking research questions to mixed methods data analysis procedures. Qual Report; 11(3); 474-98

Sousa, V. Driessnack, M., & Mendes, I. (2007).An overview of research designs relevant to nursing: Quantitative research designs. Rev Latino-am Enfermagem 15(3):502-7