There are two key elements of research: understanding it and doing it.
Research underpins my practice – it tells me what I need to do and how I need to do it (specialist nurse)
Before I start on research though, let’s talk about hair dye. Let’s say there is a commercial for hair dye, and it proclaims:
Ninety per cent of customers say our hair dye is the best they have ever tried!
Sounds good, huh? But:
• What if they only asked 10 people?
• What if they only asked people who had never tried hair dye before?
• What if they only got paid for undertaking the survey if they replied in the positive?
• What if they asked people who didn’t have hair?
OK, what if there was a commercial that said:
Ninety per cent of our customers would come back and shop with us again!
That sounds really good! Until you find out that the options for the survey were:
 |
• Would you shop with us again if everyone else was more expensive?
I think you understand that it’s not just what the research says but how it came to the conclusion. Let’s try one that sounds a bit more nursey. Research says:
Eighty per cent of the people who take drug X return to work.
What if they were taking the drug to grow hair on their head – something that wouldn’t impact work anyway?
RESEARCH BASICS
Research has to be relevant but it also has to have a certain quality and reporting standard. The thing with research is that you have to know how to decide which research is credible and which isn’t.
Research can be very simple: it could be a literature review, where you find all the information about a particular topic. It can be somewhat complex: a wound-care audit across several teams. It can also be real academic research, using clinical trials and fancy statistics.
There are two different types of research and they tell us different kinds of things:
1. Quantitative research: is the more reliable kind and is used for things that need to be measurable. If the research is about the best wound-care product, you would want to know which wounds healed the fastest and had the lowest level of infection.
| Qualitative | Quantitative | |
|---|---|---|
| Sample size | Usually small (10–20). Each person gives a lot of data | Usually large (100+). Each person gives a smaller, more specific amount of data |
| Reported using | Narration and excerpts; the data is usually narrative | Statistics, tables, charts; the data is measurable |
| Gathered through | Talking, interviewing, group discussions and open-ended questions | Questionnaires with set answers, reviews of data and demographical information, measurements |
| Replicable | Not specifically | Yes |
Now let’s look at an example:
| Example question: | Qualitative research | Quantitative research |
|---|---|---|
| What kinds of people become nurses? | Caring people, thoughtful people, people with strong backs, people who like dealing with other people, women | 50% of nursing students are over the age of 30; 70% are women. Of 2000 people questioned, 42% said nurses were caring people* |
| *These stats are made up just to give an example. | ||
See the difference?
Knowing the type of research lets you know what kind of data the research was based on and what kinds of evidence the research will give you. The first step in using research is being able to critically read it.
HOW TO READ RESEARCH CRITICALLY
This section is based on the section ‘Reading research critically’ in The student nurse handbook (Siviter 2004) – it really is the clearest guide for how to read research!
Research comes in different forms but each will have similar sections presented in it. In this section, I will explain the basic areas, and what kinds of questions you should be asking yourself as you read it.
Remember: your goal is to determine if this research is appropriate for you to use as evidence to base your decisions and your practice on. You need to think critically!
When you are looking for research, the first thing you will see is the author’s name, the title of the paper and its source (that is, the journal where it is published). These things start to tell you about the nature of the research.
| Section | What to think about | Ask yourself … |
|---|---|---|
| The author | You need to establish that the author is a credible person who has the background and education to write research/a paper of this type | Does the author have academic and/or research credentials? If you do a search for that author, what other kinds of papers and research come up? Where does the author work? What is his or her expertise? |
| Title | Should give you a small snapshot of what the research is about. The title should give a clear indication of the nature of the paper | What expectations does the title give you about the nature and content of the article? Is it clear and specific? Does it make sense? Go back to the title after you have read the paper and compare what you thought it meant before you read the paper. Is there a difference? |
| Source of the paper | You need to think about the kind of journal you found the research in. Some journals have a reputation for being very academic and reliable. Others might be seen as less academic and more ‘fluffy’ | Is this a credible journal (i.e. was there an article in it about how to cut the toenails of the Beast of Bodmin?) What is the journal’s audience? Is it the journal of a particular group or organisation and could that present a bias? |
| Abstract and keywords | The abstract and keywords help you get a general idea of what the article is about. The keywords are listed to help you find the article when you search. If you want to find similar articles, search using the keywords | Read the abstract before you read the paper. After you read the paper, compare what the research said with what the abstract promised it would say. Did they match? Did the abstract leave out anything important? |
| The introduction | The introduction introduces the research question and sets the scene for what will come | Why did someone feel this was important to research? How and why is this relevant to nursing practice? Is the need for this research supported? Is the research question sensible? Is the research question something that is answerable? Is this the right kind of research for this kind of question? |
| Literature review | Doing a literature review is a real art. In the literature review, you will find other information and research available about the topic. To learn to do a thorough literature search, you will need to get a book about research | Is this new research a replication of old research? What has changed since any old research was done on this issue? Are the sources cited in the literature review accessible and credible? If there are other sources (which you would know about because you did a search), why haven’t they been used? Is the literature review biased in any way? Are the other sources reliable and credible? |
| Sample | The sample explains who participated in the research, how they were found and why they were chosen. You need to look critically at the sample size and selection | Who was chosen to participate? Why? Were these appropriate sources? Is the method of choosing the sample appropriate? How long ago was this done? Has anything significant changed since then? Is confidentiality maintained? Is the sample size too big, or too small? Does the size and type of sample match the type of research being done? |
| Ethical issues | Are there any ethical considerations and how were they addressed? Research must be accurate but participants have a right to confidentiality | How did the researchers resolve ethical issues raised during or by the research, including protecting the confidentiality of the participants? Did the author get ethical approval for this work? Did participants give consent? How did the author find participants? Were there any special considerations for the participants? How is participants’ confidentiality protected? Did the author have permission, from organisations, workplaces, etc., to do this research? |
| Data collection | How the data was collected? What method of collection was used and how did it work? This section should explain the tool that the researcher used. You should then look up that tool in a research text. This will give you the information you need to tell if the tool was used and applied properly | Is this an appropriate way to collect this data? Is the tool reliable? Is the tool used properly? Does the research type support the tool? For example, if this is quantitative research and a survey was used, did it really produce the right kind of data for that method? |
| Validity/reliability/rigour | Validity and reliability are two terms used to discuss how credible quantitative data is. Qualitative researchers prove their data is accurate and correct by showing they rigorously used the correct methods and took every possible opportunity to remove any researcher bias | Does the data all make sense to you? If this is based on any other sources, are they credible sources? How has the reliability of the data been tested? Could this study be replicated with comparable results? Are there any assumptions being made? |
| Findings/discussion | This is where the researcher will tell you what the results of the study were. The researcher will refer back to statistics and information from the sections that have come before | Does it make sense? Is it useful? Does it match with the title and the abstract? How do these findings compare with the literature, both that in the literature review and that not included? Are the statistics reported accurately? Are findings reported in a way that appears biased? Do the tables, graphs and statistics actually tell you anything? Do the data collection methods and the data that is presented match? Compare the summary with the title, abstract and introduction. Does it all go together or does it seem like they are talking about different things? |
| Summary | The summary gives conclusions, which might include suggestions or recommendations. It might suggest areas for further study or highlight any particular problems or obstacles the researcher encountered. It should answer the research question | Does it make sense? Has the question been answered? Does it offer ideas for the way forward or to change/reinforce practice? Are there areas of future work that should be done as a result of this research? |
| Acknowledgements | This section tells you if the research was sponsored or done on behalf of anyone else | Did the sponsors or supporters have a vested interest in the outcome of the research? |
| References | References from the text of the article | Were any references left out? Does the author often reference himself or herself? Are these the sources that you would have used? How old are the sources? Are they outdated? Are they obscure, difficult to find sources? |
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