NURS 3150/ NURS 3151 Week 3: Quantitative Research Designs and Methods
Andre is a nursing student who has just completed the first 2 weeks in a nursing research course. He has defined a clinical research question for his health care setting and has also determined that the research problem exists in the literature. However, his approach to defining a solution for his research question requires that he receive approval from his health care setting before testing it. However, Andre is not quite sure what he needs to do next. Eager to start, Andre jumps ahead in the course syllabus and sees that in the following weeks he will read about quantitative research design and methods. Slightly confused, he is not quite sure what is meant by quantitative research design and methods and begins drafting an email message to his instructor to see if he might be able to use this information for testing
his research question in practice. NURS 3150 3151: Foundations of Nursing Research
What is quantitative research design? What different methods might exist for engaging in quantitative research for nursing practice?
As you have explored in this course, your next step in the research process is to determine what type of research design and methods you will use to engage in research for your research question. While it is possible that many research designs and methods might be appropriate for your particular research question, gaining a firm understanding of different research designs and methods is another useful skill for engaging in nursing research and practice.
This week, you explore the different categories of quantitative research designs used in a clinical research studies. These include experimental, quasi-experimental, descriptive and correlational designs. You will examine the basic characteristics of each design (e.g., causality, control, bias, validity, randomization, probability). You will also examine the basic features of the methods used to conduct most quantitative research designs, such as sample selection, data collection and measurement of variables, as well as data management and analyses.
Learning Objectives
Students will:
Demonstrate an understanding of the basic characteristics of quantitative research designs
Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of methods used in quantitative research designs