Chapter 5: Research Problem and Purpose

Chapter 5: Research Problem and Purpose

Complete Chapter Questions With Answers

Sample Questions Are Posted Below

MULTIPLE CHOICE

1. A researcher has conducted 9 clinical studies, some quantitative and others qualitative, all of which focus on depression’s relationship to perceived abandonment. “Depression’s relationship to perceived abandonment” is an example of which of the following?

ANS:  B

Research topics are concepts, phenomena of interest, or broad problem areas that researchers can focus on to enhance evidence-based nursing. A research problem is an area of concern where there is a gap in the knowledge base needed for nursing practice. Research topics contain numerous potential research problems, and each problem provides the basis for developing many research purposes. The problem statement identifies the specific gap in the knowledge needed for practice. A nursing situation often includes a variety of research topics or concepts.

DIF:    Cognitive Level: Application           REF:   Page 73

2. Why is replicating a research study essential for knowledge development?

ANS:  C

Replication involves reproducing or repeating a study to determine if similar findings will be obtained. Replication is essential for knowledge development because it (1) establishes the credibility of the findings, (2) extends the generalizability of the findings over a range of instances and contexts, (3) reduces the number of type I and type II errors, (4) corrects the limitations in studies’ methodologies, (5) supports theory development, and (6) lessens the acceptance of erroneous results. Some researchers replicate studies because they agree with the findings and wonder if the findings will hold up in different settings with different subjects over time. Others want to challenge the findings or interpretations of prior investigators. However, the number of nursing studies replicated continues to be limited.

DIF:    Cognitive Level: Synthesis              REF:   Page 77

3. A nurse researcher working in a subacute orthopedic hospital floor. She notes that her elders with knee replacements sleep as many as 16 hours a day, waking only for physical therapy and meals, but she also notices that those with many visitors sleep fewer hours and seem to experience more pain. She wonders whether sleep in elders after knee replacement prevents pain, or whether elders select the coping strategy of sleeping more, in response to pain, and begins to attempt to identify the relationship between the two. A literature search reveals only three descriptive studies on this topic, one quantitative and two qualitative. What is “the relationship between elders’ hours of sleep following knee replacement and its relationship with report of pain”?

ANS:  C

Research topics are concepts, phenomena of interest, or broad problem areas that researchers can focus on to enhance evidence-based nursing. A research problem is an area of concern where there is a gap in the knowledge base needed for nursing practice. Research topics contain numerous potential research problems, and each problem provides the basis for developing many research purposes.

DIF:    Cognitive Level: Synthesis              REF:   Page 73

4. A master’s student who works in cardiothoracic ICU reads a 20-year-old nursing research study; the findings document use of much larger per-kilogram amounts of opioids and anxiolytics postoperatively in adults with open-heart surgery, as opposed to children with open-heart surgery. The student strongly suspects that modern hospitals medicate children and adults more or less the same, on a per-kilogram basis. She decides to replicate the original research in her hospital. What type of replication is this?

ANS:  D

Replication involves reproducing or repeating a study to determine whether similar findings will be obtained. Four different types of replication are important in generating sound scientific knowledge for nursing: (1) exact, (2) approximate, (3) concurrent, and (4) systematic extension. An exact, or identical, replication involves duplicating the initial researcher’s study to confirm the original findings. All conditions of the original study must be maintained. An approximate, or operational, replication involves repeating the original study under similar conditions, following the methods as closely as possible. A concurrent, or internal, replication involves the collection of data for the original study and its simultaneous replication to provide a check of the reliability of the original study. A systematic extension or constructive replication is done under distinctly new conditions.