Nursing Research

Questions

1.  The theoretical foundations of qualitative and quantitative methods are very different, but many researchers believe both methods should be used in the research study to increase validity and reliability. What advantages or disadvantages do you see in using both types of methods in a nursing study? Support your answer with current evidence-based literature

            The major purpose of conducting research is to identify new information about an aspect in the nursing field. Thus, nursing research has become an important skill in the modern world since it provides reliable information for use in enhancing the quality of services and care. The lack of research in nursing and clinical research is likely to lead to practices without validation. Research work helps to evaluate the effectiveness of certain modalities in practice and also examine the effect of nursing care to the well being of the patients. For the qualitative research, the design involves a description of different phenomena and events as they relate to nursing practice. On the other hand, quantitative research helps to describe the phenomena by the support of statistical data (Creswell, 2013). According to many researchers, the use of both methods in research can be beneficial in increasing validity and reliability.

            The approach of using both qualitative and quantitative techniques in data collection and analysis can be an important endeavor in nursing research. However, the technicalities of applying the method in nursing research make it a challenge to use them together. It is evident that the use of both qualitative and quantitative methods has an added value through providing a more comprehensive design. There are numerous practical and theoretical challenges that arise when integrating qualitative and quantitative research. It is a complex task to handle such research since the various methods required for the approach do not have a significant focus in the literature by many researchers. The studies lack publicized data for both the qualitative and quantitative methods because they use one as a data pilot source. There exist different audiences, reviewers, and journals for the qualitative and quantitative derived insights that result in the separate publishing of the data despite it being from an individual study (Borkan, 2004).   

            Qualitative and quantitative research methods have differences in the assumptions, worldview, and epistemology that make actual integration a reality. Qualitative data relies on different iterative techniques to generate research data, but quantitative studies use linear questionnaires or measurements. Qualitative researches do not rely on statistics and quantification to arrive at conclusions. However, the quantitative research studies base the arguments on interpretation rather than discovery. Thus, the researcher seeks for valid and rigorous interpretations rather than qualitative studies that are inductive, uses observations, and formulation of hypothesis and theories. Quantitative studies use theories to construct the hypothesis and then gather data to support them. The approach of integrating both methods results to a challenge in data handling due to the differences encountered (Creswell, 2013).   

            The integration of both qualitative and quantitative makes the design complex. It takes more time and resources to plan and execute the requirements of the research. The method also makes it difficult to plan and implement one method and draw the findings from the other. The interpretations of the findings are likely to have discrepancies and hence become a challenge to resolve them. In most instances, the researchers tend to quantize qualitative data making it lose its flexibility and depth. Qualitative codes are multi-dimensional while the quantitative codes are one-dimensional and fixed. The method of converting qualitative data to quantitative is challenging since it requires analyzing, coding, and integrating it from unstructured to structured data. The use of the mixed method design is the statistical measurement limitations of qualitative data when quantized. It becomes vulnerable to co-linearity (Malina, Nørreklit & Selto, 2011). However, the researchers can reduce the sample size to reduce time consumption in the research, but it results in other challenges invalidity.         

2. Nursing research is used to study a dilemma or a problem in nursing. Examine a problem you have seen in nursing. Why should it be studied? Justify your rationale

            The main purpose of nursing research is to study a problem and give supportive data about the position taken in the study. The select issue in nursing for research is the effectiveness of using garlic in the management of diabetes mellitus type 2. Diabetes is a chronic disease and is a cause of death to a significant fraction of the world population. The disease cannot be cured, but is treated in different ways and successfully. The treatment varies from one patient to another and depends on the type. Type 1 is treatable by use of insulin injections and adopting a healthy diet as well as regular exercise. For type 2 diabetes, the effective treatment method involves the use of a healthy diet and regular exercise or a combination of a healthy diet, exercise, and medication. Other patients may also need insulin injections.

            The research topic is appropriate since it seeks to examine the effectiveness of the consumption of garlic as a non-medical therapy for diabetes. In essence, the use of medications has certain side effects and drug reactions that vary among different individuals. The patients may also encounter challenges in adhering to the medication schedules and also the required physical exercises. An effective method would be to have a prescription that is non-medical like consumption of garlic on controlled levels to manage the disease. Garlic has a modulating effect on the metabolic syndrome and oxidative stress in diabetic patients. Patients using garlic report increased metabolic syndromes of hyperglycemia and dyslipidemia and also increase insulin production (Devon, 2013). The research will provide crucial information about disease management thereby reducing the mortality rate.             

References

Borkan, J. M. (2004). Mixed Methods Studies: A Foundation for Primary Care Research. Annals             of Family Medicine, 2(1), 4–6.

Creswell, J. W. (2013). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods        approaches. Sage publications

Devon L.J (2013) Research shows garlic may be an effective treatment for diabetes and    oxidative stress, Report from Natural News

Malina, M. A., Nørreklit, H. S., & Selto, F. H. (2011). Lessons learned: advantages and    disadvantages of mixed method research. Qualitative Research in Accounting &        Management, 8(1), 59-71.

Sherry Roberts is the author of this paper. A senior editor at MeldaResearch.Com in custom nursing essay writing services services if you need a similar paper you can place your order for college essay writing services.