Nurse Researcher最新文献

Background: Grounded theory (GT) has become one of the foremost tools in qualitative nursing research. There are different approaches to GT but a feature common to all of them is theoretical sensitivity, which facilitates GT's iterative process. However, differences between the approaches in how to apply theoretical sensitivity and how much influence existing knowledge should play have contributed to tribalism.

Aim: To critically evaluate the role of theoretical sensitivity and reflexivity in GT and the involvement they can have, as well as explore what steps researchers can take to improve their insight.

Discussion: Theoretical sensitivity enables researchers to steer their studies to answer their research questions, gain insight into their study's findings and develop theory grounded in the data. However, reflection is required for researchers to understand their effect on the theories that emerge, prevent them from applying preconceived ideas and allow for the unfettered emergence of theory.

Conclusion: Researchers who do not demonstrate insight into their own philosophical positions and influences risk being accused of bias; this may result in the perceived value of their theoretical outcomes being reduced. Applying a reflexive process may mitigate this, enabling them to understand and refine their methodological processes and produce high-quality GT research.

Implications for practice: All researchers should consider using reflexivity when conducting research. Understanding influences and positionality in qualitative methodologies allows for transparency and improves the rigour of their outcomes.

Background: Nominal group technique (NGT) is widely used in healthcare research to facilitate decision-making and consensus-building. Traditional NGT requires face-to-face interaction and its limitations include potential biases, logistical challenges and high costs. The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a shift to virtual methods, which led to the development of virtual nominal group technique (vNGT). Aim To reflect on the use of vNGT, particularly in the context of Ghader et al (2023 ), to understand its effectiveness in overcoming the limitations of traditional NGT and on its applicability in pandemic-affected scenarios.

Method: This paper reviews and discusses literature on the use and effectiveness of NGT compared to other consensus-building methods and examines the emergence of vNGT in overcoming the limitations of traditional NGT. The authors also reflect on their use of vNGT in a study to identify cardiovascular research priorities in the UAE and provide details of its implementation.

Discussion: vNGT bridges the gap between the localised nature of traditional NGT and the global reach of the Delphi technique. It allows for the inclusion of diverse participants, saves costs and offers time-efficiency. The study demonstrated vNGT's adaptability, with participants engaging in idea generation, discussion and prioritisation using online tools. However, challenges persist with vNGT, including reduced accessibility for certain demographics, timing issues across time zones and technical difficulties.

Conclusion: vNGT successfully integrates the interactive, consensus-building aspects of NGT with the broad reach of Delphi. It can be valuable in research and decision-making, especially in an era of increased remote collaboration.

Implications for practice: vNGT can significantly impact healthcare research and policy formulation by enabling more inclusive, cost-effective and timely consensus-building processes. However, considerations for accessibility and technical support are crucial for its wider adoption and effectiveness.

Background: The evidence base for hydration practice in care homes is underdeveloped. High-quality research is therefore needed to determine what practices support older people with dementia in drinking sufficient fluid. However, methodological developments are needed to be able to do this.

Aim: To highlight the methodological issues researchers encountered during a feasibility cluster, randomised controlled trial of ThinkDrink, a hydration care guide for people with dementia living in UK care homes.

Discussion: This is a challenging area because of the complexity of recruitment, participation and data collection in care homes. Researchers must pay extra attention to rigour and quality in the design of their studies. There may be multiple challenges, so various strategies may be required.

Conclusion: It is important that researchers continue to reflect on rigorous approaches to develop evidence in a crucial area of care, despite these challenges.

Implications for practice: Researchers working in complex environments face a variety of challenges to complete methodologically rigorous research. It is important for researchers to be critical of research processes and data, to mitigate and overcome these challenges.

Background: An embedded single case-study design was used to explore the experiences of men in rural New Zealand accessing mental health services. It is essential for researchers to acknowledge positionality in case study research and the lead author used reflexive practice to acknowledge his values and beliefs.

Aim: To explore and demonstrate the reflexive process of the lead author's position as an inside researcher.

Discussion: Three groups were involved in the research: men with mental health challenges, their partners, and mental health clinicians. The article presents the initial research through memos and diarying in the context of current literature.

Conclusion: Reflexivity is essential for ensuring the research process is complete and biases are identified. Positionality exists on a continuum and it is critical for researchers to be honest with themselves, the topic and the group being investigated, to show respect for the participants and the people they represent, as well as to be committed to revealing the truth.

Implications for practice: Insider research has the potential to bridge the gap between academia and practice. It facilitates the transfer of research knowledge directly to practitioners, leading to more evidence-informed decision-making and practice.

Background: Coding for gerunds is useful in developing theory in grounded theory. However, it can be confusing for the novice researcher to recognise these words, which consider actions more abstractly.

Aim: To explain how to identify, analyse and code gerunds, using the example of a constructivist grounded theory study investigating the design of operating rooms.

Discussion: Coding for gerunds helped to illustrate participants' actions and sequences in the example study and added depth to the researcher's understanding of certain topics.

Conclusion: Coding gerunds can improve the insights obtained in grounded theory studies.

Implications for practice: This article may encourage nurse researchers to focus on actions to add depth to their qualitative analyses.

Background: There is increasing recognition of the need to include patients and the public in the research process. There is extensive literature about patient and public involvement (PPI) in research, but fewer articles report on PPI in doctoral research.

Aim: To reflect on establishing an advisory group for a doctoral study, exploring the opportunities and challenges associated with including patients with dementia in the research process.

Discussion: The authors discuss the practicalities of establishing an advisory group, the challenges of being a novice researcher, long-term commitment to PPI, the overall approach to PPI and ethical considerations.

Conclusion: Establishing an advisory group for a doctoral study can facilitate mutual learning and enhance the study's quality.

Implications for practice: Achieving high-quality PPI in health and social care research can ultimately improve its quality and relevance. An important aspect of the doctoral journey is developing knowledge and skills to facilitate PPI as part of a researcher's apprenticeship.

Background: Researchers conducting studies involving pregnant women often find recruitment challenging. The COVID-19 pandemic added further complexity to studies requiring face-to-face participation.

Aim: To demonstrate how to maintain the principles of practice development (PD) when a study must switch from face-to-face to remote methods of collecting data.

Discussion: The number of participants in the authors' study increased when they moved from face-to-face to telephone engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic. They continued using PD principles when they changed method and the quality of the data they collected remained constant, even once lockdown restrictions were in place.

Conclusion: PD principles can offer ways for nurse researchers to engage, collaborate with and reflect with people for research projects, including when constraints compete with participation. They can also assist researchers in optimising and maintaining recruitment and data collection when face-to-face research methods are impossible.

Implications for practice: The telephone can be a valuable alternative medium for recruiting participants and collecting data when face-to-face methods are impossible to use. PD principles can be maintained and response rates and participation may even be greater when using it.

Background: Quantitative researchers can use permutation tests to conduct null hypothesis significance testing without resorting to complicated distribution theory. A permutation test can reach conclusions in hypothesis testing that are the same as those of better-known tests such as the t-test but is much easier to understand and implement.

Aim: To introduce and explain permutation tests using two real examples of independent and dependent t-tests and their corresponding permutation tests.

Discussion: This article traces the history of permutation tests, explains the possible reason for their absence in textbooks and offers a simple example of their implementation. It provides simple code written in the R programming language to generate the null distributions and P -values for the permutation tests.

Conclusion: Permutation tests do not require the strict model assumptions of t -tests and can be robust alternatives.

Implications for practice: Permutation tests are a useful addition to practitioners' research repertoire for testing hypotheses.

Background: Several drivers are currently leading to greater emphasis of the importance of ensuring research has impact. Nursing research aims to improve patient care, safety and well-being, so it might be assumed results with the potential to effect such changes would automatically have an impact on clinical practice. However, experience suggests this is not the case and careful attention is needed for there to be an impact.

Aim: To present the example of a project commissioned to develop a health communication tool to support people with learning disabilities in accessing healthcare.

Discussion: The authors explore the importance of a planned approach to impact by referencing existing frameworks and providing examples of strategies used in the project. They also discuss the importance of framing the question using a range of approaches to actively engage stakeholders and of using diverse strategies to embed the development in practice.

Conclusion: A planned approach is required to maximise impact from research. Planning and associated actions need to start at the very beginning of the research project and continue beyond the point of delivering the project report.

Implications for practice: This paper relates to a specific context and patient group but the principles discussed are transferable to other clinical settings and patient groups.

Background: The best practice model states that the highest quality of scientific information in a discipline should be used when addressing pertinent problems. The usefulness of any measure depends on the least allowable error, which implies that best practice approaches must be used during analyses of rating scales. However, modern theories of objective measurement in advanced statistics suggest there are some shortcomings in reports of questionnaire analyses.

Aim: To highlight some common problems in questionnaire data and suggest techniques of constructing objective measures during rating scale analysis.

Discussion: Questionnaires are frequently used as rating scales of latent variables, such as knowledge, anxiety and outcomes of treatments. However, reports of the steps involved before generating the final 'measures' often fail to present known limitations and robust solutions to the problems common to questionnaire data. Most designers of questionnaires generate variable measures for either educational or clinical research purposes without providing adequate explanations of the steps taken to address inherent limitations that may worsen the error terms in the outcome measure.

Conclusion: Cursory attention is given to the problems in questionnaire analysis as most users do not convincingly justify the measurement techniques they used before they present variable estimation. Reporting the techniques used to address data complexity by engaging objective measurement parameters ensures best practice and emphasises the credibility of the outcome measure.

Implications for practice: Among researchers, using the techniques outlined here will lead to standardisation of questionnaire analysis and elimination of avoidable errors in constructing variable measures, resulting in high-quality data suitable for parametric statistics. For clinicians, these methods will simplify the interpretation of numerical measures to equivalent indicators on Wright maps, thus avoiding inconsistencies and misinterpretations of variable measure.