Deck 5: Research Problem and Purpose

Question 1

Which of the following are considered evidence-generating?

A)Replication of previous research
B)Identification of research topics, followed by basic research
C)Applied research studies that examine clinical response to interventions
D)Reviews of the literature
E)Qualitative research examining responses to diagnosis

Answer 1

Replication of previous research
Identification of research topics, followed by basic research
Applied research studies that examine clinical response to interventions
Qualitative research examining responses to diagnosis

Question 2

Which is the practicing nurse's most important source of researchable problems?

A)The nurse's own clinical practice
B)Review of the literature
C)Nursing theories
D)Administrative mandates to conduct clinical research on every hospital unit

Answer 2

The nurse's own clinical practice

Question 3

A study contains the research question, "Can the application of twice-daily cortisone in the period from 6 to 10 weeks postoperatively produce significantly increased range of motion in 50- to 60-year-old rotator-cuff repair patients at the 6-month mark?" What is the type of research described?

A)Ethnographic
B)Historical
C)Experimental
D)Basic

Answer 3

Experimental

Question 4

What is the relationship between a research topic and a research problem?

A)Research topics contain several potential research problems, and each research problem provides the basis for developing many purposes.
B)A research topic is an area in which there is a gap in nursing's knowledge base.
C)The research topic and the research problem are identical.
D)The research topic specifies setting and population, but the problem does not.

Question 5

A researcher applying for research funding includes this statement in the proposal: "The purpose of the research will be, most likely, to document how admirable charitable efforts by The Children of the Land were terminated by the well-meaning Los Angeles Police Force." What is incorrect about this wording?

A)A police organization cannot be named in a research purpose.
B)A purpose should specify methodology.
C)The terms admirable and well-meaning are both subjective.
D)The purpose must identify the goal of the study, not the "most likely" goal.
E)The purpose should be stated as "was" or "is" but not "will be."

Question 6

A nurse researcher works on a subacute orthopedic hospital floor. The researcher observes that elder patients with knee replacements sleep as many as 16 hours a day, waking only for physical therapy and meals, but the researcher also notices that those with many visitors sleep fewer hours and seem to experience more pain. The researcher 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 general topic, one quantitative and two qualitative, and none of the three explains the relationship between amount of sleep and pain. Which statement is true?

A)This is not a researchable problem for a quantitative study: the researcher will not be able to determine the relationship between these concepts.
B)This is not a researchable problem for a qualitative study: the ideas in the study will not be able to be expressed by the participants or observed by the researcher.
C)This researcher has identified and narrowed the area, reviewed the literature, and identified a problem area. Now a researchable purpose must be identified.
D)This topic area is a poor one for the study: with three studies already completed in the area, there is no identifiable research gap.

Question 7

The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) funds various research projects that focus on its research priorities. A master's student wants to initiate research to study the relative accuracy of a new computer-assisted assessment device that painlessly measures blood glucose values through a probe just distal to the insertion hub of a central line, in patients on insulin drips with hourly peripheral blood glucose checks. Does this pertain to any of the organization's research priorities, listed here?

A)Effective and appropriate use of technology to achieve optimal patient assessment, management, or outcomes
B)Prevention and management of complications
C)Processes and systems that foster the optimal contribution of critical care nurses
D)Creation of a healing, humane environment
E)Effective approaches to symptom management

Question 8

Which of the following research purposes would pertain to quantitative research?

A)The purpose of this study was to identify the stressors and coping strategies of adolescents after a major burn injury.
B)The purpose of our study was to establish correlations among panic disorder, bipolar disease, body piercing, and episodes of violence in college freshmen.
C)The purpose of this study was to determine the percentage of various types of surgery performed in five hospitals in the Atlanta, Georgia, region.
D)The purpose of this study was therefore to explore mothers' experiences with children who are termed "difficult" toddlers and preschoolers.
E)The purpose of this pilot study was to examine the effectiveness of a new, computer-based education module on nurses' first-attempt mastery of a specialized practice certification examination.

Question 9

Which item represents a concise, clear statement of the specific goal or aim of a research study?

A)The research problem was identified as the general area of ignorance surrounding the causation and diagnosis of meningococcal meningitis, especially among soldiers in uniform, and this constituted a significant gap in the literature.
B)The purpose of the project, then, was to define changes in the variable of hypertension across time, with the four most prevalent treatment modalities prescribed by primary care physicians in the greater Chicago area.
C)The phenomenon of depression experienced by the primary schoolchild was focused upon in this study. It is an under-researched topic, especially since recent research has identified correlational links with childhood obesity, especially in Hispanic and African-American populations.
D)Despite the fact that studying the disease, especially from standpoints of prevention and early detection, is costly and time-consuming, it represents a clear priority, since treatment itself is remarkably costly and the afflicted are not likely to experience even short remissions without early intervention.

Question 10

A master's student does not know how to choose a research problem. The student was a trauma nurse but has not been working clinically for the past 2 years. What sources can the student use in order to identify a researchable nursing problem? Research in the previous work area of trauma nursing does not interest the student. Which of the following activities could be fruitful sources, in identifying a nursing research problem?

A)Reading popular magazines to see what kind of research captivates the public's interest
B)Talking with nurses still engaged in clinical practice about questions that have arisen in their work areas
C)Reading professional research journals
D)Depending on the student's instructors to provide a research problem
E)Accessing the National Institutes for Nursing Research (NINR) research priorities

Question 11

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. The student decides to replicate the original research in the student's hospital. What type of replication is this?

A)Exact replication
B)Concurrent replication
C)Systematic replication
D)Approximate replication

Question 12

Which of the following research purposes would pertain to qualitative research?

A)The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experience of work in a bone marrow transplant unit.
B)The purpose of our research was to establish evidence for the financial value to the institution of employing clinical nurse specialists, in terms of outcomes.
C)The purpose of this study was to examine the culture of working mothers and their balancing act of home and work commitments.
D)The purpose of this study was to test the associations among pet ownership, community social engagement, personal friendships, and family relationships.
E)The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of beta blockers in the management of heart failure in older adults.

Question 13

A researcher includes the following problem statement in a research proposal: "Children in publicly funded school breakfast programs often have learning delays. These are not readily attributable to single causes. Research on learning delays has revealed that family literacy, measured by parental reading level and comprehension scores, is the most powerful predictor of delay in the primary grades. On the other hand, repeated exposure to eyes-on reading, in the company of a trusted nonparent adult or peer, has been shown to override family literacy as a predictor. No research, however, has studied institution of a reading-and-breakfast program, delivered 5 days a week before school, intended to override the variable of family literacy." Given this problem statement, which of these purposes would be appropriate for the study?

A)The purpose of the study is to determine whether providing volunteer readers during school breakfasts for all kindergarten and first-grade children will result in fewer than anticipated learning delays.
B)The purpose of the study is to determine the lived experience of children with learning delays, against the context of school and home, and to examine the children's peer relationships.
C)The purpose of the study is to determine whether a buddy system of one sixth-grader, and one kindergartner or first-grader, who eat breakfast together and then read together for 20 minutes, is effective in decreasing the anticipated number learning delays.
D)The purpose of the study is to experimentally determine what causes learning delays, by introducing various strategies already in place in community primary schools and measuring their effect, using basic research.
E)The purpose of the study is to measure the effectiveness of using school computers, allowing children to visually scan a story concurrently read by a schoolteacher over the cafeteria microphone during school breakfast time, in decreasing the incidence and severity of learning delays.

Question 14

A researcher has conducted nine clinical studies, some quantitative and others qualitative, all of which focus on depression's relationship to perceived abandonment. What is the best description of the phrase "Depression's relationship to perceived abandonment"?

A)Research problem
B)Research topic
C)Research purpose
D)Background statement

Question 15

A researcher gains support of the medical staff, the nursing staff, and the nurse manager of a cardiothoracic ICU within a prestigious private hospital, aligned with a teaching institution. A research proposal, concerning ambulation patterns after bypass surgery, is approved by the Human Subjects Committee. Federal funding is obtained. Just before data collection is to begin, the hospital is sold to a large university with a medical school, the nurse manager is replaced with a manager from another hospital in the corporation, and there is a 30% staff turnover. Which of the following factors are expected to affect study feasibility in a negative manner?

A)Most of the newly hired nurses are BSNs and newly graduated.
B)The new manager grudgingly allows the research to proceed but makes it clear that she will not support subsequent research until the unit is more stable.
C)Fewer patients come to this hospital now for bypass surgery, going instead to its sister hospital across town.
D)Two of the research assistants, who were already trained, take jobs elsewhere.
E)Staff nurses disliked the old manager and like the replacement one.

Question 16

Why is replicating a research study essential for knowledge development?

A)Each time a study is replicated, its probability of error decreases.
B)Replicating a study in a different population can decrease generalizability.
C)Replication helps confirm that the initial results were not reached in error.
D)Replication studies represent the majority of published nursing literature.

Question 17

A new disease is identified in the eastern United States. A literature search that shows that no quantitative research, but only qualitative research, has been performed regarding the disease. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) identifies that same area as one of research priority. What does this collectively describe?

A)A research gap
B)A purpose statement
C)A significance statement
D)A feasibility problem

Question 18

In determining a study's feasibility, which of the following aspects should the novice researcher consider?

A)There is a statistician in the agency with expertise in the data analysis method the researcher has chosen.
B)The research problem area is not well researched. The researcher decides that qualitative research is indicated but has no experience in this methodology.
C)The community health agency through which the researcher plans to collect data is funded using public dollars.
D)The planned outpatient research site treats about 15 persons per month with the disease process that is the focus of study.
E)There are three hospitals in town and only one of them is supportive to researchers from outside the institution.
F)One of the faculty advisors is very formal and expects students to come to their progress meetings prepared to discuss their work.

Question 19

What is the relationship among the research problem, the research purpose, and the research question?

A)The purpose is but one of many purposes that can be generated from one particular problem statement.
B)The problem statement is more focused and specific than is the purpose.
C)The research purpose and the research question should address the same facet of the research problem.
D)The problem, purpose, and question are all focused upon a specific gap in the knowledge base.
E)Research can be conducted without a research purpose, but not without a research question.

Question 20

Reasons to conduct replication research might include which of the following?

A)The original study, using a small sample, showed statistically significant results.
B)The original research showed statistically significant findings, but the research site is no longer in operation.
C)The original sample size was adequate, the design was strong, and results showed no statistically significant results.
D)Subjects in the original study confided to the researcher, after the research had been completed, that they did not enjoy filling out the survey.
E)The original study produced statistically significant results in surgical outpatients. The researcher questioned whether the results would be the same in an inpatient setting.