Deck 20: Collecting and Managing Data

Question 1

A nurse is conducting her master's thesis research in the unit in which she works as a staff nurse. The focus of her thesis is burned children's pain, with a child life specialist assisting the child versus without. She is providing child life specialist presence every other day at the mid-morning dressing change. For obvious reasons, she wants to keep everything else consistent for the 4 contiguous days of data collection. On the second day of four, with the child life specialist present, one child demonstrates poor pain control. The nurse researcher would ordinarily advocate for more pain medication for this child, but if she does, she will not be able to compare the data with that of the previous day. What is this an example of?

A)Serendipity
B)Subject as object
C)Role conflict
D)Passive resistance

Answer 1

Role conflict

Question 2

A researcher intends to collect data, including patients' ratings of pain and anxiety, during a procedure. No electrical equipment or photography may be used in the procedure room. In order to record the various pain and anxiety ratings, the researcher may plan to use which of the following?

A)A plug-in word processor
B)A form with large margins, or a column for comments, or both
C)A pencil with an eraser
D)A form with prelabeled columns and rows
E)A cell phone with camera

Answer 2

A form with large margins, or a column for comments, or both
A pencil with an eraser
A form with prelabeled columns and rows

Question 3

What is the general rule about collecting demographic data during an interview?

A)The mood of the qualitative interview, so crucial to quality data capture, may be intruded upon by demographic data collection.
B)In quantitative interviews, everything excerpted from medical records must again be verified in face interviews.
C)In qualitative interviews, routinely asking 20 or 30 demographic questions sets the stage for actual data collection.
D)If data can be obtained in other ways, it is best to leave the valuable interview time for actual interviewing.

Answer 3

If data can be obtained in other ways, it is best to leave the valuable interview time for actual interviewing.

Question 4

The quantitative researcher collects many pieces of quantitative data as words, not numbers. Prior to statistical analysis, all of the data pieces must be coded. What does this mean?

A)The data are transformed into numerals corresponding to words, such as: 0-no college degree, 1-bachelor's degree, 2-master's degree, 3-PhD or Edd.
B)The essence of each word is noted; later, these essences emerge as themes.
C)The data are typed into a computer, and the computer is instructed to transform the words into binary values, using only 0 and 1, by adding up the numbers of each letter in the alphabet.
D)The data regarding protected data are transformed to code names; a list is made and kept in a secure location.

Question 5

A researcher is studying the way that ICU nurses prioritize the charting responsibilities for their 12-hour shift. The researcher happens to discover that nurses are administering medications as close to the ordered times as possible but consistently charting the times at which medications are ordered, not the time they are actually administered, even though that may be 2 or 3 hours later. What could the researcher do with this information?

A)The researcher could make the nurse manager aware of the finding, after the study data have all been collected, because this is essentially a medication charting error.
B)Nothing. This is not a focus of the study, and the information must be suppressed.
C)The researcher should take time to educate individual nurses, so that they understand that what they are doing is not honest.
D)The researcher should include the findings in the article, stating that this is a time-saving strategy, since the computer allows charting of meds when ordered (instead of when administered) as a block, saving time.
E)The researcher should report this information under Serendipitous Discoveries, in the article that results from the study.

Question 6

How may raw research data, with identifiers, obtained from a hospital be stored?

A)It must be kept only in the hospital's computer system; at the end of the workday, all excerpted data must be deleted.
B)In a locked box in a safe
C)In any e-mail account
D)On a private website
E)In a password-protected computer, located in a private office or residence

Question 7

What are the purposes of completing a pilot study?

A)It provides nominal and ordinal data with which the researcher can construct better instruments.
B)It helps identify problems the researcher might encounter while collecting data.
C)It justifies the existence of a research gap.
D)It gives the researcher preliminary data to present the institutional review board in order to obtain permission to conduct research.
E)It provides an idea of the time lines of the proposed study, including instrument-completion and subject recruitment.

Question 8

What are the principal tasks of data collection?

A)Performing constant comparison for qualitative data
B)Maintaining research controls as indicated in the study design
C)Solving problems that threaten to disrupt the study
D)Cross-checking with the literature review
E)Collecting data in a consistent way
F)Obtaining institutional review board permission
G)Selecting subjects

Question 9

Part of a research study entails that research subjects complete a printed form with checkboxes. The researcher decides ahead of time that any item that has more than one response checked will be treated as unanswered. What are logical ways the researcher can maximize properly answered items, without skewing the data?

A)Make a rule that if there are two checked replies, only the first one will be counted.
B)When the researcher hands the form to the subjects, the researcher should specify "One answer and one answer only for each of these items, please, or I won't be able to include the double-answered ones in my report."
C)Glance at the forms as they are about to be handed in, and if two boxes for an item are checked, ask the subject to address this.
D)In the printed instructions at the top of the form, be sure to state that if a question has more than one response checked, that item will be treated as unanswered.
E)Eliminate from the entire study any subject who double-selects an item.

Question 10

How may research data, code-named and stripped of all identifiers, be stored?

A)Separate from the master list of identifiers and codes
B)Only in a locked box in a safe
C)Anywhere the researcher decides to store it that has reasonable security
D)Only in the original database from which it was derived
E)Only in a password-protected computer, located in a private office or residence

Question 11

A researcher is collecting data in a hospital during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). The researcher has devised a data collection form that contains five columns for data entry. During the first three data collection periods, the form works reasonably well, although the researcher has to turn the page over and write on the back. During the fourth, however, the CPR incident occurs in the Emergency Department and includes many procedures and interventions, and the researcher ends up taking a blank piece of paper and recording data on that. Later, it takes the researcher 40 minutes to unscramble and collate the data, and record it properly. What must be done now?

A)The researcher will go back to the institutional review board and request permission to use a different form.
B)The researcher will design a new form, with the assumption that the next CPR incident will be just as complex as the last.
C)The researcher will continue to use the old form, writing on the back when necessary, and pulling out blank pieces of paper, from time to time, for additional data recording.d.The researcher will decrease the amount of data necessary to record by revising the old study protocol, so that fewer research questions are asked.

Question 12

Planning as a step in the quantitative research process ends when the data collection has begun. Which is the true statement about planning in the qualitative research process?

A)Since sample size is not usually decided upon ahead of time, there is no practical reward to planning the qualitative research study ahead of time.
B)There is no planning in the qualitative research process; it all emanates from the data collected.
C)Everything about a qualitative study is planned ahead of time, except for analysis of the data.
D)The researcher may adapt strategies for data collection or analysis well into the study.