If a nurse manager wants to study how well last year's policies governing implementation of a "bundle" of interventions to prevent cross-contamination of MRSA have been working in her units, which of the following strategies would she use?
a. Outcomes research
b. Intervention research
c. Ethnographic research
d. Experimental research
ANS: A
Outcomes research emerged as an important methodology for documenting the effectiveness of health care services in the 1980s and 1990s. This type of research evolved from the quality assessment and quality assurance functions that originated with the professional standards review organizations (PSROs) in 1972. During the 1980s, William Roper, the director of the Health Care Finance Administration (HCFA), promoted outcomes research for determining the quality and cost-effectiveness of patient care. Intervention research investigates the effectiveness of a nursing intervention in achieving the desired outcome or outcomes in a natural setting. Through the use of ethnographic research, different cultures are described, compared, and contrasted to add to our understanding of the impact of culture on human behavior and health. Experimental studies have three main characteristics: (1) a controlled manipulation of at least one treatment variable (independent variable), (2) administration of the treatment to some of the subjects in the study (experimental group) and not to others (control group), and (3) random selection of subjects or random assignment of subjects to groups, or both. Experimental studies usually are conducted in highly controlled settings, such as laboratories or research units in clinical agencies.
You might also like to view...
A nurse is assessing an ECG rhythm strip. The P waves and QRS complexes are regular. The PR interval is 0.16 second. The overall heart rate is 60 beats/min. The nurse assesses the cardiac rhythm as:
A) Normal sinus rhythm B) Sinus bradycardia C) Sick sinus syndrome D) Heart Block
In a nonequivalent-control-group design, the most serious threat to internal validity is:
A) Testing B) Selection C) Maturation D) History
A nurse is caring for a client with goiter. Which element deficiency should the nurse identify in the client's condition?
A) Iron B) Iodine C) Potassium D) Sodium
A client asks the nurse what the pink patches are on the back of the neck of their newborn. Which newborn finding should the nurse be prepared to discuss?
A. Lanugo. B. Nevus flammeus. C. Vernix caseosa. D. Transient mottling.