A nurse manager has conducted a study to look at the relationship between the amount of time staff nurses on a unit spend in patient rooms and the number of times the patients on that unit use their call lights. The manager reports the results of the data analysis as r = –1.02. How should these results be interpreted?

Question

1. There is a strong positive relationship between the variables.
2. There is a strong negative relationship between the variables.
3. There is no relationship between the variables.
4. This is an improbable value, and a mathematical error is possible.

Answer 1

4
Rationale 1: A positive value indicates a positive correlation between the variables, and –1.02 falls outside the parameters of a correlation coefficient (1.0 and –1.0).
Rationale 2: A negative value does indicate a negative correlation between the variables, but –1.02 falls outside the parameters of a correlation coefficient (1.0 and –1.0).
Rationale 3: A relationship may exist, but this value lies outside the parameters of a correlation coefficient (1.0 and –1.0), so it is impossible to be certain.
Rationale 4: Correlation coefficients can only range between 1.0 and –1.0, so this is an improbable value. Perhaps a mathematical error was made.
Global Rationale: