Purpose
1) Why did the researcher(s) conduct this study?
2) Is the problem significant for nursing?
Research Question(s)
1) What is the research question(s)
2) Is the research question explicitly stated?
3) If the question was not stated, what do you think the question is?
Literature Review
1) What is the quality of the literature review (must evaluate references based on when the journal published the article)?

2) Are the references up-to-date and based mainly on primary sources (look up primary and secondary resources)?

Framework
1) Does the study identify a theoretical or conceptual framework?
o If so, what is the framework used?

2) Is the framework drawn from nursing or from another discipline?
Homework #2
Methodology
Participants
1) Who were the study participants (e.g., nursing students, men, women, etc.)?
2) Where did the researchers recruit the participants (e.g., nursing home, nursing school, etc.)?

3) How many participants were in the study?
4) What was the sampling strategy used to recruit participants (e.g., purposeful, convenience, non-probabilistic)?
5) How did the research determine the sample size (e.g. quota sampling, historical)?
6) Was the sample size adequate to achieve saturation (look up saturation in qualitative research)
7) How was sampling bias minimized (might be addressed in the article)
Protection of Human Research Participants
1) Was the study approved by IRB (institutional review board) or an ethics review board?
2) What steps were taken to protect study participants (describe if stated in the article)?
Research Design
1) What was the design of the study (e.g., qualitative description, grounded theory, ethnography, phenomenology, case study)?

2) Is the design appropriate for the study (look at the research question)?
3) If the researcher(s) was in the field, how long did they stay?
Homework #3
Data Collection
1) What strategies were used to collect the data (e.g., semi-structured interviews, open-ended interviews, chart reviews, etc.)?

Data Analysis
1) How was the data analyzed (e.g., content analysis, grounded theory iteration, phenomenology process)?

2) Did the authors describe the data analysis methods?
Findings
1) What were the findings?
2) Were the categories or themes insightful, provocative, authentic and meaningful picture?
3) Did the researcher report limitations of the study?
4) What are the implications of this study for nursing?
Quantitative Study
Homework #1
Purpose of the Study
1) Why did the researcher(s) conduct this study?
2) Is the problem significant for nursing?
Research Question and Hypothesis
1) What is the research question(s) for this study?
2) If question is not explicitly stated, what is the question(s)?
3) What is the hypothesis for this study?
4) If the hypothesis is not stated, what is the hypothesis (you have to infer a hypothesis)?
Literature Review
1) What is the quality of the literature review (must evaluate references based on when the journal published the article)?

2) Are the references up-to-date and based mainly on primary sources (look up primary and secondary resources)?

Framework
1) Does the study identify a theoretical or conceptual framework?
a. If so, what is the framework used?

2) Is the framework drawn from nursing or from another discipline?
Homework #2
Methodology
Participants
1) Who were the study participants (e.g., nursing students, men, women, etc.)?
2) Where did the researchers recruit the participants (e.g., nursing home, nursing school, etc.)?

3) How many participants were in the study?
4) What was the sampling strategy used to recruit participants (e.g., probabilistic, randomization, purposeful, non-probabilistic)?
5) How did researchers determine the sample size (e.g. power analysis, quota sampling)?
6) Was the sample size adequate to generalize findings (look up generalization in quantitative research)

7) How was sampling bias minimized (might be addressed in the article)?
Protection of Human Research Participants
1) Was the study approved by IRB (institutional review board) or an ethics review board?
2) What steps were taken to protect study participants (describe if stated in the article)?
Research Design
1) What was the research design (e.g., experimental, quasi-experimental, non-experimental, descriptive, correlational)?

2) Is the design appropriate for the study (look at the research question)?
3) Did the research design minimize bias and threats to internal construct and external validity (look up these concepts in the text)?

4) Was there an intervention (e.g., education, pretest/posttest, drug trial)?
a. If an intervention, describe it.
5) If staff were used, were they appropriately trained (this will be stated in the article)?
Homework #3
Data Collection
1) What strategies were used to collect the data (e.g., semi-structured interviews, open-ended interviews, chart reviews, etc.)?

2) What were independent and dependent variables (look at the Methods section and Tables in the article)?

Data Analysis
1) What were the statistical tests were used to analyze the data (e.g., t-test, ANOVA, logistic regression?

2) Were results significant (look at the p value, which is 0.05 or 0.01)?
3) What do the results tell you about the plausibility of the hypotheses (you have to decide it the findings answered the research question)?

Results
1) What were the major findings?
2) Are these results generalizable?
3) Did the researcher report limitations of the study?
4) What are the implications for nursing practice?

 
References