NRS 445 Provide an example of a nursing practice problem that could be studied using a mixed methods approach Re: Topic 5 DQ 1 QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE METHODS IN NURSING RESEARCH.

The use of the qualitative and quantitative methods in nursing research has brought about major advantages to the researchers and at the same time been characterized by some challenges. Applying the two method together in research has been instrumental in enhancing the reliability and validity of research. Validity is enhanced through triangulation that entails the convergence of findings from the different methods to provide a better and comprehensive understanding of the various aspects of research. The qualitative methods entail the use of focus groups, interviews and reports analysis and help research explore the various social and contextual factors that the use of quantitative data would overlook. Quantitative methods on the other hand like experimental designs and surveys help provide numerical data that helps establish the patterns and relationships with statistical rigor (Barroga & Matanguihan, 2022). It helps analyze statistical and numerical data in research work. The key challenges for this relate to the huge resources and much time taken in conducting the various types of research. Researchers as well are required to have the skills more so in applying the quantitative and qualitative methodologies.

A perfect example that relate to a nursing practice problem that would immensely benefit from the application of the mixed approach relates to a study evaluating the satisfaction of patients in the various hospital settings. The use of quantitative methods would help gather numerical data on patients especially on the reported satisfaction scores. Further, the qualitative methods like use of interviews would help evaluate the phenomena deeper and evaluate the various aspects that lead to certain conclusions. This study would for example through quantitative methods establish that patients have high satisfaction scores and also apply qualitative methods to evaluate other aspects like patient demographics to understand concepts better. Such information is comprehensive and thus may be adopted in the clinical decision making. The combination or rather the integration of the two methods help achieve richer, broader and comprehensive insights towards understanding patient satisfaction and influences the patient care outcomes in the nursing practice (Renjith et al., 2021). The advantages the integration brings about like enhanced reliability and validity outweighs the various challenges encountered.

References.

Barroga, E., & Matanguihan, G. J. (2022). A Practical Guide to Writing Quantitative and Qualitative Research Questions and Hypotheses in Scholarly Articles. Journal of Korean medical science, 37(16), e121. https://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2022.37.e12