Research Methods for Nursing and Health Science

This book has been developed for use both as a handbook and reference tool and as a textbook for people who are studying health research. While no single book can contain a detailed analysis of every aspect of research, this book provides a thorough account of quantitative and qualitative approaches to answering questions about health. In this second edition we have revised each chapter to include a number of test knowledge questions and identified learning objectives. The knowledge questions are dispersed throughout the chapters and the answers are found at the end of the chapters. Chapter 1 now includes a discussion of how to conduct literature reviews and critically read published research. We have invited a number of additional nursing colleagues to contribute sections to the book so that the text can be more widely used by nursing students. Each chapter has been updated and revised to make it more user friendly for the beginning researcher. Some reviewers have suggested segregating the quantitative and qualitative chapters into separate sections of the book. After carefully considering this view, we have decided to maintain the integration and dispersion of the quantitative and qualitative chapters throughout the book. We have taken the position that we want to encourage the reader to see these two methods as part of research methods and to select tools that suit the research questions being asked.