Hi,
In my research about Missed nursing care, I obtained secondary data from the facility involved (as the first phase in my research). This data includes:
1. Case Mix by Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs).
2. In patient discharges and average length of stay.
3. patient and staff satisfaction data.
4. Nurse sensitive patient outcomes (including adverse events report).
As the second phase of this research is to survey the nursing staff to get their perceptions about missed nursing care in their units (medical and surgical). I'm trying to connect between the secondary data and the survey findings in order to answer my research questions?
The research questions are:
1. what is the type and factors lead to missed nursing care in the involved facility? ( this can be obtained from the survey)
2. what is the relationship between missed nursing care and unit and staff characteristics?
My question is that could we use the secondary data to only describe the nursing context in the hospital . OR there is a way to connect this data to the survey findings using particular statistical analysis?
Thanks for your help.
"could we use the secondary data analysis to describe the nursing context in the hospital". Maybe - I would say a discussion comparing the results would be the most viable option.
It would be good if the all the data from the facility are from within the past year AND your survey is beginning in the next 3 months or so.
Consider:
1. From what time period were Data #1 and #2 data as those sound like time periods/ranges?
2. #3 and #4 sound like a 'point in time' surveys which are now in the past.
Temporal considerations present a limitation as cultures, leadership, etc. are all prone to change - those who respond to your survey may/may not be the same people who responded to the previous surveys (#3 above) and is a threat to the validity of the results.
Thank you Cheryl for your valuable comment.
Actually Im struggling in finding a way to structure the results section of my theses. Thats why im asking this question. Im trying to find a way to connect between the data and survey because I think that just making a description of the secondary data will not add any thing valauble to my research. however, i realize that connecting between them will endanger the validity of my findings as you have metioned.
Do you think Cheryl that it is a good option to make a descriptive analysis for the secondary data (which represents study 1 in my project) followed by reporting of survey results (study 2) ? and what the value that comparing between them will add to my research? (considering that this is the first time Im dealing with such data type).
It is not possible to measure nurse sensitieve outcomes if the design is simple cross sectional. Also, there are many factors influencing Nursing sensitive outcomes. You would need to include patient variables, family variables, biological variables (Nightingale: Nature healing), medical variables as the DRG, other professionals variable, context such as hospita / setting variables into account. See structural and contextual definition of nursing outcome by Groen and van der Bruggen.
And, you could consider to use a minimum of three measures in a time sequence to see actual changes, but in particular also the directions of the changes.
As William mentioned there are many factors influencing nursing outcome, I think you can have patients and other variables for both secondary and survey data than the outcome can be measured by associating with their
respective variables.
Thanks William and Siddaram for your answers.
Actually im not intending to measure nursing outcomes. I have obtained from the hospital a report of their nurse sensitve patient outcomes. I want please your suggestions on the way that i can connect the secondary data obtained rom the hospital with the survey results?
Thank you,
To better answer your question information is needed about the temporal aspects of the data that you are receiving. The data and the survey results will be separated by time making any association, or claims of association, between the two tenuous. To use a common expression it appears you are trying to compare apples and oranges - which offers a description but not amenable to statistical manipulation.
Rania, You are receiving Positivistic researcher feedback on an issue that will require constructionist (naturalistic) thinking. To mix complex issues (Secondary Objective data and qualitative perceptual data) consider a constructionist strategy. The best method I know of to do this is called Crystallization. Here are some discussions of how ou can use it. Article A Review of: “Laura L. Ellingson, Engaging Crystallization i...
http://nsuworks.nova.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2837&context=tqr
Thank you very much Dennis for your insight.
Is this approach useful in the case I want to collect both secondary data (qualitative report) and a quantittive data using a survey?
Many thanks
Yes, that is the purpose of crystallization. It allows for a very unique examination of various types of data, but you must first become very familiar with qualitative strategies. Many grounded theory researchers deal with your data challenges but the use constant comparison analysis in addition they use a continuous ongoing data collection and you may want to read more about this method as well. There is value in learning how to conduct a theme analysis as well. Study the constructs of qualitative methods and that will help.
Dennis
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