Language of Research
Since Florence Nightingale, nurse researchers have influenced patient care by systematically observing patients to learn their needs, their reactions to treatments/procedures, and their ability to adhere to medical regimens (Downs, 1991). When a problem is identified, nurse researchers develop and test interventions, such as preoperative teaching, or treatments to improve health outcomes. The modern quantitative nurse researcher needs to incorporate an interdisciplinary viewpoint, and include other disciplines as part of the research process. Having an interdisciplinary focus necessitates reaching a common understanding of research basics and the language or terminology used in our literature.
As you know, research is similar to learning a new language and there will be new words to learn in order to understand what you are reading. For example, in the articles, the authors may refer to “investigators,” “subjects,” and “informed consent.” This chapter will define these words to assist you in reading research articles. For example, statistical inference is a phrase used to describe the interpretation of data that has been tested through statistical analysis. Researchers are able to “infer or explain” when the findings are statistically significant (results that do not occur by chance).
