Module 1
Our purpose is to introduce you to nursing research and internet learning. Workgroups may select nursing problems that relate to their areas of interest in Module 1. For example, critical care nurses, community healthcare nurses or geriatric specialists might want to work together on research that assists families who are responsible for caregiving when their loved one is discharged.
A coinciding learning activity might be a discussion question such as: "Name a conceptual framework or theory appropriate to use for a study on a caregiving research project."
Some of the discussion would probably revolve around how the caregiving variables and the hypothesized relationships (e.g. severity of illness of the patients in relation to the resources needed at discharge by the family) are directed or predicted. Another learning activity related to module 1 might be to distinguish the differences between the purpose and the specific problem basis for the research, and how the actual collected data represents the variable in the conceptual framework level. Another discussion question might be, "What are the likely research methods to be used in this type of caregiving research?" Basically, would it be qualitative or quantitative, and what is the benefit of either type?
