The PURPOSE of Unit 1 is to introduce you to the world of nursing research and provide an overview of the research process. The textbook reading assignments will allow you to identify the significance of nursing research for nursing practice. Throughout the readings there will be information on types of thinking and reality testing in research, as well as abstract science orientations based on theory, knowledge, and philosophy, and those relationships to nursing practice and research. The major historical events impacting nursing research will be discussed. Comparisons of different kinds of nursing research, including qualitative and quantitative will be described. You will be introduced to assumptions that often go with these different types of research.

There are several TERMS introduced throughout Unit 1 with which you should be familiar. The text has most of the definitions and the articles reflect many of the terms, so be thinking about the meanings of the words when you are reading different types of research articles that are assigned. The following terms will be defined throughout your chapter readings and should be used when reading the research articles to categorize the processes and thinking that went into each study.

• Purposes of nursing research--identification, description, exploration, explanation, prediction and control
• Importance of nursing research--professionalism, accountability, social relevance, decision making
• Basic philosophic questions--ontologic, epistomologic, axiologic, methodological
• Sources of acquiring knowledge--tradition, authority, trial & error, logical reasoning, research (empirical)
• Research paradigms--positivist, naturalistic
• Types of research--qualitative, quantitative, basic, applied
• Quantitative research step or processes--problem statement, review of the literature, conceptual framework, formulating research questions or hypotheses, research design (descriptive,correlational, quasi-experimental, experimental), sampling and subject selection, measurement, pilot study, data collection, data analysis, interpretation of results, communicating findings, research utilization
• Basic research terms--concept, construct, theory, conceptual model, variable, independent variable, dependent variable, extraneous variable, operational definition of a variable, subjects, data, relationship, control
• Research utilization
• Evidence-based nursing