Introduction – Overview of the Nursing Research Process
Learning Objectives
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
- Explain the purpose and importance of research in building evidence-based nursing practice and improving patient care.
- Describe the cyclical nature and major steps of the research process.
- Distinguish among types and goals of research.
- Compare different ways of knowing in the context of nursing research.
- Identify knowledge gaps.
- Formulate research questions and hypotheses.
- Connect ideas to clinical nursing practice.
- Reflect on the role of research literacy in nursing practice.
Welcome to Chapter 4: Overview of the Nursing Research Process
Welcome! In the previous chapters, you explored why research matters in nursing and the philosophical foundations that influence how researchers think about knowledge. In this chapter, you’ll begin examining how those ideas come together within the research process. Research is a systematic way of asking questions, generating knowledge, and using evidence to improve nursing practice and patient care. Understanding this process will help you become a more informed consumer of research and prepare you for future learning throughout this textbook.
Throughout this chapter, we’ll examine the eight steps of the cyclical research process and explore the first stages involved in developing a research study. You’ll learn about the goals of research, including exploratory, descriptive, and explanatory research, and consider different ways that knowledge is created, including intuition, authority, logical reasoning, and the scientific method. We’ll discuss how researchers identify knowledge gaps, develop research topics and research questions, and introduce qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research. You’ll also learn about hypotheses, independent and dependent variables, and triangulation, while considering how these concepts contribute to evidence-informed nursing practice.
As you work through the chapter, you’ll notice that learning happens in a variety of ways. Alongside the core content, you’ll find nursing examples, real-world scenarios, diagrams, tables, videos, reflection opportunities, and my Dr. Fehr Tips to help connect research concepts to clinical practice. Rather than trying to memorize every step of the research process, I encourage you to focus on understanding how each stage builds upon the previous one and how research ultimately contributes to safe, effective, evidence-informed nursing care.
My hope is that by the end of this chapter, you’ll have a clearer understanding of how nursing research begins, how research questions are developed, and why a systematic research process is essential for advancing nursing knowledge. Whether you go on to conduct research yourself or apply research findings in practice, developing research literacy will strengthen your ability to provide thoughtful, evidence-informed care throughout your nursing career.
Key Terms You’ll Use Throughout This Chapter regarding Research Process Vocabulary
This chapter introduces the foundational concepts that guide the research process. As you read, you’ll encounter terms that researchers use when developing research questions, selecting research approaches, and building nursing knowledge. These concepts will continue to appear throughout the rest of this textbook, so use this section as a reference as your understanding grows.
Cyclical Research Process: A systematic sequence of interconnected steps used to answer research questions and generate new knowledge. The process is cyclical because research findings often lead to new questions and future studies.
Empirical Knowledge: Knowledge gained through observation, experience, measurement, or scientific investigation.
Normative Knowledge: Knowledge based on values, beliefs, ethics, or ideas about what should occur in practice.
Exploratory Research: Research conducted when little is known about a topic. Its purpose is to gain an initial understanding of a phenomenon and identify directions for future research.
Descriptive Research: Research that describes the characteristics, patterns, or frequency of a phenomenon without examining cause-and-effect relationships.
Explanatory Research: Research that seeks to understand why or how a phenomenon occurs by examining relationships among factors or variables.
Knowledge Gap: An area where limited or insufficient evidence exists, indicating the need for further research.
Research Topic: The broad subject or area of interest that a researcher plans to investigate.
Researchable Question: A clear, focused, feasible, and answerable question that can be investigated using systematic research methods.
Hypothesis: A testable prediction about the expected relationship between two or more variables in a research study.
Independent Variable: The factor that is expected to influence or produce a change in another variable.
Dependent Variable: The outcome or variable that is measured to determine whether it changes in response to the independent variable.
Mixed Methods Research: A research approach that intentionally combines qualitative and quantitative methods to provide a more comprehensive understanding of a research problem.
Triangulation: The use of multiple methods, data sources, theories, or measures to strengthen the credibility and depth of research findings.
Literature Review: A structured examination of existing research that helps researchers understand what is already known and identify knowledge gaps. This often involves a description, a critique and some synthesis of how the existing research fits with a potential topic of research.
Research Literacy: The ability to locate, understand, critically evaluate, and appropriately apply research evidence in nursing practice. This textbook’s main agenda is to support and increase the research literacy of nursing students!
Evidence-Informed Practice: Clinical decision-making that uses the best available evidence together with professional judgment to guide safe, effective, and person-centred nursing care.
The Research Process
In nursing, research is essential for building evidence-based practice, improving patient care, and guiding clinical decision-making. To fully engage with research, it is important to understand how knowledge is generated and applied. This chapter introduces foundational concepts that support research literacy in nursing. You will learn to differentiate between normative knowledge (what should be) and empirical knowledge (what is) and understand how each influences the way nurses think about care and practice.
The chapter also explores different types of research—exploratory, descriptive, and explanatory—highlighting their distinct purposes and how they shape the questions researchers ask. You will examine what makes a question researchable, how hypotheses are formulated, and the differences between qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Finally, this section introduces the concept of triangulation, a method of combining multiple perspectives or types of data to enhance the reliability and depth of research findings. Together, these concepts provide a strong foundation for understanding, evaluating, and conducting research in the nursing profession.
As shown in Figure 4.1, the research process involves eight essential steps required to achieve the desired goals or aims. The research process is cyclical, beginning with questions or observations and existing scientific knowledge (i.e., literature review), where knowledge gaps are identified and used to guide the development of a research topic. Next, the specific research question is formulated, hypotheses are stated, and the research design is chosen based on the question or aim. Subsequently, the study is conducted, data are collected, analyzed, and written up for publication or dissemination to targeted audiences (Busetto, Wick, & Gumbinger, 2020). The final report or publication contributes to the existing body of knowledge, and the cycle continues.
The first three steps—questions or observations and knowledge, developing the research topic, and developing the research question—will be addressed in this section. Additionally, detailed steps in reviewing the literature and types of reviews will be explored.
Remixed from:
- An Introduction to Research Methods for Undergraduate Health Profession Students by Bunmi Malau-Aduli and Faith Alele (2023), published under a CC BY NC 4.0 license.
Media Attribution
- The cyclical research process (Figure 2.1), by Bunmi Malau-Aduli and Faith Alele (2023) is used under a CC BY NC 4.0 licence.
References
Alele, F., & Malau-Aduli, B. (2023, February 22). 2.1 Research process. In An introduction to research methods for undergraduate health profession students. James Cook University. https://jcu.pressbooks.pub/intro-res-methods-health/chapter/2-1-research-process/
Busetto L, Wick W, Gumbinger C. (2020). How to use and assess qualitative research methods. Neurological Research and Practice, 2(14). doi: 10.1186/s42466-020-00059-z [Open access]
A systematic sequence of interconnected steps used to answer research questions and generate new knowledge. The process is cyclical because research findings often lead to new questions and future studies.
Knowledge gained through observation, experience, measurement, or scientific investigation.
Knowledge based on values, beliefs, ethics, or ideas about what should occur in practice.
A preliminary approach used when a nursing topic is new or not well understood. Its goal is to gain an initial understanding of an issue so researchers can identify important questions and decide which methods to use in future studies.
This type of research documents and explains the characteristics of a population, situation, or phenomenon without examining cause-and-effect relationships. In nursing, it is often used to describe trends, behaviors, or clinical conditions as they naturally occur.
A type of research that investigates the “why” and “how” behind a phenomenon by examining causal relationships. Nurses use this approach to understand the factors that influence patient outcomes, behaviors, or aspects of nursing practice.
An area where limited or insufficient evidence exists, indicating the need for further research.
The broad subject or area of interest that a researcher plans to investigate.
A clear, focused, feasible, and answerable question that can be investigated using systematic research methods.
A micro-theory; a best guess or prediction about what one expects to find about the variable outlined in the study.
The variable the experimenter manipulates.
The variable the experimenter measures (it is the presumed effect).
A research approach that intentionally combines qualitative and quantitative methods to provide a more comprehensive understanding of a research problem.
Research strategy that involves using multiple methods, data sources, theories, or investigators to study the same thing. The purpose is to try to increase the credibility and validity of the research findings by cross-verifying the findings.
A review of published research used to identify what is known, what is not known, and how a study fits within existing knowledge.
The ability to locate, understand, critically evaluate, and appropriately apply research evidence in nursing practice. This textbook’s main agenda is to support and increase the research literacy of nursing students!
Clinical decision-making that uses the best available evidence together with professional judgment to guide safe, effective, and person-centred nursing care.
Knowledge based on values, norms, or standards that guide how things ought to be. In nursing, it informs ethical practice, best practices, and professional expectations.
Knowledge derived from observation, measurement, or experience that describes the world as it actually is. In nursing, it forms the evidence base for practice and informs clinical decision-making.
Research that seeks to explore and better understand a phenomenon when little is known about it.
Research that aims to describe the characteristics or occurrence of a phenomenon without examining cause-and-effect relationships.
Research that aims to explain the causes, mechanisms, or relationships underlying a phenomenon.
Research that explores and interprets human experiences, beliefs, behaviours, and meanings using non-numerical data.
A research approach that collects and analyzes numerical data to measure variables, test hypotheses, and identify patterns or relationships, focusing on how much or how often.
A research approach that combines both qualitative and quantitative methods in a single study to provide a more comprehensive understanding of a research question.