A researcher is studying the way that ICU nurses prioritize the ...

[vicotolentino]

A researcher is studying the way that ICU nurses prioritize the charting responsibilities for their 12-hour shift.
 
  The researcher happens to discover that nurses are administering medications as close to the ordered times as possible but consistently charting the times at which medications are ordered, not the time they are actually administered, even though that may be two or three hours later. What could the researcher do with this information? (Select all that apply.)
  a. The researcher makes the nurse manager aware of the finding, after the study data have all been collected, because this is essentially a medication charting error.
  b. Nothing. This is not a focus of the study, and the information must be suppressed.
  c. The researcher takes time to educate individual nurses, so that they understand that what they are doing is not honest.
  d. The researcher includes the findings in the article, stating that this is a time-saving strategy, since the computer allows charting of meds when ordered (instead of when administered) as a block, saving time.
  e. The researcher reports this information under Serendipitous Discoveries in the article that results from the study.

Question 2

A nurse is conducting her master's thesis research in the unit in which she works as a staff nurse. The focus of her thesis is burned children's pain, with versus without a child life specialist assisting the child.
 
  She is providing child life specialist presence every other day at the mid-morning dressing change. For obvious reasons, she wants to keep everything else consistent for the four contiguous days of data collection. On the second day of four, with the child life specialist present, one child demonstrates poor pain control. The nurse researcher would ordinarily advocate for more pain medication for this child, but if she does, she will not be able to compare the data with that of the previous day. This is an example of which of the following?
  a. Serendipity
  b. Subject as object
  c. Role conflict
  d. Passive resistance

[brittiany.barnes]

Answer to Question 1

ANS: A, B, E
Serendipity is the accidental discovery of something useful or valuable. During the data collection phase of studies, researchers often become aware of elements or relationships that they had not previously identified. These aspects may be closely related to the study being conducted or have little connection with it. They come from increased awareness and close observation of the study situation. Because the researcher is focused on close observation, other elements in the situation can come into clearer focus and take on new meaning. Serendipitous findings are important to the development of new insights in nursing theory. They can be important for understanding the totality of the phenomenon being examined.
Educating individual nurses is sure to alienate staff. The manager is the logical choice for a person in whom to confide this information. Obviously, this should be communicated as, Some nurses... rather than naming names, since the nurses' privacy would be violated by telling their names.

Answer to Question 2

ANS: C
As a researcher, one is observing and recording events. Nurses who conduct clinical research often experience a conflict between their researcher role and their clinician role during data collection. In some cases, the researcher's involvement in the event, such as providing physical or emotional care to a patient during data collection, could alter the event and thus bias the results. It would be difficult to generalize the findings to other situations in which the researcher was not present to intervene. However, the needs of patients must take precedence over the needs of the study.

[vicotolentino]

Thank you

[brittiany.barnes]

No problemo