Research and Evidence-Based Practice

Vanessa Heaslip is a Professor of Nursing and Healthcare Equity at the University of Salford, and a visiting Associate Professor in the Department of Social Work at Stavanger University, Norway. She has extensive experience in nursing and nurse education and is an experienced qualitative researcher. Her research interests focus on socially excluded groups whose voices are not traditionally heard in the academic or professional discourse, as well as experiences of marginalised communities who experience inequality of opportunity in accessing statutory services. Professor Heaslip has contributed to many books and has written journal articles, editorials and discussion papers. She is also on the editorial board of the Journal of Clinical Nursing and writes regular reviews for a variety of nursing and academic journals, based on her expertise in qualitative research, socially excluded groups, marginalised communities, equality and diversity. Bruce Lindsay worked in health care for over thirty years after qualifying in children’s nursing and adult nursing in Sheffield. He was awarded a PhD for his research into the development of the care of children in acute hospitals. He was a Senior Lecturer and Deputy Director of the Nursing and Midwifery Research Unit at the School of Health Sciences, University of East Anglia, until 2012, and was a systematic reviewer for Cochrane for fifteen years. He is now a freelance music journalist and biographer.

About the authors; Introduction



Part One: Understanding research



1. Identifying the research aim

     1.1 Introduction

     1.2 Why does society want health and social care research?

     1.3 Why do researchers do research?

     1.4 What will be studied?

     1.5 Who makes the decisions?

     1.6 What do we want to find out?

     1.7 Achieving success



2. Reviewing the literature

     2.1 Introduction

     2.2 Why does a researcher need to know what's already available?

     2.3 Understanding the context

     2.4 Understanding the existing evidence

     2.5 Can I justify my project?

     2.6 Carrying out the literature review

     2.7 Developing a search strategy

     2.8 Searching databases

     2.9 What else should be searched?

     2.10 Evaluating quality

     2.11 Conclusion



3. Designing a study

     3.1 Introduction

     3.2 The three levels

     3.3 Making sense of the levels

     3.4 Paradigms

     3.5 Methodologies

     3.6 Method

     3.7 Tools

     3.8 The research hierarchies

     3.9 External influences

     3.10 Making the final choice



4. Can it be done? Funding and ethics

     4.1 Introduction

     4.2 Who funds research?

     4.3 How much does research cost?

     4.4 Ethical issues in health and social care research

     4.5 Gaining ethical approval

     4.6 Public engagement in research

     4.7 Reading research - identifying ethical issues



5. Recruitment and data collection

     5.1 Introduction

     5.2 Recruitment issues

     5.3 Participants or subjects?

     5.4 Developing inclusion and exclusion criteria

     5.5 Selection and sampling

     5.6 Sampling

     5.7 How big should the sample be?

     5.8 Attrition

     5.9 Obtaining consent

     5.10 Giving rewards

     5.11 Data collection

     5.12 Data collection tools

     5.13 Issues in data collection

     5.14 Confidentiality and anonymity

     5.15 Conclusion



6. Data analysis

     6.1 Introduction

     6.2 Quantitative and qualitative analysis: the same but different?

     6.3 Quantitative analysis

     6.4 Measurement scales

     6.5 Types of statistical analysis

     6.6 Major methods of quantitative analysis

     6.7 Conclusion



7. What do we know now? Communicating research findings

     7.1 Introduction

     7.2 What can research tell us?

     7.3 Limits to research accuracy

     7.4 Building a body of research

     7.5 Disseminating research

     7.6 Conclusion



Part Two: Evidence-based practice



8. Reviewing the evidence

     8.1 Introduction

     8.2 Reliable, valid, relevant and applicable?

     8.3 Relevance and applicability

     8.4 Research synthesis

     8.5 Evidence from other sources

     8.6 Role of the service user

     8.7 Conclusion



9. Putting the evidence into practice

     9.1 Introduction

     9.2 The relationship between evidence and practice

     9.3 Top-down or bottom-up?

     9.4 Changing personal practice

     9.5 Practitioner inquiry

     9.6 Action research

     9.7 Conclusion



10. Audit and evaluation

     10.1 Introduction

     10.2 Audit and evaluation: what are they?

     10.3 Differentiating between audit, evaluation and research

     10.4 When to audit or evaluate

     10.5 What standards matter?

     10.6 Involving services users in audit and evaluation

     10.7 Conclusion



11. 'Closing the circle': issues for the future

     11.1 Introduction

     11.2 The speed of change

     11.3 New and forthcoming developments

     11.4 Predicting, creating and dealing with change: the place of research

     11.5 The international nature of health and social care

     11.6 Who will be the health and social care researchers of the future?

     11.7 Conclusion



Glossary; References; Index