A 4 page research paper that argues that qualitative research is better suited to nursing research than quantitative. The writer defines and discusses both methodologies and presents arguments favoring qualitative methods. Bibliography lists 4 sources.
Name of Research Paper File: D0_khnurqq.rtf
Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
uses deductive reasoning (Torkelson, 1996). Another way of looking at it is that quantitative methods "quantify" things--they measure and assess, dealing with questionnaires, numbers and statistics. Qualitative research, on the
other hand, uses interviews and observation. While, granted, quantitative research methods are useful, and have been used successfully to increase nursing knowledge, an examination of the characteristics of
both methods demonstrates that qualitative methods, in general, are more appropriate for researching a humanistic science such as nursing. Qualitative research methods are well suited for embracing nursings traditional values
of "personalized, intimate, holistic human care" (Edwards, 2002). They represent the best method for assessing the efficacy of nursing practice. Torkelson (1996) points out that, historically, nursing research has
been conducted via quantitative methods. Quantitative approaches to research are often judged to be more "scientific" than qualitative (Edwards, 2002). This is because quantitative methods value an objective point of
view that tends toward skepticism and detachment. Quantitative research relies on rigorous data collection, analysis and interpretation. However, it is also true that its basic philosophy is that people are
"reducible and measurable objects," and therefore, independent of "historical, cultural and social contexts" (Edwards, 2002). As this suggests, quantitative methods did to reduce people and their experience to numbers
and statistics. This approach works well for in physics and math, but less well when applied to people. Moloney (2002) offers three characteristics of quantitative assumptions that are typically found
in nursing literature: (a) quantitative theories are structured as deductive hierarchies of propositions; (b) quantitative theories are confirmed by deriving hypotheses from statements of the theory and testing
them against evidence; and (c) quantitative methods confirm theoretical statements one by one. The quantitative for generating nursing knowledge has been useful in terms of assessment, protocols,