Name: __________________________ Date: _____________

Midterm Examination:

All questions must be answered and PROVIDE RATIONALE TO EACH QUESTION

PART A. Select the best answer for each question AND PROVIDE RATIONALE

1. What type of research design occurs when researchers start with a presumed
cause and then go forward in time to the presumed effect?
A. Cohort
B. Counterfactual
C. Randomized controlled
D. Factorial

2. A researcher uses multiple sources or referents to draw conclusions about what

constitutes the truth. What is this called?
A. Triangulation
B. Dependability
C. Confirmability
D. Credibility

3. What type of sampling occurs in which referrals for potential participants are
made by those already in the sample?
A. Convenience
B. Snowball
C. Quota
D. Consecutive

4. Qualitative studies use an emergent design. When does the research design
evolve?
A. During the conduct of the literature review.
B. While the researcher develops a conceptual framework.
C. During the process of doing constant comparisons.
D. While the researcher is in the field collecting and analyzing data.
5. Many qualitative studies eventually evolve to selecting cases that will most
benefit the study. What type of sample is being used?
A. Convenience
B. Volunteer
C. Snowball
D. Purposive

6. What type of interview involves discussion with small, homogeneous groups?

A. Focus
B. Unstructured
C. Joint
D. Critical incidents

7. What criteria do qualitative researchers use to assess the quality of a study?

A. Validity
B. Reliability
C. Accuracy
D. Dependability

8. What refers to evidence of the researcher's objectivity?

A. Reliability
B. Trustworthiness
C. Dependability
D. Confirmability

9. There are several resources to support evidence-based practice. What are care
bundles?
A. Rigorous integrations of research evidence from multiple studies of a topic
B. Evidence-based clinical practice guidelines that combine a synthesis and
appraisal of research evidence
C. Set of interventions to treat or prevent a cluster of symptoms
D. Meta-analysis or quantitative methods that integrate findings statistically

10. The nurse researcher is using a structured self-report instrument with open- and
closed-ended questions. What is an open-ended question?
A. Permits respondents to reply in narrative fashion
B. Offers response alternatives from which respondents must choose
C. Offers a range of alternatives
D. Requires a choice between two options
11. Qualitative researchers use the conceptual demands of the study to select
articulate and reflective informants with certain types of experience in an
emergent way. What is a typical qualitative sample?
A. Large, random
B. Small, random
C. Large, nonrandom
D. Small, nonrandom

12. What is data saturation?

A. Sampling to the point at which new information is continually obtained
B. Sampling to the point at which new information is continually obtained
with no redundancy
C. Sampling to the point at which no new information is obtained with any
redundancy
D. Sampling to the point at which no new information is obtained and
redundancy is achieved

13. What does the actual analysis of qualitative data usually begin with?
A. A search for major themes
B. Entering information into files
C. The use of quasi-statistics
D. Developing a system for organizing and indexing the data

14. Evidence-based practice relies on rigorous integration of research evidence on a

topic through systematic reviews. What is a systematic review?
A. Use of carefully developed sampling and data collection procedures that are
spelled out during data collection
B. Use of methodically integrated data collection procedures that are spelled
out during data collection in a protocol
C. Use of carefully developed sampling and data collection procedures that are
spelled out in advanced in a protocol
D. Use of methodically integrated data collection procedures that are spelled
out during data collection
15. What is the goal of explanatory research?
A. Understand the underpinnings of natural phenomena and to explain
systematic relationships among them.
B. Begins with the phenomenon of interest, but rather than simply observing
and describing it, exploratory research investigates the full nature of the
phenomenon, the manner in which it is manifested, and the other factors to
which it is related.
C. Study phenomena about which little is known.
D. Make predictions and to control phenomena based on research findings.

16. There are several resources to support evidence-based practice. What is

metasynthesis?
A. Qualitative, narrative approach to integration of a study
B. Quantitative method that integrate findings statistically
C. Synthesis and appraisal of research evidence with specific
recommendations
D. Set of interventions to treat or prevent a cluster of symptoms

17. A student nurse is trying to find out what a mixed methods synthesis is. What is
a mixed methods synthesis?
A. Integrate and synthesize both quantitative and qualitative evidence.
B. Integrate quantitative evidence.
C. Integrate and synthesize qualitative evidence.
D. Integrate qualitative evidence.

18. Which is a datum from a qualitative research study on the labor and delivery
experiences of women over age 40?
A. 14.6 hours in labor
B. 60-minute interviews 1 day after delivery
C. “It was a lot more painful than I ever imagined.”
D. 15 women with a vaginal delivery

19. What is the research tradition that focuses on understanding phenomena within a
cultural context?
A. Experimental
B. Phenomenological
C. Ethnographic
D. Grounded theory
20. What is the research design in qualitative studies called?
A. Experimental
B. Narrative
C. Interpretive
D. Emergent

21. Written literature reviews are undertaken for many different purposes. In a
qualitative research report, what section of the report would the thematic
analysis of the data be presented?
A. Introduction
B. Methods
C. Results
D. Discussion

22. Qualitative researchers discuss methods of enhancing the study's data by what
method?
A. Trustworthiness
B. Dependability
C. Confirmability
D. Credibility

23. What type of qualitative research uses stories as center stage?

A. Discourse analysis
B. Narrative analysis
C. Descriptive qualitative analysis
D. Qualitative content analysis

24. Reflexivity is an important concept in qualitative data collection. What is

reflexivity?
A. Awareness of the part the researcher plays in the study and the possible
effects the researcher has on the data
B. Gaining participants' trust
C. Need to avoid involvement with participants
D. Need to pace data collection to avoid being overwhelmed by the intensity of
data

25. What term is the analog of external validity in quantitative studies?

A. Credibility
B. Dependability
C. Confirmability
D. Transferability
 26. What is triangulation?
A. Use of multiple data sources to validate conclusions
B. Use of multiple methods to collect data about the same phenomenon
C. Process of using multiple referents to draw conclusions about constitutes
the truth
D. Independent coding and analysis of at least a portion of the data by two or
more researchers

27. What is the purpose of a peer briefing?

A. Internal validity of data
B. Reliability of data
C. External validity of data
D. Reliability and validity of data

28. Clinical practice guidelines distill a large body of evidence into a manageable
form. Which describes clinical practice guidelines?
A. Give general recommendations for evidence-based decision making.
B. Address all of the issues relevant to a clinical decision.
C. Guide clinical practice when there are a number of published articles.
D. Completed by researchers.

PART B: Read the article by Han and colleagues (“Interventions that increase use of Pap tests
among ethnic minority women: a meta-analysis”), then answer the following questions:

1. Does this article summarize multiple studies using a systematic approach? What is the type of
this study?
2. What is the stated purpose of this article?
3. List the databases that the researchers searched?
4. How many researchers were involved in the research? Why?
5. What were the keywords used? Were they related to the dependent variable and/or the
independent variable?
6. How many studies were initially identified? How many studies ultimately were included in the
review? Did the researchers provide justification for inclusion/exclusion of studies?
7. Did the researchers develop quality assessment scores for each study in the dataset? If yes,
how many study elements were appraised? How many people scored the studies for quality? Was
inter-rater agreement assessed?
8. What was the overall effect size (see table 3)? What does this mean?
9. Answer the following questions regarding information in Table 3:
a. Among the intervention types, which had the largest effect size? Which had the
smallest significant effect size?
b. In which type of setting were the interventions found to be most effective? In which
type of setting were the interventions found to be least effective?
c. For which ethnic group were intervention effects significantly positive?
10. What is the conclusion of this article? How does it impact the nursing practice?