The paper summarizes a current nursing research article in terms of its aim, methods, results and conclusion, before examining how the authors have used the ANOVA statistical tool to inform its conclusions and recommendations.
The aim of the study by Florin et al (2012) “was to investigate Swedish university students’ experience of educational support for research utilization and capability beliefs regarding evidence-based practice skills” (p. 890). The study utilized a cross-sectional survey design, and the sampling frame comprised the total population of Swedish nursing students (n = 2107) in all the country’s universities in their final semester before graduation in the autumn of 2006. It is important to mention that only 1440 nursing students responded to the survey, representing 68% of the national population of nurses in their 6th and final semester that year (Florin et al., 2012).
In summarizing the results, the study found that (1) university education supported the nursing students to a greater level than clinical education, especially in following the development of knowledge in a sphere of interest, using research findings, and acquiring knowledge on how to pursue shifts in clinical practice, (2) perceived support during university education differed between national universities, and (3) nursing students reported high capability beliefs concerning evidence-based practice skills, but huge variations were noted between universities for coming up with a searchable question, seeking out relevant knowledge, and critically appraising and compiling best knowledge (Florin et al., 2012).
A number of statistical tests were undertaken to analyze the data arising from the questionnaires using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17.0; however, this section illuminates one inferential statistical test known as ANOVA. While inferential statistics are applied in quantitative data to determine the statistical significance between the measured variables, ANOVA specifically determines if there is a significant difference in means of a continuous dependent variable given the diverse levels of the categorical variable (Burns & Grove, 2009), hence the statistical test should only be used when the researcher wants to analyze continuous dependent variable(s) and categorical independent variable(s) (Bergen, n.d.).
In the study under review, it is clear the author used ANOVA to establish if the relationship between campus and clinical education (independent variables) was statistically significant to a number of dependent variables including “following the development of knowledge in areas of interest”, “using research-based knowledge”, and “acquire knowledge on how to pursue changes in clinical practice” (Florin et al., 2012 p. 892). The relationship between campus education and the mentioned dependent variables was found to be statistically significant since the p-value in all three results was less than 0.05. However, the relationship between clinical education and the mentioned dependent variables was not statistically significant since the P-value was more than 0.05 in all three results. The researchers also used ANOVA to establish if there was a significant relationship between educational support for research utilization and capability beliefs regarding EBP skills (independent variables) across a number of continuous dependent variables such as “formulating questions to search for research-based knowledge” and “seeking out relevant knowledge using other information sources” (Florin et al., 2012 p. 892).
Overall, it can be argued that ANOVA statistical tool assisted the authors in making the conclusions mentioned above based on the significance of the relationships, and in recommending that nurses should be exposed to university-level education as this helps in improving their capability concerning evidence-based practice and research utilization. Additionally, the statistical tool assisted the authors to underline the importance of providing support and encouragement for nursing students’ research utilization in clinical education owing to the insignificant relationship reported between clinical education and a variety of continuous dependent variables supporting evidence-based practice.
References
Bergen, B. (n.d.) Inferential statistics: Metaphor in language and thought. Web.
Burns, N., & Grove, S.K. (2009). The practice of nursing research: Appraisal, synthesis, and generation of evidence (6th ed.). St. Louis, Missouri: Saunders Elsevier.
Florin, J., Ehrenberg, A., Wallin, L., & Gustavsson, P. (2012). Educational support for research utilization and capability beliefs regarding evidence-based practice skills: A national survey of senior nursing students. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 68(4), 888-897.