DNP- LEADERSHIP FOR ADVANCED NURSING PRACTICE

DNP-830-0502: Data Analysis

Quantitative Methods of Inquiry

Quantitative methods of inquiry focus on gathering and generalizing data through group’s people or describing a particular phenomenon. According Letourneau University (2019), quantitative methods emphasize on objective measurements and the statistical, mathematical, or numerical analysis of data collected through polls, questionnaires, and surveys, or by manipulating pre-existing statistical data using computational techniques. This type of study uses interrelated set of variables to emphasize on objective measurements while trying to establish associations between variables. According to Clankie (2012), quantitative method is a number driven analysis in which a researcher knows what he or she is looking for in advance. The researcher controls the whole experiment.

Quantitative methodologies allow researchers to quantify human actions. While not all actions can be quantified, researchers implement experiment research, survey research, content analysis and meta-analysis in order to simplify their work. These are hypothetic-deductive methods that can be quantified. According Paynton and Hahn (2014), experimental research uses the principles of research in the physical sciences to conduct experiments that explore human behavior. The researcher generally includes research control group and experimental group in order to monitor different reactions to different variable. This type of quantitative research can be conducted in a real world setting or lab setting.

Survey research focuses on a number of questions designed to cover a particular topic. According Paynton and Hahn (2014), surveys; online, mailed, handed out, or conducted in interview format, collect and represent participant responses in numerical form using tables, graphs, charts, or percentages. The data is then manipulated to come up with a conclusion about the topic. On the other hand, content analysis is a method in which researchers use content analysis to count the number of occurrences of their particular focus of inquiry (Paynton &Hahn, 2014). The researcher observes the human actions, converts these actions to numbers and manipulates these numbers to interpret the data by coming up with patterns or trends that can be used to make claims on the significance of the data.

Meta-analysis involves structured study of past literatures discussing the topic area you want to analyze. According to Paynton and Hahn (2014), meta-analysis analyzes existing statistics found in a collection of quantitative research to demonstrate patterns in a particular line of research over time. Results from these studies are used to determine if similarity exists among the studies or come up with new information.

In the year 2014, a mean number of 604, 175 were discharged from all the states with the median number of discharges standing at 393002 patients and 49564a as the mode.

Fig1: Mean Median and Mode of discharges by state in 2014.

The total number of discharges in the year 2010 were 23,455,503 patients, 18,661,237 in 2012 and 13,976,012 in the year 2015. In the year 2010, the number of discharges was greater compared to the year 2015. These results show a significant decrease of 9,469,491 discharges from the year 2010 to the year 2015.

Fig2: Simple Bar Graph for the year 2010, 2012 and 2015

Compared on the basis of location, North West states have the lowest number of discharges, 2,543,090. On the other hand, these numbers increase in North East States which have 7,742,830 numbers of discharges. Central States have 4,002,549 number of discharges, 5,724,239 in South Eastern states and 5,415,098 in the southwest states. There is no significant difference between these discharges in most states in the year 2011.

Fig3: Discharges Comparison based on the location in the year 2011

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