Research in Nursing

If you are using a survey or a measurement tool to measure the data for your research proposal, it must measure what you are researching (your hypothesis or research question).   Sounds simple….but many students get off track here.  Your survey should measure your dependent variable (outcome) in order to be valid. So, if I am researching whether the average nurse can read the tiny print on a medication bottle, the dependent variable would be the ability to read the bottle accurately.  Therefore, my survey would have questions related to what the nurses actually read on the bottle (or if they were able to read it at all). 

I read a research poster recently at an international conference.  The authors were testing whether providing a mindfulness breathing session for nursing students prior to entering a planned simulation experience would increase their situational awareness.  They had a nice report with data analysis numbers of the student satisfaction following the experience. Did the researchers measure the dependent variable?