Qualitative and Quantitative Studies on Medication Safety Practices

Guided questions Answer Template (Please do not Remove the questions)
Guided Question Qualitative Study (Smeulers et al., 2017) Quantitative Study (Sahay, Hutchinson & East, 2015).
1. Aim and
Significance (5
marks 200 words)
a. What was the aim and
significance of the study?
The main purpose of this research is to
examine nurses perceptive and experience
related to reducing medication
administration error and promoting safety of
patient.
Research in this area is significant because
medication error is a major reason for
morbidity and mortality and nurse are more
likely to engage in such errors as they
spend maximum time with patient. As the
review of research papers revealed that
many disruptive behaviour increase their
risk of medication errors for nurse,
exploring nurses opinion regarding the
factors that lead to medication can help to
implement effective support system for
The primary aim for this study was to explore graduat
nurse’s self-reported data on medication errors and
establish whether the nature of workplace supports,
and relationships were associated with medication
errors or safe medication practices among graduate
nurses’’.
This research is essential as it investigates the
importance of workplace supports for the graduate
nurses to establish error free medication practices.
Moreover, the newly graduates nurses lacks familiarity
within the workplace and they do not pose enough
problem-solving skills. Thus, to develop clinical
confidences and practice safe medication
administration, it is essential to investigate the
workplace supports for graduate nurses.

nurses.
2. Methods (10 marks
700 words)
a. Identify the
research design used
in the study and was
it appropriate for the
issue discussed?
Qualitative exploratory research design
was used to get answer to the research
question. Exploratory research design is
used in qualitative study to explore the
research topic with varying level of depths.
The main advantage of this type of
research is that it helps to understand
research topic with varying level of depths
(Creswell & Creswell, 2017).
Hence, the use of exploratory design is
appropriate for the study by Smeulers et al.
(2017) because the research aimed to
collect broad perspective on the experience
of perspective of nurse related to
prevention of medication errors and
barriers to its application.
The main research design that has been used in this
quantitative research study was exploratory and
descriptive. This can be said because both numerical
and descriptive statistics were used to interpret
research data.
Although it is a quantitative research method, the use
of descriptive method is appropriate for the study
because it help to effectively analyse the research
variables including workplace supports and impact of
work relationship on nurse’s ability to report about
medication errors. This approach can help to develop
conceptual understanding of the research variables.
The advantage of using descriptive approach is that it
helps in rich data collection by gathering in-depth
information from research participants (Edmonds &
Kennedy, 2016).
b. Discuss the sampling
technique, inclusion and
To select appropriate sample for the study,
snowball sampling technique was used.
Sampling is a technique for study in which from the
population a researcher selects subjects. Furthermore,

exclusion criteria used for
the selection of sample in
the study
This involves first approaching nurse
managers and safety managers in the
study via e-mail followed by snowballing by
getting the name of nurse from other
department. Snowball sampling is a
technique in which research participants
recruit other group of participants in the
study. The type of sampling technique is
employed when it is difficult to find the
desired sample group for the study
(Emerson, 2015). However, use of this
sampling technique was not appropriate for
this study because it is easy to get
registered nurse using normal sampling
technique. There was no need for this type
of sampling technique.
The only inclusion criteria for the selection
of sample was that registered nurse should
be included in the study. However, there is
no exclusion criterion. Defining nurses
based on experience and age would have
helped to understand how perspective
it is a process by which the sample from the population
is selected. In this quantitative study, recent University
graduate nurses were selected as participants for the
sample. Convenience sampling technique was used to
recruit study sample. This was done by the use of
recent graduate database from three Australian nursing
schools and estimating these nurses would have active
email accounts, the survey link was send to recruit
sample and complete the survey (Emerson, 2015).
The inclusion criteria for the study included recent
graduates. However, use of this sampling technique is
not appropriate as it may contribute to biases because
of failure to retain desired sample group.