Nursing Research: Analysis of Data Collection and Sampling Methods

This assignment analyzes a research article from the Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing focusing on the impact of cardiac acute care nurse practitioners on patient outcomes, specifically 30-day readmission rates. The assignment delves into the data collection methods employed, which included a retrospective analysis of patient medical records to gather quantitative data. The study utilized survey data and electronic medical records to ensure data validity and reliability. The assignment also examines the sampling methodology, which was convenience sampling with an exclusion method, including patients admitted to the cardiovascular intensive care unit (CCU) and excluding those transferred from other hospital departments. The goal of this assignment is to understand and assess the data collection and sampling techniques used in this research study.

Running head: NURSING RESEARCH
NURSING RESEARCH
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1NURSING RESEARCH
Article used: “David, D., Britting, L., & Dalton, J. (2015). Cardiac acute care nurse
practitioner and 30-day readmission. Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing, 30(3), 248-255.”
1) Method of data collection:
In this research study retrospective method of data collection was used from the present
patient’s medical accounts or records. Survey data was collected in this study that were
basically quantitative method of data collection. The past medical records of the patient were
analysed and used as a standard for estimating the possible result with an evidence backup.
To ensure the validity and reliability of data collection the present medical records were
reviewed by the two different investigators with a common strategy of data collection as the
information obtained from the medical records were further analysed and reviewed. Different
outcome variable sand patient characteristic variables are analysed and collected from the
method of data collection using electronic medical record. Different attributes were listed and
collected by the investigator that served as a basic requirement for interpreting the result. The
discrepancies in data collection were discussed and consensus finding was established before
the collected data was further used in the research study as the collected data is very
confidential and important for the researcher to infer the final result and conclusion of the
study. The data collected from this method in this study were further maintained and
protected using password protected hard drive. Therefore, retrospective method of data
collection was beneficial for the researcher to collect the necessary data as a basis of standard
data for estimating and interpreting the final result.
2) Sampling methodology:
Convenience sampling methodology was used in this research study with exclusion sampling
method. In this research study the patient who were admitted to the CCU department were
included in the sample from the list of patients who were directly admitted to CCU from

2NURSING RESEARCH
another hospital or from emergency departments undergoing primary diagnosis of heart
failure or myocardial infraction. Exclusion sampling method involved the patient’s admitted
to other portion of the hospital and later being transferred to CCU department and the patients
who were not at all admitted to the CCU departments. This sampling information helps the
researcher to understand the population that can be included to carry out the research analysis
and to determine the outcome by critically analysing the population sample. The researchers
make a note on the kind of patients those are required with investigation condition to be a
part of the study. As in this case study the primary aim was to determine if additional acute
care can improve the utilization of health outcomes in the patient admitted to cardiovascular
intensive care unit (CCU), hence the researcher used the population of patient who were
freshly admitted to the CCU department from another part of the hospital department with a
standard of comparison from practice of the patients not admitted to the CCU department.
Therefore, sampling method provide the researcher a detail understanding of the required
population of patient for conducting an analysis and inferring the result from those analysis.