Nursing Research Q25
Which of the following hypotheses are indicative of an experimental research design? Select all that apply.
A. Frequent irrigation of Foley catheters will be positively related to urinary tract infections.
B. The incidence of urinary tract infections will be greater in patients whose Foley catheters are irrigated frequently than in those whose Foley catheters are irrigated less frequently.
C. Frequent irrigation of Foley catheters is associated with urinary tract infections.
D. The incidence of urinary tract infections will not differ between patients with or without Foley catheters.
E. The perception of pain from patients who had catheters varies greatly.
Correct Answers: B, D
Experimental research, often considered to be the “gold standard” in research designs, is one of the most rigorous of all research designs. In this design, one or more independent variables are manipulated by the researcher (as treatments), subjects are randomly assigned to different treatment levels (random assignment), and the results of the treatments on outcomes (dependent variables) are observed.
Option A: In experimental research, some subjects are administered one or more experimental stimuli called a treatment (the treatment group ) while other subjects are not given such a stimulus (the control group ). The treatment may be considered successful if subjects in the treatment group rate more favorably on outcome variables than control group subjects.
Option B: The unique strength of experimental research is its internal validity (causality) due to its ability to link cause and effect through treatment manipulation while controlling for the spurious effect of extraneous variables.
Option C: Treatments are the unique feature of experimental research that sets this design apart from all other research methods. Treatment manipulation helps control for the “cause” in cause-effect relationships.
Option D: Experimental research is best suited for explanatory research (rather than for descriptive or exploratory research), where the goal of the study is to examine cause-effect relationships. It also works well for research that involves a relatively limited and well-defined set of independent variables that can either be manipulated or controlled.
Option E: Random assignment is however a process of randomly assigning subjects to experimental or control groups. This is a standard practice in true experimental research to ensure that treatment groups are similar (equivalent) to each other and to the control group, prior to treatment administration.