Reading Research Articles Research Articles

Bring on Epidemiologic Research!

It is often challenging finding time to carefully read research articles and determine how findings apply to clinical practice. Many occupational health nurses may be unfamiliar with or out of practice using various epidemiologic concepts and terms from clinical research. This article provides a brief overview of these concepts and terms. Understanding the basics of research is the first step toward using research findings in evidence-based practice.

Bring on Epidemiologic Research!

It is often challenging finding time to carefully read research articles and determine how findings apply to clinical practice. Many occupational health nurses may be unfamiliar with or out of practice using various epidemiologic concepts and terms from clinical research. This article provides a brief overview of these concepts and terms. Understanding the basics of research is the first step toward using research findings in evidence-based practice.

Evidence-Based Medicine—Can You Trust the Evidence?

The prevalence in industry-funded research of spin, data dredging, and disagreement between abstract conclusions and the results themselves means physicians must read research articles in their entirety, examine the studies’ methodology, and check for disclosures to gain an accurate understanding of products’ efficacy. Virtual Mentor is a monthly bioethics journal published by the American Medical Association.

A Nursing Journal Club Thrives Through Shared Governance

Promoting professional growth within the practice of nursing is a challenge for nurses in staff development. When that growth includes reading research articles and discussing implications for practice, it is even more difficult to spark interest among frontline clinicians. Most nurses struggle to understand research studies and find reading and critiquing the content intimidating. This article shares the success of a nursing research journal club that was launched through a community hospital's shared governance model. The article will encourage nurses in staff development to implement a journal club that is meaningful to the bedside nurse in all practice areas.

P-value Club: Teaching Significance Level on the Dance Floor

Courses: Beginning research methods and statistics courses, as well as advanced communication courses that require reading research articles and completing research projects involving statistics Objective: Students will understand the difference between significant and nonsignificant statistical results based on p-value

When the “Burden of Acting White” is Not a Burden: School Success and African American Male Students

In this article, the author reports the “voices” of four academically successful African American men, in their early 20s, as they explicitly respond, in retrospect, to questions regarding the applicability of the burden of acting White theory to their schooling experiences—responses made after reading research articles written by Signithia Fordham and John Ogbu. In general, the responses from the four men illustrate that they successfully negotiated the burden of acting White, even as they revealed instances in which the theory might have been applied to their schooling experiences. The author argues that the various interpretations and uses of Fordham’s and Ogbu’s (single- and co-authored) theories—and, in part, the theories themselves—failed to escape the lure of oversimplification. In that, the (mis?)interpretations and (mis?)uses often oversimplified the theories, and, in turn, the schooling experiences of Black students (and historically marginalized students in general).

How to Read Scientific Research Articles: A Hands-On Classroom Exercise.

Undergraduate students are generally unfamiliar with scientific literature. Further, students experience frustration when they read research articles the way they read textbooks, from beginning to end. Using a team-based active learning exercise, an instruction librarian and colleagues at University of Texas at Austin introduce nutritional sciences students to a method for reading research papers. Librarians provide student-pairs with one section (introduction, methods, results, or discussion) of a scientific research article. Student-pairs read, discuss, and take notes, then join with pairs assigned the other sections of the article to compare their understanding of the research presented. The exercise reinforces students' critical evaluation skills by providing a productive reading strategy based on the purpose of each section of the research article. This paper describes the active learning exercise and discusses its implementation and evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research 101

As home health nurses begin to more fully embrace evidence-based practice, we need to be reading research articles in addition to those being published in Home Healthcare Nurse. Many of us have been out of school for several years or have never studied nursing research, and the terminology can be daunting. Evidence-based practice strengthens our ability to provide nursing care based upon the best scientific and researched information. The evidence gleaned from research demonstrates best practice methods rather than those we have traditionally used with little or no scientific basis. The purpose of this article is to provide new knowledge or dust the cobwebs from our past studies of nursing research. A review of the types of research, as well as its language, can help home health nurses be consumers of research with greater understanding. Use of the Internet and ways to access nursing research will be discussed. This article is a brief overview only and more in-depth principles can be accessed by one of the many nursing research resources.

Living-related donors' quest for information before donation

Providing potential living-related liver donors with all the necessary information before donation can be challenging. What information donors need and are not getting during the evaluation phase has not been defined. To increase understanding of the everyday life of living-related liver donors and to suggest educational strategies that could be used by transplant centers during the evaluation process. An interpretive ethnographic study based on a symbolic interactionism approach. All participants were interviewed; some were reinterviewed in order to better understand their experience as a donor. Interviews took place in the clinic, the donor's home, the donor's workplace, and in coffee shops depending on each donor's preference. A total of 13 parents who had donated the left lower lobe of their liver to their son or daughter at least 1 year ago. Interviews were analyzed by using qualitative research methods of coding, summarizing, and discussing concepts. The donors viewed the donation as a life-changing event, and 11 of 13 donors described seeking further information in addition to the information given to them by the transplant center. Searching the Internet, reading research articles, and speaking to other donors were activities demonstrated by the participants.

Living-Related Donors' Quest for Information before Donation

Providing potential living-related liver donors with all the necessary information before donation can be challenging. What information donors need and are not getting during the evaluation phase has not been defined. To increase understanding of the everyday life of living-related liver donors and to suggest educational strategies that could be used by transplant centers during the evaluation process. An interpretive ethnographic study based on a symbolic interactionism approach. All participants were interviewed; some were reinterviewed in order to better understand their experience as a donor. Interviews took place in the clinic, the donor's home, the donor's workplace, and in coffee shops depending on each donor's preference. A total of 13 parents who had donated the left lower lobe of their liver to their son or daughter at least 1 year ago. Interviews were analyzed by using qualitative research methods of coding, summarizing, and discussing concepts. The donors viewed the donation as a life-changing event, and 11 of 13 donors described seeking further information in addition to the information given to them by the transplant center. Searching the Internet, reading research articles, and speaking to other donors were activities demonstrated by the participants.

NMR Spectroscopy and Its Value: A Primer

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is widely used by chemists. Furthermore, the use of NMR spectroscopy to solve structures of macromolecules or to examine protein–ligand interactions is popular. Yet, few students entering graduate education in biological sciences have been introduced to this method or its utility. Over the last six years, I have had the task of introducing NMR spectroscopy to first-year graduate students with a largely biological bent. During the last four years, I have used a new strategy in teaching this topic. Starting with some seemingly frivolous examples of NMR utilization, I introduce basic ideas and concepts in NMR spectroscopy in the first lecture and then present more serious biophysical and biotechnological applications in the second lecture. Students are then asked to solve a few simple problems to reinforce concepts and then to summarize an original research article from a list of journals, published within a 4-month period, to initiate them into reading research articles employing NMR methods. This strategy to introduce NMR spectroscopy to beginning graduate students would also be suitable for upper-level undergraduate students.

Research is Elementary: How Blue's Clues Can Help Teach Communication Research Methods

Objective: First, this activity is to make research fun and reduce communication students’ anxiety concerning the research methods class. Second, this activity is to create a vivid illustration of the basic characteristics of the research process, and to illustrate that the research process is non-threatening and should be thought of as a process that can be done by students. Third, this activity is to help students realize research methods are not “math,” nor are they limited to statistical analyses. Courses: Beginning and intermediate research methods courses, as well as advanced communication courses that require students to read research articles, particularly for those classes whose students have not had a research methods course

Critical appraisal of clinical studies in Chinese herbal medicine

The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is currently widespread and appears to be growing. As an increasing proportion of the population turns to CAM therapies, whether singly or in combination with allopathic medicine, the need for quality research in this area is reinforced. Much of this research consists of clinical studies aimed primarily at clinicians, yet challenges arising from poor methodological quality will occur when interpreting study findings and their implications. For clinicians to be effective consumers of the scientific literature, familiarization with the principles of evidence-based medicine (EBM) is essential. The goal of this review is to introduce clinicians to the concept of critical appraisal of clinical studies and foster critical thinking when reading research articles in order to best evaluate and incorporate study findings into their daily practice. Topics discussed in this article include: (1) fundamentals of EBM; (2) types of clinical studies; (3) hierarchy of evidence; (4) Consolidated Standard of Randomized Trials (CONSORT) statement to evaluate the quality of reporting in randomized controlled trials (RCTs); (5) methodologic quality rating scales for RCTs; and (6) issues specific to evaluating studies of Chinese herbal medicine.

Sound Field Systems on the Rise in Schools

Sound Field Systems on the Rise in Schools

Evidence-Based Practice: What Are Dietitians’ Perceptions, Attitudes, and Knowledge?

Objective The objective of this study was to measure dietitians’ perceptions, attitudes, and knowledge of evidence-based practice (PAK score), and to determine whether antecedent factors (eg, sociodemographic characteristics, education and training, professional experiences, and employment setting) predicted PAK score. Design This cross-sectional, descriptive study used the Dietitian Research Involvement Survey following the Tailored Design Method. Subjects/Setting This study surveyed 500 randomly selected registered dietitians from seven dietetic practice groups of the American Dietetic Association. Statistical Analyses Performed Bivariate relationships were examined between antecedent factors and PAK score. Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to test whether these factors predicted PAK score. Results Higher PAK scores were associated with registered dietitians who completed more years of education ( r=0.28, P<.0005), had taken a research course ( r=0.28, P<.0005), frequently read research articles ( r=0.41, P<.0005), earned an advanced-level board certification ( r=0.18, P=.004), worked full-time ( r=0.26, P<.0005), or belonged to professional organizations ( r=0.18, P=.003). The strongest predictors for PAK score were “last time read research” (β=.33, P<.0005), work status (β=.20, P<.0005), level of education (β=.19, P=.001), and association memberships (β=.14, P=.01). Conclusions Results indicated that dietitians’ ability to incorporate an evidence-based approach is largely determined by their education and training, work experience, and professional association involvement. This study identified a need to integrate concepts and principles of evidence-based practice into dietetics curriculums so that practitioners are able to routinely apply research findings to clinical practice.

Programming for linguists: Java™ technology for language researchers by Michael Hammond (review)

Reviewed by: Programming for linguists: Java™ technology for language researchers by Michael Hammond Christopher Manning Programming for linguists: Java™ technology for language researchers. By Michael Hammond. Oxford: Blackwell, 2002. Pp. 288. ISBN 0631230424. $45. The premise of Programming for linguists is compelling, if one that the field of linguistics is only slowly coming to embrace: To be able to efficiently perform empirical linguistic work, be it working with large corpora, your own collected language data, or psycholinguistic experiments, it is extremely useful to be able to write your own programs. Otherwise one’s ability to do research projects is artificially limited by available computer tools, or the time available to do by hand tasks that could be done much more efficiently on a computer. Established faculty can solve this problem by hiring research assistants, but for the graduate student, this is a basic form of literacy. At many linguistics graduate schools, one still has to pass foreign language reading exams. But for a large percentage of linguists today, they do not have much need to read research articles in languages other than English. I would suggest that for most current graduate students it would be a more powerful and more frequently used literacy to be literate in statistics or computer programming, and this book attempts to address one of those needs. If one accepts the premise, then the remaining questions are which programming language to learn, and which book to learn it from. There are many languages; for language researchers, currently three of the most plausible choices are Perl, Python, and Java. Perl is the simplest to get started with and the easiest for knocking out quick programs for data transformation. Java is a clean, modern, object-oriented programming language, suitable for developing large programs, and with nice add-ons in its support for graphical user interfaces and running programs over the web. Python is somewhere in between, and it is then a matter of taste whether you feel you have the best of both worlds or the worst. Java is a good choice for understanding modern programming concepts, but if this characterization does not make Java sound right for you, then Hammond may still have you covered: he has also written Programming for linguists: Perl for language researchers (Oxford: Blackwell, 2003).1 The first choice in selecting a book is whether to choose one of the popular general introductions to Java or a book dedicated to the needs of a particular audience, in this case, language researchers (a category that H intentionally regards as broader than just linguists, encompassing psycholinguists and literary theorists as well). The latter kind of book is a very reasonable type to seek: one focused on the kinds of language-based applications and manipulation of text that a language researcher is likely to use. A general programming book might typically give an example like a graphing calculator rather than a program for syllabification. But, unfortunately, the latter is also a difficult kind of book to produce: first, programming languages tend to change and evolve, and it is harder for people in application niches to quickly update books, as the mainstream [End Page 740] publishers do. Second, it is hard for someone whose day job is as a linguist to put as much time into a Java textbook as a full-time Java textbook writer (or, often, team) can. Finally, for text applications, the need for such books has diminished somewhat: While programming language textbooks were traditionally very numerically focused, the dominance of structured text representations like HTML and XML on the web has meant that most programming textbooks now have coverage of manipulating textual data. Against these general criteria, how well does H’s book in particular stack up? Some things, H does well. Although Java is a small, clean language, the fact that it is necessary to introduce the various pieces all at once, rather than gradually, makes it a difficult language to use in introductory courses, as many in the computer science education field have observed. H navigates these issues well, and here one can clearly see his experience in teaching programming to novices. But in other areas H makes some strange choices...

Swedish dental hygienists’ preferences for workplace improvement and continuing professional development

The present study examined factors for workplace improvement and continuing professional development (CPD) for Swedish dental hygienists. Seventy-one per cent of 577 randomly selected members of Sweden's Dental Hygienist Association responded to a questionnaire. The chi-square test, Spearman's rank correlation, and multiple stepwise logistic regression modelling were used in the statistical analysis. The results showed that dental hygienists having more than 10 sick days annually and with a strong commitment to their work increased the preference for workplace improvements, such as peer recognition of dental hygienists' professional qualifications, clinical process quality, and time for reading research articles and participating in projects. In addition, dental hygienists in the 41-52 age group were associated with workplace improvements. This is in contrast to the factors that decreased preferences for workplace improvements: clear work roles, a 1-year training programme, a male clinic manager, and working in the private sector. Practicing dental hygiene in the public sector and lifestyle factors were the most influential determinants for a strong interest in CPD. Workplaces should observe people that are obviously committed to their work, those with many sick days, and those in a specific age group, as they indicate different preferences for workplace improvements. CPD seems to be a lower priority than workplace improvements for Swedish dental hygienists.

Research utilization among dental hygienists in Sweden – a national survey

Over the last decade evidence-based practice has become increasingly important in health care as an approach to improve patient outcomes. It is vital that dental hygienists, like other health professionals, use research findings to inform clinical practice. The objective of the present study was to investigate the extent of research utilization among dental hygienists in Sweden and to investigate the relationship between level of education and factors related to research utilization. A random sample of 261 dental hygienists in Sweden, 113 with 1 year and 148 with 2-year education, responded to a postal questionnaire covering various aspects of research utilization, i.e. their attitudes towards research, availability and support for the implementation of research findings, use of research in daily practice, their activity in seeking new research findings and their participation in a range of research-related activities. Dental hygienists with 2-year education had a more positive attitude towards research, used research to a greater extent and were more active in seeking new research findings than dental hygienists with 1-year education. Overall, relatively few dental hygienists reported that they implemented research findings in practice; the most frequently reported activity concerned reading research articles in professional journals. The conclusions are that the length of dental hygiene education is a key factor influencing the application of research findings to practice. One-year education appears to be inadequate to achieve evidence-based practice. Moreover, not even two years of formal education guarantees necessary competence in research for evidence-based dental hygiene practice.

Text genre as a factor in the formation of scientific literacy

Learning using primary literature may be a way of developing a capacity for scientific ways of thinking among students. Since reading research articles is a difficult task for novices, we examined the possible benefits of learning using primary literature versus secondary literature, particularly with respect to their influence on the creation and formation of scientific literacy. We report on a comparison between four groups of high school students, each with differing degrees of prior knowledge in biology, who read a domain-related text written in either the scientific research article genre (adapted primary literature) or the popular-scientific genre (secondary literature). Although there was no significant difference in the students' ability to summarize the main ideas of each text, indicating that there was no eminent distinction in their content, we found that students who read adapted primary literature demonstrated better inquiry skills, whereas secondary literature readers comprehended the text better and demonstrated less negative attitudes toward the reading task. Since the scientific content of the two texts was essentially identical, we suggest that the differences in students' performances stem from the structure of the text, dictated by its genre. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 42: 403–428, 2005

Norwegian Nurses' Perceived Barriers and Facilitators to Research Use

A descriptive study was conducted to examine perioperative nurses' perceptions of barriers and facilitators to the use of research findings in nursing practice. The study's findings indicate that the most important barriers are research literature not being compiled in one place, lack of time to read research articles and to implement research findings, uncooperative physicians, insufficient resources, and lack of access to information. The nurses had a positive attitude toward research, but they lacked the competence to assess research findings. Study days, education programs, and research nurses in clinical practice are recommended to remove these obstacles.