Report Example on Mixed Methods in Nursing: Exploring Chronic Pain Challenges

Introduction

Mixed methods research has been applied in nursing research to increase the depth of understanding nursing phenomena. This paper focuses on the use of both quantitative and qualitative research methods in answering research questions while determining the advantages and disadvantages of both methods in their application in a nursing study. Chronic pain poses challenges in the American health care system. Such challenges include accidental poisonings and deaths from a painkiller overdose, increasing cost of treatment, and suffering to the patients. The prompt challenges research into understanding the pain management experience among the Americans to bridge the knowledge gap on chronic pain management. The information is critical in ensuring health care access for both patients and health care providers.

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Mixed Approach

The mixed approach adopted for this study addresses the strengths and weaknesses of qualitative and quantitative research. Quantitative data collected at the national level is analyzed in parallel with the qualitative data collected at the patient level. The results from both methods are then compared, contrasted, and blended to achieve the overall interpretation. Qualitative data, such as a description of each measure in managing chronic pain and persons involved is obtained through interviews. The qualitative method allows for in-depth collection and inclusion of details but can only be used for a small sample size. Quantitative data such as date and time for each measure in managing chronic pain help generate trends and generalizations of study but can only be used for large sample sizes. The cost of each measure derived qualitatively is identified and transformed into quantitative data for easy comparison (Doorenbos, 2014).

Collected Data Analysis

The collected data is analyzed in frequencies to determine the distributions of outcomes. The qualitative data show that a more significant number of measures taken on clinical consultation results in more outstanding pain management. The quantitative data show that the greater time has taken on health care results in more excellent pain management. The methods are both used to derive the cost of measures for alleviating chronic pain. The qualitative approach makes it very hard to generalize results as it lacks objectivity but provides rich data for further research. The quantitative method derives consistent, reliable, and concise data that is easy to analyze but difficult to understand the context of phenomena and may not be robust enough to explain complex issues. The study must ensure the patients' consent is sought, and beneficence of the research is explained (Grove & Gray, 2018).

Conclusion

The simultaneous collection of both qualitative and quantitative data allow for a better understanding of pain management which is the study area and enables in-depth research and analysis of pain management, which useful in controlling chronic pain among the Americans.

References

Doorenbos, A. Z. (2014). Mixed methods in nursing research: an overview and practical examples. Kango kenkyu. The Japanese journal of nursing research, 47(3), 207.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4287271/

Grove, S. K., & Gray, J. R. (2018). Understanding Nursing Research E-Book: Building an Evidence-Based Practice. Elsevier Health Sciences
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