Change from Qualitative to Quantitative - Article Example

Tanya L. Rogers (2010) carried out a qualitative study to further explore the aforementioned issue and elucidate the factors underlying success of students enrolled in an entry level nursing program, the findings of which have been described in the article named “Prescription for success in an associate degree nursing program (Rogers, 2010).” The current study was important as it addresses and underscores a very important issue and adds to the existing body of knowledge in this regard. However, this study has certain limitations which require further exploration, such as the degree of association between the identified factors for success and the academic performance of the students, as this would be a more objective indicator of whether there is any causal relationship or association between the identified factors underlying success and actual success, as reflected by academic performance and test scores.

A quantitative study would go one step beyond the qualitative study by ascertaining the level of association and the degree of impact of each of the identified factors on the success in program completion and NCLEX-RN results and, thus will help in overcoming these shortcomings in the existing knowledge base. Research Purpose The qualitative study conducted by Rogers (2010) aimed at elucidating the factors underlying successful program completion and the NCLEX-RN results amongst students enrolled in an associate degree nursing (ADN) program.

However, a qualitative approach would not enable researchers to objectively determine the level of association between each of the identified factors and successful program completion and the NCLEX-RN results. The best way to elucidate an association between different variables or the existence of a causal relationship and to prove or disprove a hypothesis is to conduct a quantitative study (Shuttleworth, 2008). Thus, in this case, a quantitative study is required which would enable determination of the relationship between the factors identified for success and actual indicators of success, i.e. program completion and NCLEX-RN results.

Informed Consent and Ethical Considerations The informed consent and ethical considerations would be the same as described by Rogers (2010). The study will be conducted after obtaining approval from Institutional review board (IRB) of the concerned institution. Written informed consent will be signed by each participant at the commencement of the study and complete confidentiality will be maintained throughout using pseudonyms for all participants to mask their true identities. Design The study design used by Rogers (2010) was a qualitative study design using interviews and document analysis.

The current quantitative study would be a cross sectional study, i.e. observational quantitative study design (Hopkins, 2008).This design will enable the determination of an association between the identified factors for success such as experience, faculty involvement, study habits, etc and performance indicators including successful program completion and NCLEX-RN scores. Sample A sample comprising of 6 seniors and 3 faculty members was used by Rogers (2010) for the qualitative study. However, the quantitative study, being cross sectional in nature will use a much larger sample size.

The sample size will be calculated using a 95% confidence level and 80%