Course Project - Assignment Example

Project The essay aims to address a two-fold objective to wit to identify the research designused in the study; and (2) to explain why the research design is appropriate to answer the question.Course Project Research designs serve as blueprint for conducting a study, maximize control over different factors, and improve the validity of the findings (Burns and Grove, 2009, 236). The study of Powe & Cooper (2008) used a quantitative descriptive research design in their study “Self-Reported Cancer Screening Rates Versus Medical Record Documentation: Incongruence, Specificity, and Sensitivity for African American Women” (p. 200). The combination of descriptive research and quantitative research in a study involves the tabulation of information in numerical form, such as the percentage of incongruence, specificity, and sensitivity between self-reported cancer-screening and medical record documentation among African American women.

Descriptive research only examines variables in natural environments and does not include researcher-designed treatments or interventions. In addition, a descriptive research design aims to provide a picture of the situation by gaining more information about the characteristics of a particular field of study; thus, descriptive designs may be used in theory development, problem identification, and justification in current practice (Burns & Grove, 2009, 236). On the other hand, quantitative research designs are crafted to determine the relationship of variables in a population.

Combining the two research designs, a quantitative descriptive research design establishes only associations between variables and not causality. The quantitative descriptive research design is appropriate to answer the research question because the descriptive design of the study described the current situation by using statistics to determine rates of participation in cancer screening among patients’ self-reported screening or medical records without treatment or intervention whereas, quantitative design establishes only association between self-reported cancer screening and medical record documentation.

ReferencesBurns, N. & Grove, S.K. (2009). Selecting a Quantitative Research Design. The Practice of Nursing Research: Appraisal, Synthesis, and Generation of Evidence (6th ed.) (p. 236-272). Missouri: Saunders.Powe, B.D. & Cooper, D.L. (2008). Self-Reported Cancer Screening Rates versus Medical Record Documentation: Incongruence, Specificity, and Sensitivity for African American Women. Oncology Nursing Forum, 35(2): 199-204.