Thematic Analysis of Thinking in Knowledge Management - Essay Example

DATA ANALYSIS By Module Supervisor DATA ANALYSIS Introduction There is a widespread and generally accepted agreement that practice and policy should be informed by research. The role of research in informing and changing the nursing practice has become a policy .whether it is a small program, big program or lack of a program, research informed practice aids individuals and organizations to enhance what they are already doing or it can aid them to get started (Despres, 2000). As such, there is a need for research to inform practice. Research is primarily defined as a systematic investigation and study of sources and materials with a specific aim of reaching a conclusion or establishing facts (Dey, 1993). Throught this paper, there will be clear and evident focus on research based practice. The paper will analyse the data analysis element of research methods in relation to the two articles. I chose data analysis because it provides a vital base to the decision making process. Data analysis is the crucial element in a research process since mere data collection is not important to a researcher. Research is mainly aimed at helping people make informed decisions in different fields. The current blooming interest in evidence informed health and education promotion is part of an on-going strategy to base professional practice and policy on sound research evidence (Ritchie, 2002). Many evidence based research types can inform practice or policies. For example, narrative, conceptual, and statistical data methods can inform practice. Often, studies take the form of evaluations which determine the effectiveness of policies or studies which collect the views of people about an intervention, acceptability of a policy or their needs and requirements. Moreover, conducted and designed research provides vital and significant information covering a wide array of issues which are vital to people in practice. In today’s era, knowledge about the research process is mandatory in the healthcare industry. Consequently, midwives and nurses need to comprehend the research findings. Moreover, they should grasp the implications of research methods in transforming the health care industry. Body Non statistical methods were employed in analysing the collected data. Descriptive statistics were categorized and analysed based on various categories. Comparison techniques were used in the descriptive analysis process. The information got from the nurses and midwives was related to the study hypothesis and research question. According to Buetow (2010) one of the most reliable and accurate way of determining the accuracy of results of a research study is through the comparison of statistical information and data. Additionally, case studies which are within the relevant field should be included when the comparison of data is being done. James (1890) argues that information with similar elements and characteristics should be classified together and then the results percentage calculated in order to determine the reliability and accuracy of the data and information. The final year student nurses perceptions of role transition statistics and collected data were analysed using an SPSS program version 16. On the other hand, surviving, not thriving: a qualitative study of newly qualified midwives’ experience of their transition to practise research employed thematic analysis in their analytical process. The use of SPSS program helped in obtaining reliable and acceptable results from the research study (Bazeley, 2013). The findings were analysed using simple statistical methods and grouped into gender, programme of study and age group. In contrast, the thematic analysis was applied to figure out the key patterns which underlie the experiences of midwives. In qualitative research, thematic analysis is the most common form of data analysis (Miles, M.1994). It focuses on examining, recording patterns and pinpointing of homogenous data within a data set (Luborsky, 1994). Therefore, the themes represent the categories to be analysed. Thematic analysis was employed in this research due too various reasons. Firstly, thematic analysis allowed for flexibility of in the theoretical framework of the researcher. Other methods of data analysis are tied closely to particular theories (Hayes, 1997). However, thematic analysis can be applied to any theory adopted by the researcher (Aronson, 1994). Through its flexibility, thematic analysis was appropriate for this study since it gave room for complex, detailed and rich description of data (Tuckett, 2005). The use of SPSS on the other hand was as a result of the presence of large sums of data (Field, 2009). While thematic analysis was used to analyse data from 16 participants, SPSS analysed data from many more participants. As such, SPSS program is designed to analyse large amounts of data quickly whereas thematic analysis is suitable for a smaller and large participant groups (Joffe, 2004). In the nurses and midwives research employing thematic analysis, team members were required to read the transcripts before analysing them. This technique helped them to familiarize with the study before proceeding. Phrases and words that captured concepts related to what the nurses were implying were assigned a code or descriptive label (Boyatzis, 1998). This process is referred to as line by line coding. Subsequently, a team reviewed the codes In order to find similarities between the data.an electronic file was used to cluster the concepts. More interviews were done by the team in order to validate the data (Caudie, S. 2004). These strategies were used in order to improve the reliability of the disseminated information. The use of SPSS was warranted by the presence of statistical data. SPSS contains a wider variety of chat and graphs. These graphs and charts reflected the gender and age group of the participants. Percentages were calculated by the program. Moreover, data analysis through SPSS program enabled the researchers to access a full statistical tests. If the researchers could have analysed their data through excel rather than SPSS, they would have consumed more time. It is a lot easier to do descriptive in SPSS than in excel Excel’s accessibility of frequencies and descriptive statics is complex and cumbersome. Additionally, when compared to excel, SPSS possesses a wider range of graphs and tables (Pallant, 2010). Through the use of SPSS, the researchers were able to figure out the perceptions of role transition. Whereas thematic analysis is for qualitative data (Lacey, A.2001), SPSS is designed to analyse quantitative data. It handles complex data analysis and manipulations. SPSS is vital since it is great in predictive analysis. Therefore, it enables the nursing practice to anticipate change. This aids in planning ahead with implementation of strategies that will improve the outcome. The Advantages and Potential Disadvantages of These Strategies The data analysis strategies employed in the two research processes possess various advantages. Not only do they have advantages but also they do have their weaknesses like every other analysis strategy. Both strategies allow categories to surface from the data. In thematic analysis, themes are developed which represent a homogenous data set while in the SPSS program, the output is differentiated from the data. SPSS stores its results in a separate file from the data. Further, both data analysis strategies put out Information which is supported by data. In thematic analysis, themes are supported by data (Bryman, 1994). Charts and graphs support the analyse data in SPSS. Additionally, by being solely designed to analyse statistical data, SPSS offers a wide range of analysis methods. SPSS comes with additional techniques for cleaning or screening the available information for further analysis. Another advantage that SPSS has over other tools like excel is that SPSS analyses data quickly (Green, 2010). This is because the program is designed to know the location of the variables and cases. Data in SPSS can’t be moved since the program organizes data in an optimal way. A row in SPSS represents a single case while a column denotes a single variable. Reliability is the major disadvantage of the data analysis strategies employed in the two in the two studies. Researchers interpret data differently under different themes. Therefore, reliability becomes a concern since multiple researchers can interpret the same data differently. SPSS‘s programming language may be complex and difficult to master (Norusis, 1990). As such, data may be analysed wrongly resulting in incorrect information (Nie, 1975). Also, SPSS cannot be used to analyse large data sets. Additionally, the graphical interface has a low quality. I addition to these, the SPSS program does not contain an undo option when you delete a variable. On the other hand, nuanced data might be missed by thematic analysis. The maintenance of continuity in individual data accounts is difficult to achieve when engaging in thematic analysis. Furthermore, the aspect of flexibility makes the researchers to lose focus. The Validity and Reliability of the Study Validity and reliability are significant features of measurement used in different studies. Reliability and validity of analysis tools aid to determine the meaningfulness, usefulness and accuracy of data. It is therefore vital for all research methods and designs to be valid and reliable in articulating or addressing a specific research problem (Grbich, 2012). The results obtained from the two studies were subjected to tests and analysis in order to determine their validity and reliability. Reliability of the studies was enhanced by analysing the consistency of a measure that enabled it to give similar results when exposed to further research under the same conditions. The tests were reliable because they were able to give out the same results repeatedly. For example, more interviews were conducted when researching on the midwives and nurses experiences to expand and modify on the existing data. All subsequent tests on the same problem yielded the same results when subjected to the same conditions (Rosenthal, R. 1991). Ensuring the reliability of descriptive research made the results obtained from the research to be unbiased to reflect the real life situation of the experiences of students’ transitioning to nursing. On the other hand, validity refers the level and extent to which the analysed data is reflected accurately by the concepts being measured. Validity is basically concerned with the success of the research study in measuring what the researcher aims to investigate (Ott, L. 2001). Conclusion In summary, thematic analysis and the use of SPSS were the methods employed in the two studies. SPSS was used to analyse the statistical data while thematic analysis based its findings on grouping them into themes. The data analysis methods employed have their advantages and disadvantages like all other data analysis methods. The validity of the results was reinforced by similar tests which revealed the same results and findings. Bibliography Aronson, J. 1994. 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