NURS406 EIP EXAM 2 STUDY GUIDE
What is a systematic review? - Answer A structured way of finding the best research
evidence from SEVERAL articles in the literature
-finding articles, appraising & synthesizing them (putting them together in a meaningful
way) in a RIGOROUS manner
What is a meta-analysis? - Answer Pooling the statistics together from many studies,
usually with a forest plot, which we'll discuss
What is a meta-synthesis? - Answer Systematically reviewing QUALITATIVE reserach
findings
Meta-summary: summarizing the findings from qualitative studies
What is an integrative review? - Answer Includes qualitative & quantitative studies
Why can results from a meta-analyses be difficult to decipher? - Answer They may
include forest plots
What is a forest plot? - Answer Simply a picture of results of several studies & always
includes a "summary" diamond that shoes you the results of the studies, all complied
together
What does the size of the shape mean in a forest plot? - Answer Size of each of the
diamonds, or squares or triangles that are used show how much WEIGHT is given to that
particular study
What does confidence (CI) mean? - Answer If you have a 95% CI in the results of a study,
it means that 95% of the time, the population's mea will fall within the range that they
give. It will be written as 95% CI (range = 15=25)
This means that if this study is repeated it is expected that the scores will fall between
15 & 25
What do horizontal lines mean in a forest plot? - Answer CI: describes the range of the
effect of the intervention that is being studied
Which is better narrow or wider CI? - Answer Narrower: if there is a lot of variation in the
study responses, then you'll see a wider range
What do squares to the left of the line in a forest plot mean? - Answer Indicate that the
intervention was better than the Tx that the control group received. (Look at the bottom
of the chart to fully interpret it
-if the outcome is something that we DO NOT want to see (like death, pain or infection)
then a square to the right of the line means that the intervention was WORSE than the
control
,What are the strongest evidence types? - Answer Meta-analysis
Integrative reviews
Experimental studies, like RCTs- what's an RCT?
What are the weakest evidence types - Answer Descriptive surveys
Qualitative studies
Correlational studies
Quasi-experimental studies
When should the prisms model be used? - Answer For critical appraisal of published
systematic reviews & meta-analysis
What are descriptive statistics? - Answer Gather, sort, summarize numerical data into
one or two simple numbers that "describe" your sample, or "describe" your findings
-central values
-dispersion from the means
-summary statistics
What is inferential statistics? - Answer Infer back to the population that you want to
make a difference for
-probability
-confidence Intervals
How confident are we that we are right?
-P values, CI
What are frequently distributions? - Answer Occurrence of scores in a study
What are measures of central tendency? - Answer mean, median, mode
What is mode - Answer Numerical value or score that occurs with greatest freq
What is median - Answer Midpoint or the score at the exact center of the ungrounded
freq distribution-50th percentile
What is mean - Answer Is the sum of the scores divided by the number of scores being
summed
What are measures of dispersion - Answer range, variance, standard deviation,
standardized scores ,scatterplots
, What is range - Answer Obtained by subtracting lowest score from highest score
-uses only the two extreme scores
-very crude measure & sensitive to outliers
What is standard deviation - Answer Square root of the variance
Just as the mean is the average value, the SD is the average difference score
-important for tests
What are type 1 errors? - Answer Occurs when the researcher rejects the null
hypothesis when it is true
-researcher thinks/finds there is a significant difference, when in reality there is not
What is a type II error? - Answer Occurs when the researcher regards the null
hypothesis as true but it is false
-researcher thinks/finds there is no significant difference, when in reality there is a
difference
What do statistics help us with? - Answer Describe
Examine
Predict
Examine differences
What are P values used for? - Answer Tell us if it happened by chance or if it is a real
difference
If the p=0.23 what does this mean? - Answer Not significant because it means there is a
23% probability that a particular event will occur
When should level of significance be established? - Answer Before the study starts
What does the pearson product test? - Answer Presence of a relationship between two
variables
-called bivariate correlation
=expressed as a small r
What is the Cronbach's alpha coefficient? - Answer Tests internal consistency of
measurement scale
What is factor analysis? - Answer Examines relationships among large numbers of
variables
What is a systematic review? - Answer A structured way of finding the best research
evidence from SEVERAL articles in the literature
-finding articles, appraising & synthesizing them (putting them together in a meaningful
way) in a RIGOROUS manner
What is a meta-analysis? - Answer Pooling the statistics together from many studies,
usually with a forest plot, which we'll discuss
What is a meta-synthesis? - Answer Systematically reviewing QUALITATIVE reserach
findings
Meta-summary: summarizing the findings from qualitative studies
What is an integrative review? - Answer Includes qualitative & quantitative studies
Why can results from a meta-analyses be difficult to decipher? - Answer They may
include forest plots
What is a forest plot? - Answer Simply a picture of results of several studies & always
includes a "summary" diamond that shoes you the results of the studies, all complied
together
What does the size of the shape mean in a forest plot? - Answer Size of each of the
diamonds, or squares or triangles that are used show how much WEIGHT is given to that
particular study
What does confidence (CI) mean? - Answer If you have a 95% CI in the results of a study,
it means that 95% of the time, the population's mea will fall within the range that they
give. It will be written as 95% CI (range = 15=25)
This means that if this study is repeated it is expected that the scores will fall between
15 & 25
What do horizontal lines mean in a forest plot? - Answer CI: describes the range of the
effect of the intervention that is being studied
Which is better narrow or wider CI? - Answer Narrower: if there is a lot of variation in the
study responses, then you'll see a wider range
What do squares to the left of the line in a forest plot mean? - Answer Indicate that the
intervention was better than the Tx that the control group received. (Look at the bottom
of the chart to fully interpret it
-if the outcome is something that we DO NOT want to see (like death, pain or infection)
then a square to the right of the line means that the intervention was WORSE than the
control
,What are the strongest evidence types? - Answer Meta-analysis
Integrative reviews
Experimental studies, like RCTs- what's an RCT?
What are the weakest evidence types - Answer Descriptive surveys
Qualitative studies
Correlational studies
Quasi-experimental studies
When should the prisms model be used? - Answer For critical appraisal of published
systematic reviews & meta-analysis
What are descriptive statistics? - Answer Gather, sort, summarize numerical data into
one or two simple numbers that "describe" your sample, or "describe" your findings
-central values
-dispersion from the means
-summary statistics
What is inferential statistics? - Answer Infer back to the population that you want to
make a difference for
-probability
-confidence Intervals
How confident are we that we are right?
-P values, CI
What are frequently distributions? - Answer Occurrence of scores in a study
What are measures of central tendency? - Answer mean, median, mode
What is mode - Answer Numerical value or score that occurs with greatest freq
What is median - Answer Midpoint or the score at the exact center of the ungrounded
freq distribution-50th percentile
What is mean - Answer Is the sum of the scores divided by the number of scores being
summed
What are measures of dispersion - Answer range, variance, standard deviation,
standardized scores ,scatterplots
, What is range - Answer Obtained by subtracting lowest score from highest score
-uses only the two extreme scores
-very crude measure & sensitive to outliers
What is standard deviation - Answer Square root of the variance
Just as the mean is the average value, the SD is the average difference score
-important for tests
What are type 1 errors? - Answer Occurs when the researcher rejects the null
hypothesis when it is true
-researcher thinks/finds there is a significant difference, when in reality there is not
What is a type II error? - Answer Occurs when the researcher regards the null
hypothesis as true but it is false
-researcher thinks/finds there is no significant difference, when in reality there is a
difference
What do statistics help us with? - Answer Describe
Examine
Predict
Examine differences
What are P values used for? - Answer Tell us if it happened by chance or if it is a real
difference
If the p=0.23 what does this mean? - Answer Not significant because it means there is a
23% probability that a particular event will occur
When should level of significance be established? - Answer Before the study starts
What does the pearson product test? - Answer Presence of a relationship between two
variables
-called bivariate correlation
=expressed as a small r
What is the Cronbach's alpha coefficient? - Answer Tests internal consistency of
measurement scale
What is factor analysis? - Answer Examines relationships among large numbers of
variables
