QUESTION 1       (3 marks)

1. a) Locate, and give the reference for, one article that represents the highest evidence available relating to the changing of intravenous administration sets.
2. b) According to the JBI evidence hierarchy (effectiveness domain), what level of evidence is this article?
3. c) What is the evidence regarding the frequency of administration set changes?

QUESTION 2       (10 marks)

1. a) Identify the appropriate measurement scale for the following:

Variable	Measurement Scale
Length
Body temperature
Time of day (Night, Dawn, Noon, Afternoon, Evening)
pH
Hair Colour
Ranking of journals in a category according to impact factor
Presence or absence of infection
Height

1. b) You construct a survey and create categories for age – what scale is this? Identify one advantage and one disadvantage of measuring the variable in this way.

QUESTION 3 (2 marks)

The lifespan of light bulbs is normally distributed, with a mean life of 850 hours, and a standard deviation of 20 hours.

1. a) What would be the expected lifespan of approximately 99% of the light bulbs?
2. b) What percentage of light bulbs should last for at least 830 hours?

QUESTION 4       (8 marks)

Nursing staff in a surgical ward are interested in acupressure in treating postoperative nausea and vomiting. They decide to carry out a study comparing its effectiveness with that of standard treatment. Patients must consent to the study to be included.

1. a) Explain the difference between internal and external validity in studies such as this [2 marks]
2. b) Identify 3 threats to internal validity in this study and suggest strategies by which they could be prevented or reduced [6 marks]

QUESTION 5       (6 marks)

A class of 30 students received the following marks (expressed as percentages) for their overall assessment.

Student	Mark		Student	Mark		Student	Mark
Grace	50		Sunil	62		Ahmed	67
Jianxia	76		Louisa	90		Tracey	72
Mark	82		David	72		Lian	62
Herlina	52		Jennifer	54		Abdul	20
James	64		Matilda	69		Melanie	65
Bianca	77		Elise	43		James	59
Mishal	35		Ramon	75		Jehan	67
Nawal	85		Caroline	62		Diana	58
Chris	78		Zara	70		Peter	68
Simon	60		Sunit	56		Rebecca	53

1. a) Calculate: [3 marks]
2. i) The mean
3. ii) The median

iii) The mode

1. b) You wish to know whether there is a difference between the marks obtained by male and female students. How would you examine the association between these two variables? [1 mark]
2. c) What statistical test would you perform to examine the significance of this association? [1 mark]
3. d) You are also interested to know whether there is an association between the marks obtained for this subject, and those obtained for another unit which all of the students have taken. To compare the marks you calculate Pearson’s correlation coefficient, and obtain a result of -0.334. What can you conclude about the relationship between the two sets of marks? [1 mark]

QUESTION 6 (3 marks)

The graph below indicates the distribution of the memory test scores of 123 people. What inference can you make about the distribution of scores? [1 mark]

1. c) For this dataset, what would be the most appropriate measure of: [2 marks]
2. i) central tendency
3. ii) dispersion

QUESTION 7       (15 marks)

Julia works in a general medical ward where the majority of patients have intravenous infusions. She is concerned about the incidence of phlebitis around the cannulation site and wonders whether it is related to the type of dressing used to secure the cannula. Currently all cannulae are secured with adhesive tape. After examining a variety of available products, Julia and her team decide to try a transparent, non-occlusive dressing to see if the incidence of phlebitis is affected.

1. a) Generate a null hypothesis and an alternate (non-directional) hypothesis for Julia’s study [2 marks]

Null:

Alternate:

Julia and her team commence a study to test this hypothesis. For the first 6 months of the study, all enrolled patients have their IV cannulae managed with the standard dressing. The incidence of phlebitis is documented and all other relevant data is collected. For the next six months, all enrolled patients have their cannulae managed with the new dressing. The same data is collected as previously.

1. b) What is the name of this research design? What level of evidence (according to the JBI hierarchy) will it generate? [2 marks]
2. c) What design could be used to provide a higher level of evidence? Why is this second design considered superior? [2 marks]
3. d) Give three (3) reasons why Julia’s team might have chosen the first design over the second [3 marks]
4. e) For this study, identify [2 marks]:
5. i) the independent variable
6. ii) the dependent variable
7. f) How will Julia’s team examine the association between the independent and dependent variables? [1 mark]
8. g) What statistical test would be appropriate to test the hypothesis? [1 mark]
9. h) The test is performed and the result generated is p=0.004. Interpret the p-value. [1 mark]
10. i) What decision would you expect the researchers to make with respect to the null hypothesis? [1 mark]

QUESTION 8       (7 marks)

Researchers are interested in comparing the effectiveness of a non-pharmacological method of managing pain compared with pharmacological management in patients with arthritis. They decide to conduct a systematic review.

They perform the systematic review and find 4 studies have been conducted. All have measured patients’ self-reported pain using a visual analog scale (1-10), and have compared the mean pain score for the experimental and control groups. The researchers are able to combine the findings from these studies in a meta-analysis, testing the null hypothesis that there will be no difference in the pain scores between the two treatments. These findings are displayed graphically in the Figure in Appendix 1.

1. a) What does the figure indicate about the outcomes of the 4 individual studies? [2 marks]

b). Comment on the width of the confidence intervals for the various studies. What is the likeliest reason for the difference? [2 marks]

1. c) When the findings from the 4 studies are combined, the difference between the mean pain scores is 0.4, with 95% confidence intervals of -0.4 and 1.2. Interpret these confidence intervals [2 marks]
2. d) What conclusion will the researchers make regarding the null hypothesis? [1 mark]

QUESTION 9       (21 marks)

Jane is a new graduate coordinator at a hospital where she manages the transition to practice of new graduates employed at the hospital. She has introduced a mentorship program on two of the wards where she provides primary mentorship to 10 graduates and wishes to conduct qualitative research to explore the new graduates’ perspectives on their transition experience in these wards, and compare it to other support programs in the hospital.

1. a) Identify an appropriate methodology for this study and provide a rationale for its use. Include at least one reference specific to the methodology. Identify the paradigm with which this methodology is aligned. [6 marks]
2. b) Identify and provide the rationale for a suitable sampling strategy for this methodology. [3 marks]
3. c) What data collection strategy/strategies would be most appropriate for this methodology? Give reasons. [3 marks]
4. d) Describe, and provide a rationale for, an appropriate method of data analysis for this methodology. [3 marks]
5. e) Identify three (3) elements of research rigour relevant to this methodology and provide a specific example of how each could be achieved in this study. [6 marks]

QUESTION 10     (16 marks)

1. a) With respect to the study in the Question 9, identify specific ethical problems which this study raises, and the ethical principle which is threatened in each case. What specific strategies could Jane adopt in her research procedures to overcome these ethical problems? [6 marks]
2. b) Provide an example of each of the following ethical review categories, and give reasons why the type of study would be categorised in this way [8 marks]
3. i) a type of study requiring approval by the full Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC)
4. ii) a type of study that could be approved by the Chair of the HREC alone

iii) a type of project that could be exempted from ethical review

1. iv) a type of study that would not require approval by any external body or committee
2. c) In the study in Question 9, what type of consent would you expect participants to provide? Why? [2 marks]

QUESTION 11     (13 marks)

In the appendix at the end of this document you will find extracts from interview transcripts from a study examining the experiences of lecturers at a UK university. “Rachel” and “Fern” are pseudonyms for two of the study participants. The specific question addressed in these extracts is “What are lecturers’ experiences of teaching various types of students?”

1. a) What type of interview are these examples of? [1 mark]
2. b) Written transcripts contain only the words spoken by the participants. What other data is available during the actual interview, and is important to take into account when considering their answers to the questions? As a researcher, how would you collect this type of data? [4 marks]
3. c) From the data, identify two (2) themes that could contribute to answering the research question. Provide 3 examples of data (ie, quotes from the interviews) that would contribute to each theme. [8 marks]