Evidence Based Nursing

Qualitative research allows you to discover the why and how of people and activities. The abstract from this dissertation shows  the study: 

• Asks open-ended questions
• Examines people's activities
• Gives a narrative conclusion 
• Observations and Interviews 
• Understanding and interpreting social interactions and behaviors 
• Uses a small group of subjects 
• Uses words 

Quantitative research is based on things that can be accurately and precisely measured. The abstract shows that this dissertation:

• Describes with statistics
• Gives a statistical result 
• Makes predictions 
• Objective 
• Studies a randomly selected group 
• Tests a theory 
• Uses numbers
• Uses a survey 

This abstract has several indications that this is a quantitative study:

• the goal of the study was examining relationships between several variables
• the researchers used statistical methods (logistic regression models)
• subjects completed questionnaires
• the study included a large number of subjects

Based on Eastern Michigan University Library Libguide Quantitative and Qualitative Research 

This abstract has several indications that this is a qualitative study: 

• the goal of the study was to explore the subjects' experiences. 
• the researchers conducted open-ended interviews. 
• the researchers used thematic analysis when reviewing the interviews. 

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Based on Eastern Michigan University Library Libguide Quantitative and Qualitative Research