Analyzing Data

Q: Does the team need to be able to select a statistical test and conduct the analysis?

A: NO!!

Lack of statistical help and guidance during the research process is often perceived as a major roadblock to successful project completion. Even individuals who have had statistic courses in graduate programs feel intimidated by this aspect of the research process! The reality is that you don’t have to do this phase of research by yourself – there are resources to assist with data analysis.

The key to success in data analysis is to IDENTIFY YOUR STATISTICAL CONSULTANT EARLY in the process, preferably while developing the protocol, so that your study is designed to accurately answer your research question!

 Research Resources

In this phase, if you have research support they may be able help you with:

• Finalizing data entry into your database
• “Cleaning” your dataset
• Preparing an explanation of the analysis results for presentation to staff

Staff nurse participant responsibilities

In this phase, your responsibilities as a research nurse include:

• Understanding the results
• Feeling comfortable presenting the results to peers
• Being available to present results in staff meetings

Short videos to explain the process

• Hans Rosling’s 200 Countries, 200 years, 4 minutes- The Joy of Stats- BBC Four  
• Language of Data Toolkit #1: Introduction to Statistics: Introduction to LOD video. This video describes and compares quantitative vs. qualitative data, population vs. sample, and parameter vs. statistic
• Language of Data Toolkit #2: Mean, Median and Mode. ​This video discusses and provides examples of the measures of central tendency: mean, median and mode. 
• Language of Data Toolkit #3: Standard Deviation. ​This video discusses and provides examples on standard deviation.
• Language of Data Toolkit #4:This video discusses and provides examples of z-score.
• Language of Data Toolkit #5: This video goes through basic statistical symbols and its pronunciations.