Research Methods for Nurses and Midwives

Kirsty Barclay is a senior midwifery lecturer and course lead at the University of West London. She qualified in 2007 and whilst in clinical practice, she gained experience in many different clinical areas until moving into university education in early 2020. Kirsty has always had a passion for supporting and teaching students throughout her career; however, it was not until she was undertaking her master′s degree in advanced clinical practice that she found an interest in research. This has led her to support and shape how research and the concept of evidence-based practice is introduced. Aiming to build solid foundations of understanding as well as how research can develop practice and the care women, patients and their families receive. This has driven how she developed this textbook.Sara Zarasvand is a midwifery lecturer and course lead at the University of West London, with over ten years of experience as a midwife. She has a longstanding interest in research, learning, and teaching, which has shaped her career across both clinical and academic settings. Alongside her clinical work, she completed a master’s degree from University College London and began her research career at Imperial College London, focusing on preterm birth (now Tommy’s National Centre for Preterm Birth Research). Since then, she has contributed to a range of published studies, including first-author papers, and has co-authored core midwifery texts.Drawing on her combined clinical, research, and academic experience, Sara is particularly passionate about supporting students and practitioners to feel confident and comfortable engaging with research and evidence-based practice. Since joining UWL, she has further developed her academic practice through postgraduate study in Professional Academic Practice and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA). This textbook reflects her commitment to making research accessible, relevant, and meaningful for all those working in midwifery.Merryl Harvey qualified as a nurse in 1982. After qualifying as a midwife in 1984, her area of practice was neonatal intensive care. Merryl’s clinical career culminated in her working as a clinical teacher and this in turn led her to take up a post at Birmingham City University. Initially this was to run the post-registration neonatal intensive care course. In more recent years Merryl was been seconded to work on a number of large-scale, funded research projects which have focused on aspects of parenting and preterm birth. She secured the Bliss Research Fellow post based at the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit (2004–2007). Her MSc explored aspects of the neonatal nurse practitioner role and her PhD explored fathers’ experiences of the birth and immediate care of their baby. Merryl has a strong journal publication history and has co-authored a text on fatherhood in relation to midwifery and neonatal practice (2012). Her co-authored text ‘Achieving Your Doctorate while Working in Higher Education’ is due to be published by Sage in 2021.  Merryl became Professor of Nursing and Family Health at Birmingham City University in 2017. Before her retirement in 2019, Merryl was co-lead of the Family Health Research Cluster and co-lead of the Elizabeth Bryan Multiple Births Centre.Lucy Land qualified as a nurse in 1980 and worked in haematology, caring for patients with leukaemia, sickle cell anaemia and other blood disorders. Eventually specialising in haemophilia, Lucy was one of the first clinical nurse specialists, supporting a regional outpatient and home treatment service.Following this successful career in practice, she became a clinical nurse teacher and later qualified as a registered nurse tutor. After moving into Birmingham City University, Lucy continued to teach and to undertake funded research projects which focussed on patient experience and completing several studies on this subject. In addition to a substantial history of journal publications, Lucy was co-author of an earlier Sage publication – Resources for Nursing Research: An Annotated Bibliography. After retiring from her role as professor of nursing and Director of the Centre for Social Care, Health and Related Research (C-SHaRR), Lucy maintained a keen interest patient care and worked in the voluntary sector to promote patient advocacy and inclusion.

Harvey and Land empathetically provide novice nurse researchers with a platform from which they build their understanding of what can be a challenging subject. At the same time, they also give those returning to research a well-structured and thought out refresher, easing them back into the intricacies of the research process.

• Part I: Laying the FoundationsChapter 1: Introduction to Research in Nursing and MidwiferyChapter 2: Evidence-based Practice: Using Research for Clinical Practice Chapter 3: Research Theory and Paradigms Chapter 4: Research Process, Research Problems, Research QuestionsChapter 5: Quantitative Methodologies: An OverviewChapter 6: Qualitative Methodologies: An OverviewChapter 7: Mixed Methodologies: An OverviewChapter 8: Addressing Ethical IssuesPart II: Understanding Research Methods and Designs: The TheoryChapter 9: Research DesignChapter 10: Randomised Controlled Trials and Experiments Chapter 11: Phenomenology, Ethnography and Grounded TheoryChapter 12: Historical Research, Action Research and Practitioner ResearchChapter 13: Literature Reviews and Systematic ReviewsPart III: Using Research Methods and Design: The PracticeChapter 14: Writing a Research Proposal Chapter 15: Identifying and Sourcing LiteratureChapter 16: SamplingChapter 17: Structured Observation, Questionnaires and SurveysChapter 18: Observation, Interviews and Focus GroupsChapter 19: Managing & Analysing Quantitative DataChapter 20: Managing & Analysing Qualitative DataChapter 21: Evaluating Quality and Rigour in ResearchChapter 22: Writing Up and Disseminating Your Research