Nursing Research Identified Problems Stroke Patients and the Lack of Access to the Community Resources.

Search and locate an existing instrument that will be used to address your research question. Post the title of the instrument selected and the level of measurement on the tool. Next, post a description of the type of scale used in the instrument. Include a brief discussion of data collection procedures that will be presented in your proposal.

The assignment allows for application of the elements of methodology with respect to controlling extraneous variables and selecting an instrument with a specific scale of measurement to answer your research question. Based on the type of specific instrument selected for your research study, the validity and reliability should reflect criteria for the instrument of choice.

As a quick review, nurses must know which level of measurement is used in order to select the correct statistical test to analyze the data. In addition the nurse must have a well defined data collection plan and an instrument that measures the type of data collected. The level of measurement is determined by the research question and the study design (qualitative or quantitative) and relates to the types of statistical testing, such as parametric and nonparametric statistical tests. Remember, qualitative data is the collection of words analyzed into themes and patterns. Quantitative data includes measurements that collect numbers which are analyzed to determine a difference, a correlation, or a relationship between variables.

The major categories of levels of measurement are:

Nominal
Ordinal
Interval
Ratio

The lectures and course readings for this week include the basic principles of levels of measurement and instruments with examples to assist with meeting the course outcomes.