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Linda Shields PhD, FRCNA,

NHMRC, Professor of Nursing,

University of Limerick, Ireland;

Alison Twycross RSCN, RGN,

MSc, RMN, CertEd, DMS,

Senior Lecturer in Childrens

Nursing, Glasgow Caledonian

University and Senior Nurse for

Research Development,

Yorkhill NHS Trust, Glasgow

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

During this work, the first

author was supported by the

National Health and Medical

Research Council of Australia

Public Health Postdoctoral

Fellowship Number 997096

and National Health andMedical Research Council of

Australia Travelling Fellowship

Grant ID 235610.

This paper is one

of a series of short

papers on aspectsof research by

Linda Shields and

Alison Twycross

The first question asked by any researcher with a new

topic to study is: What sort of research should I use?

Reference to the literature can be confusing: so much

research has been done, so many questions asked andsometimes answered, and so many conclusions have

been drawn that it can be difficult to sort out one research

technique from another. The decision most beginners to

research find taxing is: Should I use quantitative or

qualitative methods?

At the most basic level, quantitative research methods

are used when something needs to be measured, while

qualitative methods are used when a question needs to

be described and investigated in some depth. Often, the

two methods are used in tandem to provide

measurements for comparison and evaluation and togive an in-depth explanation of the meaning of an idea.

Quantitative research

The words themselves hold the clues. Quantitative

research includes so-called benchtop science (where

experimental tests are carried out), drug trials (where the

effects of drugs are measured), epidemiology (where rates

of illnesses in populations are calculated), intervention

studies (where one technique is used and its effects

compared with another), and so on. Quantitative research

usually contains numbers, proportions and statistics, and

is invaluable for measuring peoples attitudes, their

emotional and behavioural states and their ways of

thinking.

In one section of a study on child care in hospitals, I

asked a group of parents to give a yes or no response

to a range of questions on their attitudes to paediatric

hospital care (Shields 1999). I then measured the

number of yes answers and compared them with

responses from nurses and doctors to the same

questions. The study showed differences in attitudebetween parents and staff that could have affected

communication between them and influenced the

delivery of care. In another example, a researcher in

Iceland measured the most important needs of parents

during their childrens admission to hospital and found

that they rated emotional needs as more important than

physical requirements, such as rest and food(Kristjansdttir 1995).

Qualitative research

Qualitative methods are used when the meaning of

something needs to be found. Exploring the question:

Who owns a child in hospital? (Shields et al 2003), or

examining the meaning of an experience, illness, or

condition, for example, of what it means to be a mother

whose child has died (Laakso and Paunonen-Ilmonen

2001), are all forms of qualitative research. Qualitative

research usually has no measurements or statistics butuses words, descriptions and quotes to explore meaning.

It can even use arts techniques, such as dance (Picard

2000).

The question to ask when planning a research project,

therefore, is: Do I want to count or measure something,

or do I want to find the meaning of something, and

describe it? Which comes first? This is sometimes a

chicken-and-egg question but if no one has investigated

the topic before, qualitative research is used first to try

to tease out ideas, which can then be turned into

questions that can be tested quantitatively PN

24 Paediatric Nursing vol 15 no 9 November 2003

Research update

The difference between

quantitative and qualitativeresearch

TAXI

REFERENCES

Kristjansdttir G (1995) Perceived importance of needsexpressed by parents of hospitalized two-to-six-year-olds.Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences. 9, 2, 95-103.

Laakso H, Paunonen-Ilmonen M (2001) Mothers grieffollowing the death of a child.Journal of Advanced Nursing.36, 1, 69-77.

Picard C (2000) Pattern of expanding consciousness inmidlife women: creative movement and the narrative asmodes of expression. Nursing Science Quarterly. 13, 2, 150-157.

Shields L (1999) A Comparative Study of the Care ofHospitalized Children in Developed and Developing Countries.Doctoral thesis. Brisbane, University of Queensland.

Shields L et al (2003) Who owns the child in hospital? Apreliminary discussion.Journal of Advanced Nursing. 41, 3, 1-9.