CHAPTER

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Research Methodology
This chapter consist detailed information of research methodology and the process of
research study and focuses on research design, setting, study population, data collection
tool, data analysis and ethical considerations with a summary at the end of this chapter.
Study Design:
The research design used for this study was Non-Interventional Cross Sectional
Analytical design. This design is best to capture the phenomena of interest at one point in
time and describing the relationship among the phenomena at fixed point (Polit FD, Beck
TC, PB Hungler. Essential of Nursing Research: Methods, Appraisal, and
Utilization. 5th ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott. Williams & Wilkins; 2001). This design
was used to estimate prevalence of problem in population of interest and was also used to
assume causation (Mann CJ. Observational research methods. Research design II:
cohort, cross sectional and case-control studies. Emerg Med J.2003;20:54-60.
whereas Cross sectional designs are especially appropriate for describing the status of
phenomena; involve the collection of data at one point in time and all the phenomena
under study are captured during one data collection period. (Polit & Beck, 2006 pg 192)
Denise F. Polit & Cheryl Tantano Beck. Essential of Nursing Research: Methods,
Appraisal, and Utiliztion. 6th ed. (2006). Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Company. It
captures variables to examine differences in variables in two or more groups that occur
naturally in a setting. (Burns & Grove, 2007, p.244).

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 Studies

Non-interventional or Interventional
observational

Descriptive Analytic

Observational Experimental
Exploratory Case Report Cross
Or Case series sectional
Cross Case Cohort
sectional control

Fig.3.1: Diagrammatic representation of research design

The cross-sectional analytical design involves the selection of a target population

of nurses who have the same condition and/or receive a specific intervention and
compared the groups. As an analytic study, it attempts to quantify the relationship
between the factors, that is; the effect of an intervention (I) or exposure (E) on an
outcome (O). To quantify effects, the outcomes were rated in a comparison (C) groups.
In this way groups of subjects were matched and assess for associations between
exposures and outcomes.

The literature sufficiently supports that the study design was appropriate to explore and
compare the perception of the undergraduate nursing students regarding the patterns of
pedagogy, Institutional and Social barriers to learning.

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 Specified/ Target population

Sample

Exposed to learning
barriers

Perceived Effect on
learning

No Yes

Very strongly Strongly Medium Weak

Fig.3.2: Diagrammatic representation of Cross-sectional analytical design

By using this design, the data from the target population (specified population) was
collected at single point in time and no follow-up were planned. Barriers comprises of
pedagogical, Institutional and Social. The interventions were not manipulated but only
observed (passive involvement of researcher) the outcome among the participants as this
study implied observation/or non-interventional as the research method (Bennett D,
Emberson J. [data base on the internet]. Study designs. [cited 2010 Feb 19].
Available from: http://www.ebm-syria.com/images/choose/257300.pdf.). Then, the
responses of the participants were matched and assessed to analyze difference between
the three types of barriers and the outcome.

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Strength and Limitation of the design

The strength of this design is that, it permits a useful insight into a phenomenon, and
avoids the ethical and practical difficulties of setting up a research project.
(Shuttleworth, Martyn (2009). Observational Study. Retrieved [Date of Retrieval]
from Experiment Resources: http://www.experiment-resources.com/observational-
study.html. 2008-2010) and uses one group in which the subjects were either
consciously exposed/treated or not exposed/treated, and it is cheap and quick. It is also
helpful in recognizing association which can be further studied using longitudinal cohort
or randomized controlled studies. Whereas, the acknowledged limitations of this design
are that by simple association one can not discriminate cause and effect relationship and
some other probable reasons may also be there. It can not provide explanation for their
findings and prevalence of rare problem can not be efficiently studied because even with
a large sample there might be no one with the problem (Mann CJ. Observational
research methods. Research design II: cohort, cross sectional and case-control
studies. Emerg Med J.2003;20:54-60.)66.