Test Bank For Essentials of Nursing Research,
Appraising Evidence for Nursing Practice, 10th
Edition By Denise Polit, Cheryl Beck (LWW)
1. Which of the following groups would be best served by the development of a scientific base for
nursing practice?
A) Nursing administrators
B) Practicing nurses
C) Nurses' clients
D) Healthcare policymakers
2. An especially important goal for the nursing profession is to:
A) Conduct research to better understand the context of nursing practice
B) Establish a base of evidence for practice through disciplined research
C) Document the role nursing serves in society
D) Establish research priorities
3. Which of the following would not be a current priority for clinical nursing research?
A) Pain management
B) Health promotion
C) Nurses' personalities
D) Prevention of illness
4. Most nursing studies before 1950 focused on:
A) Client satisfaction
B) Clinical interventions
C) Health promotion
D) Nursing education
A+ Page 1
, 5. To those espousing a naturalistic paradigm, a fundamental belief is that:
A) A fixed reality exists in nature for humans to understand
B) The nature of reality has changed over time
C) Reality is multiply constructed and
multiply interpreted by humans
D) Reality cannot be studied empirically
6. To those espousing a positivist paradigm, a fundamental belief is that:
A) The researcher is objective and independent of those being studied.
B) The researcher cannot interact with those being studied.
C) The researcher instructs those being studied to be objective in providing information.
D) The distance between the researcher and those being researched is minimized to enhance the
interactive process.
7. The traditional scientific method is not characterized by which of the following attributes?
A) Control over external factors
B) Systematic measurement and observation of natural phenomena
C) Testing of hunches deduced from theory or prior research
D) Emphasis on a holistic view of a phenomenon, studied in a rich context
8. Empiricism refers to:
A) Making generalizations from specific observations
B) Deducing specific predictions from generalizations
C) Gathering evidence about real-world phenomena through the senses
D) Verifying the assumptions on which the study was based
9. A hallmark of the scientific method is that it is:
A) Rigorous
B) Holistic
C) Systematic
D) Flexible
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, 10. Which of the following limits the power of the scientific method to answer questions about human
life?
A) The necessity of departing from traditional beliefs
B) The difficulty of accurately measuring complex human traits
C) The difficulty of gaining the cooperation of humans as study participants
D) The shortage of theories about human behavior
11. The classic scientific method has its intellectual roots in:
A) Positivism
B) Determinism
C) Constructivism
D) Empiricism
12. One of the criticisms of the scientific method is that it is overly:
A) Logical
B) Deterministic
C) Empirical
D) Reductionist
13. Naturalistic qualitative research typically:
A) Involves deductive processes
B) Attempts to control the research context to better understand the phenomenon being studied
C) Involves gathering narrative, subjective materials
D) Focuses on the idiosyncrasies of those being studied
14. Quantitative and qualitative research do not share which of the following features?
A) A desire to understand the true state of human affairs
B) Roots in the 19th-century thought of such philosophers as Newton and Locke
C) A reliance on external evidence collected through the senses
D) Utility to the nursing profession
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, 15. A descriptive question that a qualitative researcher might ask is:
A) What are the dimensions of this phenomenon?
B) What is the average intensity of this phenomenon?
C) How frequently does this phenomenon occur?
D) What is the average duration of this phenomenon?
16. A researcher wants to investigate the effect of patients' body position on blood pressure. The study
would most likely be:
A) Qualitative
B) Quantitative
C) Either quantitative or qualitative (researcher preference)
D) Insufficient information to determine
17. A researcher wants to study the process by which people make decisions about seeking treatment
for infertility. The researcher's paradigmatic orientation most likely is:
A) Positivism
B) Determinism
C) Empiricism
D) Naturalism
18. A researcher is studying the effect of massage on the alleviation of pain in cancer patients. The
study would be described as:
A) Descriptive
B) Exploratory
C) Applied
D) Basic
19. Which of the following EBP-related purposes would not be addressed through cause-probing
research?
A) Intervention/treatment
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Appraising Evidence for Nursing Practice, 10th
Edition By Denise Polit, Cheryl Beck (LWW)
1. Which of the following groups would be best served by the development of a scientific base for
nursing practice?
A) Nursing administrators
B) Practicing nurses
C) Nurses' clients
D) Healthcare policymakers
2. An especially important goal for the nursing profession is to:
A) Conduct research to better understand the context of nursing practice
B) Establish a base of evidence for practice through disciplined research
C) Document the role nursing serves in society
D) Establish research priorities
3. Which of the following would not be a current priority for clinical nursing research?
A) Pain management
B) Health promotion
C) Nurses' personalities
D) Prevention of illness
4. Most nursing studies before 1950 focused on:
A) Client satisfaction
B) Clinical interventions
C) Health promotion
D) Nursing education
A+ Page 1
, 5. To those espousing a naturalistic paradigm, a fundamental belief is that:
A) A fixed reality exists in nature for humans to understand
B) The nature of reality has changed over time
C) Reality is multiply constructed and
multiply interpreted by humans
D) Reality cannot be studied empirically
6. To those espousing a positivist paradigm, a fundamental belief is that:
A) The researcher is objective and independent of those being studied.
B) The researcher cannot interact with those being studied.
C) The researcher instructs those being studied to be objective in providing information.
D) The distance between the researcher and those being researched is minimized to enhance the
interactive process.
7. The traditional scientific method is not characterized by which of the following attributes?
A) Control over external factors
B) Systematic measurement and observation of natural phenomena
C) Testing of hunches deduced from theory or prior research
D) Emphasis on a holistic view of a phenomenon, studied in a rich context
8. Empiricism refers to:
A) Making generalizations from specific observations
B) Deducing specific predictions from generalizations
C) Gathering evidence about real-world phenomena through the senses
D) Verifying the assumptions on which the study was based
9. A hallmark of the scientific method is that it is:
A) Rigorous
B) Holistic
C) Systematic
D) Flexible
A+ Page 2
, 10. Which of the following limits the power of the scientific method to answer questions about human
life?
A) The necessity of departing from traditional beliefs
B) The difficulty of accurately measuring complex human traits
C) The difficulty of gaining the cooperation of humans as study participants
D) The shortage of theories about human behavior
11. The classic scientific method has its intellectual roots in:
A) Positivism
B) Determinism
C) Constructivism
D) Empiricism
12. One of the criticisms of the scientific method is that it is overly:
A) Logical
B) Deterministic
C) Empirical
D) Reductionist
13. Naturalistic qualitative research typically:
A) Involves deductive processes
B) Attempts to control the research context to better understand the phenomenon being studied
C) Involves gathering narrative, subjective materials
D) Focuses on the idiosyncrasies of those being studied
14. Quantitative and qualitative research do not share which of the following features?
A) A desire to understand the true state of human affairs
B) Roots in the 19th-century thought of such philosophers as Newton and Locke
C) A reliance on external evidence collected through the senses
D) Utility to the nursing profession
A+ Page 3
, 15. A descriptive question that a qualitative researcher might ask is:
A) What are the dimensions of this phenomenon?
B) What is the average intensity of this phenomenon?
C) How frequently does this phenomenon occur?
D) What is the average duration of this phenomenon?
16. A researcher wants to investigate the effect of patients' body position on blood pressure. The study
would most likely be:
A) Qualitative
B) Quantitative
C) Either quantitative or qualitative (researcher preference)
D) Insufficient information to determine
17. A researcher wants to study the process by which people make decisions about seeking treatment
for infertility. The researcher's paradigmatic orientation most likely is:
A) Positivism
B) Determinism
C) Empiricism
D) Naturalism
18. A researcher is studying the effect of massage on the alleviation of pain in cancer patients. The
study would be described as:
A) Descriptive
B) Exploratory
C) Applied
D) Basic
19. Which of the following EBP-related purposes would not be addressed through cause-probing
research?
A) Intervention/treatment
A+ Page 4
