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Nursing

Primary Research

What is a primary source for nursing research?

  • A first-hand report of an original study, experiment, or event
  • Written by the person(s) who conducted the study/experiment or witnessed the event
  • Can be quantitative or qualitative in nature

When a nurse researcher interviews patients about their health behaviors, a pharmaceutical company conducts clinical trials on a new drug, or a hospital surveys its nursing staff, they are creating primary information.

An original research article should consist of the following headings: Structured abstract, introduction, methods, results, and discussion (IMRAD) and maybe Randomized Control Trial (RCT), Controlled Clinical Trial (CCT), Experiment, Survey, and Case-Control or Cohort Study.

In CINAHL, like other EBSCO databases, you can filter your results by scrolling down to the Limit Your Results section of the Advanced Search screen. There is no PRIMARY article filter but within CINAHL there are multiple filters you can use:

  • RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIALS CHECKBOX: This will filter your results to randomized controlled trials research articles only.
  • RESEARCH ARTICLE CHECKBOX: This will filter your results for research articles, both quantitative and qualitative. However, BOTH primary AND secondary research articles will be retrieved, so you will need to examine your results carefully.
  • PUBLICATION TYPE: Try Clinical Trial, Randomized Controlled Trial, or another publication type appropriate for the studies you need.
  • CLINICAL QUERIES: Choose the appropriate focus area for your question (Therapy, Prognosis, Review, Qualitative, or Causation) and desired scope (High Sensitivity=more articles/some less relevant, High Specificity=fewer articles/higher relevance, or Best Balance). Again, BOTH primary AND secondary research articles will be retrieved, so you will need to examine your results carefully.

Try using each of these options separately. These will work with keyword searches as well as subject searches. If you are looking for a very specific type of study, try including the study type as a keyword instead of using limiters.

 

In Medline (EBSCO) there are a couple of recommended filters from the Limit Your Results section:

  • PUBLICATION TYPE: Try Clinical Trial, Controlled Clinical Trial, Randomized Controlled Trial, or another publication type appropriate for the studies you need.
  • CLINICAL QUERIES: Choose the appropriate focus area for your question (Therapy, Diagnosis, Prognosis, Reveiws, Clinical Prediction Guides Qualitative, Causation, Costs or Economics) and desired scope (High Sensitivity=more articles/some less relevant, High Specificity=fewer articles/higher relevance, or Best Balance). Again, BOTH primary AND secondary research articles will be retrieved, so you will need to examine your results carefully.

Try using these options separately. These will work with keyword searches as well as subject searches. If you are looking for a very specific type of study, try including the study type as a keyword instead of using limiters.

Medline @ NIC

In PubMed filter your results by using the options on the left sidebar. Click on one or more filters to include those attributes. There is no filter for PRIMARY articles but you can filter your results by article type.

ARTICLE TYPES: Try Clinical Trial, Randomized Controlled Trial, or another type of study appropriate for your needs. If you do not see the type of article you need click on the Customize link to see more options and add them as a category.

PubMed @ NIC

Included in The Cochrane Library is The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. This database contains citations and abstracts for controlled trials.

After running your search, click on the "TRIALS" button in the left sidebar. This will display any controlled trials retrieved from the database.

If you identify any articles you would like to retrieve, you will probably need to record the journal information and look for the issue (if we have a subscription) through the NIC Library's Journal Search or check in Google Scholar @ NIC to see if we have access.

Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials @ NIC

The TRIP Database is a UK-based meta-search engine for clinical evidence. After typing in your search, you may apply filters from the right sidebar. TRIP does have a filter for PRIMARY RESEARCH and KEY PRIMARY RESEARCH AND CONTROL TRIALS.

Please note that this is an open-access (free) database, and the links to the articles will take you to PubMed records and not the actual articles themselves; therefore, if you identify any articles you would like to retrieve, you may need to record the citation information and search the NIC Library or check in Google Scholar @ NIC to see if we have access.

Search TRIP

Tips For Identifying Primary Research

Within journals you will find a range of articles, including research, news, expert opinion and book reviews. Although all of these can be useful, you will need to know how to identify primary research.

Primary Research (original research) articles report on and share new research findings. Examples include: focus groups, interviews, surveys, observations, experiments.

Secondary Research (desk research) articles evaluate and synthesize existing primary research. Examples include: literature reviews, systematic reviews, meta-analyses.

In journal articles, in the title or abstract (summary of the article):

Look for words that describe research and the research process undertaken:

e.g. research, qualitative research, quantitative research, study, experiment, survey, questionnaire etc.

When reading articles some tips to identify primary research:

Look for words / subheadings / sections of the article which describe the research process including:

  • Methodology / method of how the research was carried out
  • Details about how the sample size and how the sample was obtained (how were the partiicpants selected?)
  • Possibly ethics and issues around bias, confidentiality etc.
  • Details about the data collection (were participants interviewed? were blood samples taken?)
  • A literature review will set the research in context of existing knowledge and understanding (the literature review will not be the focus of the article).
  • An analysis of the results (this could be in the form of tables, graphs,charts, quotes, transcripts etc. It will depend on the research method(s) used
  • Conclusions and suggestions for practice or future research

Various research methods can be used. The main types are Qualitative and Quantitative.

Quantitative vs Qualitative

Quantitative research aims to measure or quantify the subject of the study. Data collection will often be numerical. The sample size in quantitative research tends to be large and there may be statistical analysis of the data collected. 

Here is an example of a quantitative research journal article.

YouTube Video: How to find quantitative research in CINAHL https://youtu.be/ynrb7jDcgp0

Qualitative research aims to explore meaning and understanding of what is being studied through looking at experiences. Qualitative research records words rather than numbers and is often descriptive in nature.  

Here is an example of a qualitative research journal article.

 

Review Chart

Click here to view a reference chart outlining the differences between qualitative and quantitative research.