Help with Research Assignment

[lorilr01]

I am a Jr. Nursing student and need help with an assignment. My partner and myself are studying the effects of infant massage on infants in the NICU. We are grading the infants from 1-5 based on exhibited signs of stress before the massage, then afterwards.

The part we are having trouble with centers around how to "statistically" analyze our findings. What statistical test do we choose and how do we know which ones are appropriate?

HELP ME....PLEASE

[nicola]

In doing your survey of previous studies you may run across something that helps.

I know this is somewhat off your topic, but when I did my NICU rotation, I learned about the "postive butt sign." An infant with buttocks in the air was in better shape than an infant laying flat on the tummy. At first I wasn't so sure, but they had one little boy who's butt sign went from positive (sticking right up there!) to negative. He crashed hard the next day! THe day before, when he exhibited the change in butt sign they tried to troubleshoot and see if anything had changed. It turned out he was incubating an infection that didn't become apparant until the next day. Makes you wonder...