Statistics Curriculum Concern

I had to take statistics for my BSN. Took it from a math instructor at the local community college. (my BSN program was great about accepting as many credits as it was able from the CC) Nearly killed me. Only class that brought me to tears. Come to think of it nearly killed my family, too. Never use it. Not sure why it was required.

I'm an "independent scholar" according to the NAS. Researchers are supposed to get in touch with their ontological and epistemological realities. Blargh. I hope stats hasn't turned into one of those touchy-feely classes. Math. Give me math.

The things I studied back in the 1980's, scientific method, analysis, applications - I'm not observing much of that in the literature now that we're approaching 2008. I'm seeing this: "Data do not provide a window on reality. Rather the 'discovered' reality arises from the interactive process and its temporal, cultural, and structural contexts"

I will NEVER look at a statistic in the newspaper again the same. Stats can be skewed in so many different directions - the direction the researcher wants. steph

:yeahthat:

I'm just a little concerned about what I'll be encountering if I persue the BSN, and take "nursing statistics". I can't yell "skewed data" if data is merely someone's opinion. I think constructed reality = opinion?

Reference: Mills, J., Bonner, A., & Francis, K. (2006). The development of constructivist grounded theory. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 5(1), Article 3. Retrieved 11/27/07 from http://www.ualberta.ca/~iiqm/backissues/5_1/pdf/mills.pdf

Mark Twain said "There are lies, there are d**n lies, and there are statistics." It is important for nurses to know how stats can be massaged. It is also important to be able to evaluate the statistical methods when reading the professional literature.

My potential BSN program requires "nursing statistics" or students can take a statistics course offered by the sociology department.

Is/was statistics a part of your curriculum? If so, is/was the statistics instructor from a department other than mathematics?

Any opinions/observations about statistics in general?

Stats was required for my BSN program too. I took it with anatomy and an GE art class. I SUCK at math but found it to be interesting. I worked my tail off for the B I got in the class. Most practical math you will ever use in my opinion (others on here seem to disagree). I took a basic Stats class so my teacher was a math teacher and really smart too. I would go to class early so I could as questions to understand stuff better. I hear that people that are good at math hate stats and people that are good at English (me) enjoy it compared to algebra and other math. It was the first math class that I did not need a tutor.

Most stats classes focus on the stats themselves ... what they mean ... how they are used in research ... etc. The people who teach stats are rarely, if ever, the philosophical or "touch-feely" types.

I’m confused.

If there is a significant difference between how stats is taught to nursing students and how stats is used by nursing researchers, then … isn’t that a problem?

Maybe I’m reading the wrong publications (I’m finding stuff on the Web – maybe worth what I’m paying for it)

My opinion is that philosophical types write the most useful qualitative research, and “touchy-feely” types write the least useful. I’m biased, because I know which majors score highest on the GRE. I regret using “touchy-feely” to mean education, sociology, psych types. Like HeartsOpenWide I’m good at English, and I turned out good at statistics, but that was 20 years ago. Thank you all for your reassurance.

Is there a “Nursing as a second language” course out there somewhere? :)

Reference: http://ace.acadiau.ca/arts/phil/why_phil/scores.htm

My ADN program did not require statistics, but it is required if you want to transfer to a BSN program.

Honestly, I thought it was a relatively easy math class... much easier than college algebra.