Well, the dreaded semester has begun: Intro to the Thesis Project.
I'm early in the stages here and was hoping to bounce off some ideas related to my possible thesis topic.
First, I am most likely headed into the qualitative direction. Why? Well for starters, math was not my strong suit and secondly, it seems the nature of my problem statements all seem to have a qualitative approach.
Second, I'm struggling on whether or not I should peform a lit review before deciding on a final problem statement. I've read that sometimes that contributes to bias, especially in a qualitative design.
Here's what I was thinking of, so far. If anyone has any experience in these topic areas or, knows that there already is an abundance of research out there related to it, I'd like to hear it.
First one: The nature/meaning of relapse in recovering alcoholics. This hits close to home for me because of my father, so the problem itself is quite interesting. I'd like to do a qualitative design with this one to determine any patterns of responses, possibly leading to a theory.
Second one: Minority groups perception of research involvement. This thought came to me because, as a research nurse, I observe barriers between the African Americans I am to enroll in my study and myself. There seems to be a mistrust. I'd like to explore that further. Again, qualitative design.
Third one: Arresting Pre Term Labor: The Nurse's Influence on Preventing Readmission. PTL is very near and dear to me clinically, as this was my area of expertise, if you will, in L&D. This problem seems to lend itself towards quantitative, but I'm not so sure. In this problem I'd like to explore how adequately educated and trained nurses can assist patients in managing their PTL (when discharged to home on oral terbutaline, for example) so that readmissions are less likely to occur once terb has been DC'd.
