Question

The nurse recognizes that there has been an increase in the number of urinary tract infections on one unit of the rehabilitation facility. He heard about a new type of peri-care bath wipes. The nurse would like to conduct a study to see if the new peri-care wipes decrease the incidence of cystitis.

1. What are the independent and dependent variables in the study?

2. Define and list some extraneous variables in this study.

3. What is the difference between random selection and random assignment? What is the benefit of each?

4. For this study, how might the nurse ensure randomization of the participants to the experimental or control groups?

Answer 1

• Independent variables are those whose variation isn't dependent on another variable and is thus independent. In this case it is the peri-care wipes. Dependent variable on the other hand is one whose variation is dependent on another variable. In this case it is cystitis.

• Extraneous variables are those which aren't part of the study but still affect the dependent variable. In this case extraneous variables can be medications the patients are on, presence of other diseases, antibiotics given,physical environment in the inpatient department.

• Random selection can be defined as the way the study participants are selected from the population for the study inclusion.Random assignment on the other hand is how in an experimental design the participants are assigned either in a treatment or control group by random procedure.

• In the above case the nurse can ensure randomization of the participants either in the treatment or controlled group by using the random assignment method so that they are randomly assigned in groups. Also the person conducting the actual study can be someone else and not the nurse.