1. Which of the following is a population?
A) Four hundred nurses selected from a membership roster of the American Nurses'
Association
B) All patients with COVID-19 infections hospitalized in intensive care units in
California in 2021
C) Caregivers recruited into a study because they are car...
1. Which of the following is a population?
A) Four hundred nurses selected from a membership roster of the American Nurses'
Association
B) All patients with COVID-19 infections hospitalized in intensive care units in
California in 2021
C) Caregivers recruited into a study because they are caring for patients with
Parkinson's disease
D) Study participants diagnosed with COPD who currently smoke - ANS Ans: B
Feedback:
All patients with COVID-19 infections who were hospitalized in intensive care units
in California in 2021 is a population²the entire group of interest. The other
answers are samples, not populations.
2. A nurse researcher identified her accessible population as women with high-risk
pregnancies in the state of New York. Which group might researcher's target
population?
A) All pregnant women in the state of New York
B) All women with high-risk pregnancies in the United States
C) All women with high-risk pregnancies in the city of Albany, New York
D) All pregnant women in the northeastern United States - ANS Ans: B
Feedback:
The accessible population is the aggregate of cases that conform to designated
criteria and that are accessible²in this case, women with high-risk pregnancies in
the state of New York. The target population is a broader group meeting the same
eligibility criteria²the aggregate of cases about which the researcher would like to
generalize the findings. In this case, the broader group would be women with high risk
pregnancies in the United States. Women who do not have high-risk
pregnancies would not meet the criterion for being in the study. Women with high risk
pregnancies in a specific city (Albany) are not a broader group than those in
the entire state.
3. A nurse researcher is studying fear of falling in community-dwelling elders.
Which would be a reasonable exclusion criterion?
A) People age 65 years or younger
B) People who live in their own homes
C) People who have periods of dizziness
,D) People who are married - ANS Ans: A
Feedback:
The study is focused on community-dwelling elders, and so it would be important to
exclude people below a certain age limit (here, age 65 years). The researcher is
thus defining "elder" as someone older than 65 years. One inclusion (rather than exclusion)
criterion might be living independently in one's own home. There would
be no apparent reason to exclude married people or people who experience
dizziness (which could contribute to fear of falling).
4. In the context of a study, what is sampling?
A) Identifying a set of criteria for selecting study participants
B) Determining who is eligible to participate in a study
C) Selecting a subset of the population to represent the entire population
D) Ensuring that every element in the population has an equal chance of being
included in the study - ANS Ans: C
Feedback:
Sampling is the process of selecting a portion of an entire population. Eligibility
criteria are used to define population characteristics, and the application of those
criteria is used to identify people who could participate in a study. Some sampling
strategies (probability sampling) ensure that every element in the population has a
chance to be sampled, but most strategies used by nurse researchers do not.
5. If a population was defined as military veterans in Texas, an element would be:
A) An Army veteran hospitalized in Houston
B) All residents of Texas
C) Texans who are military veterans
D) A soldier currently serving in the Army - ANS Ans: A
Feedback:
An element is the basic unit in the population²in this case, a person who previously
served in the army and is hospitalized in a city in Texas, Houston. A soldier
currently in the Army would not meet the criterion stipulated for the population²
i.e., not a veteran. "All residents of Texas" is neither an element (a basic population unit) and is
missing the eligibility criterion of being a military veteran. "Texans who are military veterans" is a
restatement of the population and is not an element.
6. What is sampling bias in quantitative studies?
A) Lack of variability in the population on the attribute of interest
B) Sample selection using probability sampling methods
C) The margin of error in the data obtained from samples
D) Systematic overrepresentation or underrepresentation of a key attribute vis-à-vis the
population - ANS Ans: D
Feedback:
Sampling bias is the systematic overrepresentation or underrepresentation of some
segment of the population. Sampling bias is unrelated to how varied
, (heterogeneous) the population is and is not the margin of error in data from a
sample. Probability sampling (in which elements are selected by random methods)
is not as susceptible to sampling bias as nonprobability methods.
7. In quantitative studies, what is a key criterion for evaluating sample quality?
A) How representative the sample is of the population
B) How easy it is to recruit sample members
C) How convenient it is to the researchers
D) How ethically sound the recruitment strategy is - ANS Ans: A
Feedback:
A key consideration in assessing the quality of a sample in a quantitative study is
its representativeness of the population; another is the size of the sample. Ease of
recruitment, convenience, and ethical appropriateness are important factors in a
sampling strategy, but they do not contribute to the quality of the sample itself.
8. A nurse researcher is studying medication compliance in hypertensive patients.
Among those recruited to participate in the study, 50% of the women and 20% of
the men agreed to participate. This situation is likely to lead to:
A) revised eligibility criteria.
B) a power analysis.
C) a revised definition of the target population.
D) sampling bias. - ANS Ans: D
Feedback:
Sampling bias is the systematic overrepresentation or underrepresentation of a
population segment on a characteristic relevant to the research question. In this
case, it appears that men will be systematically underrepresented, and a person's
gender might play a role in medication compliance. The situation described would
not lead to revisions of the eligibility criteria or in how the target population is
defined. A power analysis is used to identify sample size needs, not to address
imbalances in the sample.
9. Which statement about sampling is true?
A) The most basic units of a population are referred to as strata.
B) Strata are a means of equating the accessible population with the target
population.
C) In a population of geriatric patients, those with and without a diagnosis of
dementia would comprise two strata.
D) The use of strata in a sampling strategy can reduce the representativeness of
the sample. - ANS Ans: C
Feedback:
Strata are subpopulations, such as older patients with and without dementia. The
Use of strata in sampling can improve (not reduce) the sample's
representativeness. The most basic unit of a population is not called a stratum²it is
called an element. Strata have no role in equating accessible and target
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