Conference Proceedings - School of Nursing & Midwifery - Trinity ...

School of Nursing & Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin: 8 th Annual Interdisciplinary Research Conference
Transforming Healthcare Through Research, Education & Technology: 7 th – 9 th November 2007
Conference Proceedings
Methodology
The study employed a comparative descriptive survey methodology.
Using a sample size calculator set at 5% level of error and 95%
level of confidence, a sample size of 150 nurses was randomly
drawn from a population of 250. The population for the study from
which the sample was drawn consisted of all Registered Nurses
working in acute clinical areas. The sample included full-time and
part-time Registered Nurses employed on a permanent basis in the
three acute hospitals in one health board, the formerly known
Midland Health Board region (HSE Dublin/Mid-Leinster). Clinical
Nurse Managers 1 and 2 were included as their roles involve
elements of clinical practice in addition to their management roles
and to enable the exploration of relationships between the different
grades of nurses and their attitudes towards role extension and
expansion. Registered nurses employed on a temporary basis or by
agencies were excluded due to the variability in their clinical areas
of practice.
Permission to conduct the research was obtained and granted from
the Directors of Nursing of all three sites. Consent from nurses to
participate in the study was by virtue of completion and return of
the questionnaire. The right to privacy was observed through
anonymity and confidentiality of participants of the study.
The constructs or variables that were observed and measured in the
proposed study were nurses’ attitudes, the Scope of Professional
Practice, role extension and role expansion. The study employed a
questionnaire developed by Magennis et al (1999) for a dissertation
on “the attitudes of practicing nurses to role expansion and role
extension.” Permission to replicate the study was obtained and
granted by the supervisor of the dissertation, Dr. Slevin.
The questionnaire contained thirty items. The first section consisted
of five dichotomous ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions developed to identify
attitudes towards the Scope of Professional Practice. The second
section consisted of ten items with degrees of agreement or
disagreement on role extension followed by third section with eight
items related to attitudes towards the expanded role. The final
section of the questionnaire consisted of seven question on
biographic data.
Data were collected using a self-administered survey questionnaire
distributed by post. From a total of 150 posted, 88 completed
questionnaires were returned giving an overall response rate of
58.7%. The low response rate, even though common, is slightly
below the recommended 60%, resulting in a high risk of response
bias (Polit and Hungler 1999).
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