Nursing Research and Exploratory Studies

Exploratory Studies

    Exploratory
studies are those that investigate little known phenomena for which a library
search fails to reveal any significant examples of prior research. These kinds
of studies have been very useful in nursing research in finding out more about
nursing related problems that occur in all areas of clinical practice,
administration, and academe. 

    Typically, an exploratory study will use a small
sample and will focus on one particular area of interest or on one or two
variables. The following are the kinds of research questions that might
indicate an exploratory study in nursing: What is it like being a pregnant
teenager? What kinds of patients need home care? 

    What health promoting
behaviors do cafeteria workers engage in? What is the lived experience of military
widows?

Level I Research

    Since
the intent of exploratory research is to find out and explore unknown
phenomena, it is considered Level I research (designed to elicit descriptions
of a single topic or population) and is reflected in many of the early research
studies in nursing.

     An examination of the kind of research designs that were
used in nursing just 25 to 30 years ago reveals a predominance of exploratory
studies and includes such examples as:

(a) staff nurse behaviors and patient
care improvement (Gorham, 1962)

(b ) the self concept of children with
hemophilia and family stress ( Garlinghouse & Sharp, 1968)

(e) women’s
beliefs about breast cancer and breast self-examination (Stillman, 1977)

Exploratory Research in Nursing 

    Exploratory
studies are still very useful. They can be found in nursing journals and are
often thought of as an initial step in the description of a researchable
problem. There are many reasons for an exploratory study. 

    Such studies are
particularly useful when the investigator seeks to gather baseline information
on a particular variable, like loneliness, widowhood, anxiety, or culture.
Other researchers may wish to investigate a process about which little is
known, such as the types and meanings of caring behaviors among elderly nursing
home residents or the meaning of loss of a nursing role. 

    Exploratory research
may focus on one concept that has not been described in any great detail in the
literature, such as isolation or comfort, or researchers may initiate an
exploratory study to determine the feasibility of or need for a more extensive
study or to establish baseline information that could lay the groundwork for a
future study.

Characteristics and Benefits of Exploratory Study Design

    Regardless
of the intent of exploratory research, a flexible design that enables the
researcher to investigate and examine all aspects of a phenomenon is
encouraged. Flexibility in the design allows the researcher to explore all
kinds of emerging ideas and to change direction, if needed, as data are
collected and analysed. 

    Thus, exploratory research is not limited to one
particular paradigm but may have either a quantitative or qualitative design.
Studies that propose a hypothesis and seek to provide a measure of a phenomenon
as a description employ a quantitative design. 

    One example of an exploratory
study that used a quantitative design is described by Schaefer, Swavely ,
Rothen Berger , Hess, and Williston (1996). In this study the researchers
described the nature and frequency of sleep pattern disturbances in patients
who were recovering from coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery.

Exploratory Research As Quantitative Study Design

    Qualitative
or naturalistic designs generally explore phenomena in the natural setting in
which they occur and are commonly carried out by using semi structured or
open ended interviewing techniques and by observation. There are multiple
approaches associated with qualitative research, but they all focus on those
aspects of human behavior that are difficult to measure in numerical terms. 

    One
example of an exploratory qualitative study that used a grounded theory
approach is that by Fleury, Kimbrell, and Kruszewski (1995). In this study the
investigators sought to describe the healing experiences of 13 women who
recovered from an acute cardiac event. Verbal transcripts were analyzed to find
out more about the important issues and concerns of women during the recovery process.

Critical Overview

    Any
critique of exploratory research would include the facts that these studies are
limited in scope and focus, are not generalizable to a larger population, and
cannot be used as a basis for prediction. 

    In spite of these limitations,
however, exploratory studies are useful to uncover or discover information
about little known phenomena or single concepts, to explore the existence of
relationships between and among variables, to find out more about human
behavior in a naturalistic setting, to lay the groundwork for more systematic
testing of hypotheses, and to determine the feasibility for a more in depth
study.