Reference no: EM132980552 , Length: word count: 300

Qualitative and quantitative research methods are both important research studies. Each of these research designs can provide us with insights that are generally not possible to be found by the other one. Therefore, providing both qualitative and quantitative design features in a research method allows the researcher or researchers to investigate one of more variables that would be impossible unless using a mixed research methodology (Tariq & Woodman, 2016). For example, a quantitative research study would allow us to study a causal relationship through a controlled experiment where the manipulation of the independent variable causes a change in the dependent variable. However, that would not allow us the opportunity to do an exploratory study. Exploratory studies are almost always qualitative in nature (Hallingberg et al., 2018). Therefore, a mixed method research design would not only allow for an exploratory study, but also determine causal relationship. This is very important for nursing studies where it can be used to identify various aspects of patient care and then understand how they impact the overall level of care provided. On the other hand, mixed methodology can be extremely cumbersome and not always feasible. Often it can require too much resources and produce too much data, many of which may be redundant (Tariq & Woodman, 2016). This means that it would be logistically much more simple for a nursing study to stick to one of the two research methodologies instead of attempting to create a mixed research methodology. That way, while it may not allow the researcher to study everything he or she wanted, it would at least make it possible for the researcher to conduct the research.

Using 200-300 words APA format with at least two references to support this discussion.

Discussion 1: The theoretical foundations of qualitative and quantitative methods are very different, but many researchers believe both methods should be used in the research study to increase validity and reliability. What advantages or disadvantages do you see in using both types of methods in a nursing study? Support your answer with current evidence-based literature.