Reflecting on Statistics in Your Profession

Reflecting on Statistics in Your Profession

Response Guidelines RH

Provide your thoughts on the strengths noted to the post below, comparing their perspectives to yours. Ask any question that will help you better understand their perspectives and move the discussion forward.

Your response must be a minimum of 200 words in length. Include at least two APA-formatted citation (in-text, as well as the full reference). The citation may be from course textbooks, assigned readings, or an outside source

Topic of discussion post

Reflecting on in Your Profession

Discussion response

Statistics is really not my favorite. I have performed poorly in all three of my previous statistic courses and I have to say that the formulas and concepts are still a mystery to me. This statement aside, I can also state that as a , I am forced to deal with statistics every day in my profession as I deal with the management of people and processes. According to Heavey (2015) statistics is the practice of testing if your observations match your expectations. In nursing, we do this from the staff level all the way to the administration level. Frontline, this would be using data trends, such as blood pressure or temperature, to tell us if patient symptoms match current presentation. Two current uses I have for statistics at the director level are calculating and evaluating patient satisfaction and falls rates for the units in which I oversee.

Nominal data demonstrates a difference between answers only (Heavey, 2015). In nursing, nominal data can be demonstrated by differentiating between a patient’s gender as female or male on an admission assessment (Heavey, 2015). Ordinal data must be exhaustive, exclusive, and rank ordered (Heavey, 2015). Ordinal data in nursing would include having a patient rate his pain low, medium or high. Interval data is exhaustive, exclusive, rank ordered, and has numerically equal intervals (Heavey, 2015). This data would include vital sign or heart rhythm trending. Finally, ratio data is exhaustive, exclusive, rank ordered with equal intervals, and has missing variables (Heavey, 2015). An example would be absent heart rhythms.

I have reviewed the course syllabus and I am hoping that this course helps me understand not only how to use the SPSS software, but also have a deeper understanding of statistical concepts in general. If I can grasp the concepts I hope that I will understand why a specific test was used in the research as opposed to others.

Heavey, E. (2015). Statistics for nursing: A practical approach (2^nd ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett.

………………….Answer preview………………………

Honestly, the personal reflections which have presented in the post clearly demonstrate the true picture of the various issues faced by many students regarding statistics courses. For instance, it was a factual comment that indeed formulas and concepts have proved to challenge to the majority of the students………………..

APA

357 words

Get instant access to the full solution from  by clicking the purchase button below