American Nurses Association Fast Facts in Research

Table of Contents

Review of the ANA Fast Facts
Results Sharing
Research Design and Data Collection
Nursing Clinical Issue
References

Review of the ANA Fast Facts

The ANA Fast Facts is a great source of information that provides nursing professionals with an opportunity to obtain information regarding their job and its peculiarities. For instance, those facts that are discussed in this paper reveal details regarding the characteristics of the nursing workforce. The provided information is appropriate for the situation observed in 2014 throughout the USA. It is also significant to consider the possibility of minor deviation that is caused by the limited availability of figures for some states. Nevertheless, associated notes are included in the text of the Fast Facts for readers to be aware of this limit.

According to American Nurses Association (2014), annual RN job grows rates are 15-50%, but nurse employment needs to increase by more 20% additionally, as about a million of professionals is required. RNs usually earn about $66,000 while all APRNs receive $100,000 on the average. There are almost 3 million RNs who have at least associates degree, about 16% of them represent rural areas. The majority of nursing professionals are women older than 50 years old. Bachelors degree graduates receive the majority of job offers in 4-6 months after graduation. Representatives of the faculty are mainly over age 50, have masters degree and title of professor.

The ANA shares these results to meet several purposes that can be identified depending on the readers. For instance, students and representatives of the general public who receive access to this information can improve their understanding of the nursing profession and may be motivated to become a nurse in the future. Nursing students, in their turn, can become aware of their future opportunities. Practicing professionals can obtain evidence to urge new policy development. Politicians can realize the necessity to implement initiatives needed to increase the number of well-educated nurses.

Research Design and Data Collection

The study that is focused on the identification of characteristics of the nursing workforce is likely to be developed with the help of a quantitative research design that provides numerical data. In this very case, appropriate information is collected due to chart reviews. This very tool is selected because it allows ANA to gather information provided by state reports and to develop conclusions on its basis. As it is mentioned in the Fast Facts, the authors of this paper did not conduct any primary research to gather required information. All median means they developed are obtained from the data provided by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and Health Resources and Services Administration, etc.

In this way, the discussed data is collected with the help of a reliable and valid tool, which is significant as it ensures that this information is true to life and can be used for the further research (Reliability and validity, n.d.). Reliability can be ensured as the same conclusions will be obtained if the chart review is conducted a second time while its validity can be proved by the credibility of sources and similarity of the data provided by them.

Nursing Clinical Issue

To discuss the issue of medical errors, for instance, qualitative research will be advantageous, as it provides an opportunity to identify their frequency. In this case, data can be collected with the help of chart reviews to discuss statistics provided by credible sources. Surveys can be used to discuss the issue within particular settings (6 methods of data collection and analysis, n.d.). Data can be analyzed with the help of null hypothesis testing and measured with a direct comparison.