Doody's Review Service

Reviewer:	Lisa Young, PhD, RN, NI-BC (Rush University Medical Center)

Description
This book provides a comprehensive overview of nursing research, moving from the need for research in nursing practice, through the steps of the research process, to the final dissemination phases including knowledge application. The book covers most of what an everyday nurse researcher could encounter at a high level but with enough detail to understand the topic needed to conduct a rigorous research study.

Purpose
This book aims to provide a foundation of knowledge for nurses to appraise and use research in practice so they can understand research that is to be applied as evidence for nursing practice. While the main emphasis is on research and the research process, each chapter ends with the common theme that ties the chapter's content to how nurses can read, use, and create that evidence to enhance engagement in evidence-based practice (EBP). Each chapter starts with chapter objectives, which are specific and thoroughly addressed in the contents of the chapter. Headings and subheadings align with the objectives to ensure they are met. These objectives are very important, as the basis of this book stands on the authors' beliefs that research is crucial because it provides evidence for practice. Objectives are focused on knowledge, comprehension, and application of the content.

Audience
The intended audience is for all ranges of nurses in any specialty and stage of research, from novice to expert. This includes nursing students, practicing nurses, and nurse researchers. However, the content is more geared towards a nurse with at least 1-2 years of experience, or those who are considered advanced beginner, competent, or proficient using Benner's Stages of clinical competence. Although the book does not specify if its audience of nursing students are at the undergraduate or graduate level, the content appears to be better suited for a graduate level course as the level of detail may be too complex for new undergraduate nurses in their first research course. For newer practicing nurse researchers or nurses in graduate programs, this book meets the needs of its intended audience. Further, the authors are highly credible as evidenced by their research degrees and years of experience in nursing research. The primary author was a faculty member with emerita status and the second author is a nurse research science in a healthcare setting. This paired dyad brings together the academic-practice partnership to ensure research is viewed from an education and practice viewpoint.

Features
Over seven parts, this book covers a detailed overview of nursing research from creation to dissemination. There are four main sections of the book: 1) overview of research, 2) research development and process, from problem to data collection, 3) major research designs, and 4) research translation into nursing practice. The book starts with the importance of research and ethical considerations, followed by developing research questions and selecting methods. The next sections then lead into distinct types of research designs for data collection and analysis, including basic statistical tests. Finally, the book concludes with applying research evidence using aggregate literature reviews and evidence-based practice models. In addition to addressing the themes of what, how, and why to do research and the various strategies and designs to create a sound research study, the book also emphasizes the steps to critically appraise and apply research to practice. After the topic is introduced and specific content discussed, each chapter ends with how nurses can read, use, and create that chapter's content so they can apply their learnings to everyday practice. A strength of this book is the consistency throughout the chapters and the emphasis on how the content can relate to nurses' work. Nurses not only learn the content but also how to determine whether the research or evidence found in the literature is worthy to use in practice. Further, the book summarizes the steps to create each research process, so nurses are not only the users of research but also the originators of new knowledge. There are many pedagogical aids interwoven throughout the chapters that supplement learning from easily recognizable chapter objectives to key terms and definitions as they appear in context of each chapter to brief and comprehensive content summaries to real-world examples from case studies and practicing nurse researchers in the field. References listed at the end of each chapter in APA format are within the last five years with some older references that show seminal work. Further, there are checklists, critical appraisal exercises, and skill builders to supplement learning and practice the content. To illustrate the content, the book contains colorful figures, diagrams, tables, and flowcharts. Recent events from the past few years, such as COVID-19, recent technologies for measurement and data collection, and use of social media for recruiting, are used to demonstrate the relevancy of the challenges and opportunities facing nurse researchers today. The book also addresses cultural competencies and how to address situations with difficult recruitment. While the book is exemplary in many aspects with the continued theme of "reading", "using", and "creating" research evidence throughout the research process, there are some opportunities for reorganize the sections. For example, the book's language flips back and forth between "the nurse" and "the researcher", which complicates speaking from a clinical vs. administrative role. Some chapter titles, such as Chapter 2, could also be renamed to better reflect the content and, although quantitative and qualitative designs are equally discussed without any sense of bias towards one type, Part 4 (descriptive research) and 5 (studies measuring effectiveness) can be grouped under quantitative designs as some qualitative designs can be descriptive and fall under Part 4.

Assessment
This high-quality book comprehensively covers all aspects of nursing research. The content provides a solid foundation of knowledge for beginning nurse researchers to create evidence while also offering guidelines for practicing nurses to apply existing evidence to practice. Compared to other books on this subject, such as *Reading, Understanding, and Applying Nursing Research*, 7th Edition, Fain (F.A. Davis, 2025), this book delves deeper into research content suitable for more experienced researchers. This updated sixth edition is necessary to address the new changes in the field of healthcare, including technologies and research priorities that are facing our world today. Overall, I would recommend this book as a solid reference textbook for advanced beginner researchers or practicing nurses with at least 1-2 years of experience; however, the content may be too complex for nurses without any research background or undergraduate students taking their first research courses. Further, for competent or expert nurse researchers who have been in the field for 5+ years, the book may be too basic and would require specialty texts, such as statistics, quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods to get the information necessary to develop robust, more complex research studies.