title: Secondary Data Analysis as an Efficient and Effective Approach to Nursing Research.
abstract: Meeting the expectation for scholarly productivity can be challenging for nursing faculty, especially in the absence of grant or other funding. Secondary data analysis is one strategy to address this challenge. The use of existing data to test new hypotheses or answer new research questions has several advantages. It typically takes less time and resources, is low risk to participants, and allows access to large data sets and longitudinal data. Despite these advantages, limitations do exist, including a lack of knowledge of the existence of rich data sets and how to obtain and evaluate the contents, insufficient or outdated data, and lack of funds to hire staff to assist with the work. Exemplars of secondary data analysis using public government and private data sets are presented along with the skills needed to conduct this type of analysis. Secondary data analysis is an efficient and effective approach to conducting nursing research.
authors: Hope College, Holland, MI, USA dunns@hope.edu.
authors: Susan L
authors: SL
authors: Dunn
authors: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA.
authors: Cynthia
authors: C
authors: Arslanian-Engoren
authors: Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA.
authors: Tracy
authors: T
authors: DeKoekkoek
authors: University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, USA.
authors: Rosemary
authors: R
authors: Jadack
authors: University of Illinois at Chicago, USA.
authors: Linda D
authors: LD
authors: Scott
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D015399:Nursing Research / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D012107:Research Design / Q000639:trends*; D013223:Statistics as Topic / Q000379:methods*
keywords: data sets; nursing research; scholarship; secondary data analysis