barriers Factors that limit or prevent change
basic research Research to gain knowledge for
the sake of gaining knowledge; bench research
behavioral inventory for professionalism A
measure of education and training, skill, ethics,
professional organization, and service
Belmont Report A report outlining three major
principles (respect for persons, beneficence, and
justice) foundational for the conduct of ethical
research with human subjects
benchmarking Comparison of organizational
outcome data to other organizations or national
databases
beneficence The principle of doing good
between-groups design Study design where two
groups of subjects can be compared
bias When extraneous variables influence the
relationship between the independent and depen-
dent variables
bimodal A data set with two modes
bivariate analysis The use of statistics to
describe the relationship between two variables
Boolean operators Words, such as and, or, or
not, that specify the relationship between search
terms
bracketing A strategy used by qualitative
researchers to set aside personal interpretations
to avoid bias
call for abstracts Notices publicizing the desire
for posters or presentations at conferences
call number Unique identification number
assigned to items in a library by subject and
author name
career development Experience and education
that contribute to one’s professional growth
care-related outcomes A category of outcomes
that measures the effect of nursing interventions
case-control studies A type of retrospective
study in which researchers begin with a group
of people who already have the disease; stud-
ies that compare two groups: those who have a
specific condition and those who do not have the
condition
case reports or series Epidemiologic reports
used to describe rare diseases or outcomes
case studies A description of a single or novel
event; a unique methodology used in qualitative
research that may also be considered a design or
strategy for data collection
categorical data The lowest level of measure-
ment whereby data are categorized simply into
groups; nominal data
causal relationship When one variable deter-
mines the presence or change in another variable
causality The relationship between a cause and
its effect
change A process that creates an alteration in a
person or environment
change agent Individual who leads or champi-
ons change
change phases model An eight-phase process to
describe organizational change
Chi square A common statistic used to analyze
nominal and ordinal data to find differences be-
tween groups
CINAHL Cumulative Index to Nursing and
Allied Health Literature; database for nursing and
health-related literature
citation chasing Using a reference list to identify
sources of evidence
clinical practice guidelines Recommendations
based on evidence that serve as useful tools to
direct clinical practice
cluster sampling Random sampling method of
selecting elements from larger to smaller subsets
of an accessible population; multistaging sampling
coding Assignment of labels to each line of
transcript in qualitative analysis
coefficient of variation A percentage used to
compare standard deviations when the units of
measure are different or when the means of the
distributions being compared are far apartGLOSSARY 515