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Using vignettes to collect data for nursing research studies: how valid are the findings?
Author(s) -
GOULD DINAH
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of clinical nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.94
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1365-2702
pISSN - 0962-1067
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2702.1996.tb00253.x
Subject(s) - external validity , psychology , reliability (semiconductor) , data collection , validity , nursing research , internal validity , social psychology , applied psychology , nursing , medicine , psychometrics , clinical psychology , sociology , social science , power (physics) , physics , quantum mechanics , pathology
Summary• Vignettes are simulations of real events which can be used in research studies to elicit subjects' knowledge, attitudes or opinions according to how they state they would behave in the hypothetical situation depicted. • Advantages associated with the use of vignettes as research tools include: the ability to collect information simultaneously from large numbers of subjects, to manipulate a number of variables at once in a manner that would not be possible in observation studies, absence of observer effect and avoidance of the ethical dilemmas commonly encountered during observation. • Difficulties include problems establishing reliability and validity, especially external validity. • This paper considers the advantages and disadvantages associated with the use of vignettes as data collection tools, concluding with a check‐list to help critique vignettes studies.