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a lack of knowledge of the existence of rich data sets and how to obtain and evaluate the contents, insufficient or outdated data, and lack of funds to hire staff to assist with the work.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.

Hopelessness is predictive in the development of coronary heart disease (CHD) and can persist in patients after a CHD event, adversely affecting recovery. Hopelessness may represent a temporary response (state) or a chronic outlook (trait). Common hopelessness measures fail to differentiate state from trait hopelessness, a potentially important differentiation for treatment. The State-Trait Hopelessness Scale (STHS) was developed and pilot tested with two groups of college students (n = 39 and 190) and patients with CHD (n = 44). The instrument was then used with 520 patients, confirming reliability (Cronbach's α) for the State (.88) and Trait (.91) subscales and concurrent and predictive validity. Separate exploratory factor analyses showed two factors (hopelessness present or hopelessness absent) for the State and Trait subscales, accounting for 58.9% and 57.3% of variance, respectively. These findings support future use of the tool in clinical settings and in intervention studies focused on hopelessness.

BACKGROUND: Telephone counseling in chronic disease self-management is increasing, but has not been tested in studies that control for quality of medical care.

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Continued study of hopelessness as a psychological response to physical illness is needed, including the continued differentiation of hopelessness from depression, further analysis of the continuum of hopelessness and depression, and the differentiation of state from trait hopelessness. Research to validate this conceptualization will enhance accuracy of the diagnosis of hopelessness and testing of nursing inteventions.