Sampling for a longitudinal study of the careers of nurses qualifying from the English pre‐registration Project 2000 diploma course

Abstract

This paper describes the processes involved in selecting a sample, from the eight English regional health authorities, of nurse qualifiers from all four branches of the Project 2000 pre-registration diploma course, for a longitudinal study of nurses' careers. A simple random sample was not feasible since accurate information about the population could not be obtained and the study design involved recruiting participants by personal visit. A multi-stage approach was therefore adopted in which 'college of nursing' was taken as the primary sampling unit. Sampling was further complicated by the fact that adult branch students could generally only be visited in larger groups than was ideal. Information obtained during pilot work about the accuracy of data about the population, course completion rates and the proportion of students who were likely to agree to participate was used to calculate required sampling fractions. The final sample was therefore a function of this information and the practicalities of recruiting nurses into the study.

Job satisfaction in nursing: validation of a new instrument for the UK

“…The scale that was generated was used in a longitudinal study of adult‐branch nurse qualifiers from the preregistration diploma course in 1998 and who were surveyed at qualification, then at 6 months, 18 months and 3 years postqualification. The sampling design had two stages: half of all colleges were randomly selected from each of the eight English health regions with further sub‐sampling in colleges with multiple or multi‐site intakes (Marsland & Murrells 2000). All nurse qualifiers in the sample were recruited to the study through a personal visit of the researchers during their final year of preregistration study.…”

Assessing competency in nursing: a comparison of nurses prepared through degree and diploma programmes

“…The diplomate sample comprised, firstly, of a cohort that qualified in 1998 from an on-going longitudinal study of diplomate careers and, secondly, two new cohorts of qualifiers from 1999 and 2000. Details of the sample design used to select the 1998 cohort are found in Marsland and Murrells (2000). The sampling frames for the two new cohorts were compiled via communication with universities.…”

Continuing education opportunities for recently qualified mental health diplomates

“…Further information about all aspects of research design and data analysis is available in Robinson et al . (1998, 1999) and Marsland & Murrells (2000).…”