Sampling Theory Application in Nursing Research

Applying Generalizability in Nursing Research

Describe sampling theory and provide examples to illustrate your definition. Discuss generalizability as it applies to nursing research. 

In social sciences, sampling is a method used to pick a subset to represent the whole population. Sampling theory is commonly criticized for drawing conclusions about a larger population-based on observations of a relatively small (and sometimes unrepresentative) subset of the population.

In the example, of the prevalence of unhealthy eating behavior, the difficulty of ensuring that the sampled sample is representative of the larger population may be obvious in nursing research.

The generalizability of conclusions made from samples to large populations is the extension of research findings or conclusions about a sample to the larger population.

In the healthcare field, care plans are sometimes written for patients based on a general theory of how patients will respond to a medication or treatment, but some institutions are now advocating for a different approach: customizing care plans for individual patients.