Comment from post 2 | Nursing homework help
The distinction between experimental and non-experimental design is critical in healthcare research. Experimental design is considered the gold standard in research as it provides the greatest amount of control to examine causality. The pre-test, post-test design with experimental groups is a commonly used experimental design in healthcare studies. This design helps reduce threats to design validity and increases control over the intervention, setting, measurement, and extraneous variables. On the other hand, non-experimental design is weaker in terms of internal validity or causal assessment. One of the simplest forms of non-experimental design is a one-shot survey, which is commonly used for descriptive research.
It is important to note that both experimental and non-experimental designs have their own strengths and weaknesses, and the choice of design depends on the research question and the goals of the study. Researchers should consider the trade-offs between internal validity, external validity, and practicality when choosing between experimental and non-experimental design.
Reference: Grove, S. K., Gray, J. R., & Burns, N. (2015). Understanding nursing research: Building an evidence-based practice (6th ed.). Elsevier.
Trochim, W. M. (2006). The research methods knowledge base (2nd ed.). Atomic Dog.