ALL of us - in all our spare time - need to be tracking data. This is
fast becoming an important survival skill, particularly to justifying
our existence, not to mention helping further knowledge. Don't rely on
someone else to write or structure your data collection points and/or
computer program. It is not that difficult to do yourself.

Really.

Start collecting data now while learning how to analyze it. Oftentimes,
researchers will hire a satistician rather than analyzing it themselves
anyway. Your hospital may have a statistician available, esp. if a
teaching hospital. (But you need to know how to talk to your stats
person, just like we need to know enough about the engine in our car to
talk to the mechanic.)

Call around locally to find an introduction to Statistics course, or
better yet, take a class by correspondance or distance learning. For
example (from a quick Web search - no endorsement implied) I found these
3 courses that can be taken anywhere, anytime, by anyone (and there are
many more):

http://web.indstate.edu/indstdy/home.html
0174 MATH 241 3.0 semester hours E. Zwick
Principles of Statistics. A course for non-mathematics majors and
minors. Graphical and numerical representation of data, probability,
sampling, statistical inference, correlation, and regression.
Prerequisite: Math 111 or equivalent.

http://www.cel.cmich.edu/degrees/   Under Health Promotion, the course
HPR 544 Biostatistics (3) "Computation of vital statistic rates and
other statistical methods applicable to problems in public health."

http://ias.champlain.edu/success/dl2.htm
MTH 300-80A Statistics, Into. to (12 weeks)

Meanwhile, does your work have an integrated suites software such as MS
Office Pro? (This is not an endorsement, but the majority of the
healthcare field in this country are more likely to use MS Office than
not.) You need the Professional version, incidentally, to obtain the
database program - in this case Access. Take the time to learn how to
use it - if your employer doesn't offer courses (and often they do for
their secretarial staff, so you just may not have heard about it in
nursing), there are extension courses, teach-yourself books, etc - and
then create your own database on the computer at work; track the data
yourself.

I am familiar with (and teach nurses) Access in a Nursing Informatics
lab course. In Access you can easily design a form whereby any personnel
- unit clerk, LVNs, volunteers, anyone - can enter your data without
messing up the program design. Then, the information can be "embedded"
in the spreadsheet program, in this case Excel, for statistical analysis
and graph creation, etc. "Embedded" means you do not have to re-enter
the data - the software will look for it and use it (import it) directly
from Access. Most people don't know that Excel can do rather extensive
statistical analysis beyond the basics; you do not need a second stats
program. To top it off, the data can be further embedded in Word to
write your paper for publication in JAMA, and also embed it in Power
Point to create & show slides at the next Morbidity & Mortality rounds
and at next year's ILCA conference. ;-)  Of course, if you really take
off with research, you may want to later on purchase and learn "real"
stats programs - SAS, SPSS, and SYSTAT are commonly used in healthcare.
But the point I'm trying to make is that one does NOT need anything more
than a personal computer and a basic integrated suites program to do
very credible research. This much, we all can do. (Plus, you can track
your own client data, invoice breast pumps, create handouts/assessment
forms, create/merge/send letters to physicians and even keep your home
budget! Why not do research, too?)

The price of the software (Office Pro runs around $500 I think) would be
tax deductible as a business expense (check with the usual authorities).
If you are a teacher or a student, most software is available at an
academic price of significant savings. You usually have to buy it
through a school computer store or bookstore (at my university, MS
Office Pro was $198 for instance). MS provides great technical support;
I have called them in the middle of the night (it isn't free but I was
desperate to have my question answered) to find out how to do something
in Access. Again, this is not an endorsement, but this is what I am
familiar with - I know Corel Suite is similar in all ways. Again, check
to see what is being used where you work - that should dictate which
specific program you use.

Go for it!!

(Personal plug: I am willing to present some of these skills in
abbreviated workshop form at conferences - do you think there would be
interest?)

Katharine West, BSN, MPH
Sherman Oaks, CA