MATH150 Introductory Statistics
Research Background
In today’s world, there is a new normal because of the novel coronavirus pandemic. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2020), “COVID-19 (2019 Novel Coronavirus) is a virus (more specifically, a coronavirus) identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness first detected in Wuhan, China” (p. 1). The risk associated with this virus is devastating to workers in the frontline who are keeping the population safe. Full-time and part-time nurses often are the first contact patients have while entering hospitals or testing centers. Furthermore, the availability of beds becomes critical for patients’ hospital admission. Prioritizing who gets a bed makes a difficult decision for staff at hospitals and centers. You are asked to study the relationship between full-time nurses and the number of beds at hospitals at different geographic location in the United States to understand preparedness for this crisis. The data for this study provides information from the year 2012 to compare preparedness for a pandemic like COVID-19.
Methodology
The data for this study consists of a dataset from the Dartmouth Atlas Project, an affiliate of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. The data was divided into the following variables: HRR which stands for Hospital Referral Regions, State, Resident Population in 2010, ACHB which stands for Acute Care Hospital Beds per 1,000 Residents in 2012, HRN which stands for Hospital-based Registered Nurses per 1,000 Residents in 2012, and FTE which stands for Full-Time Equivalent Hospital Employees per 1,000 Residents in 2012. The variable ACHB (Acute Care Hospital Beds) are hospital beds available for curative care with the intent to cure them from a disease or illness. These patients may be admitted for a longer period. The variable HRN (Hospital-based Registered Nurse) refers to registered nurses who are employed by the hospitals, and not by healthcare agencies outside the health system. The data consists of 308 cases. The study at hand is to investigate the relationship between western states and eastern states of the United States. Eastern states are the states east of the Mississippi River and western states are those west of the Mississippi River. The data is divided as such.
Research Questions and Hypotheses
Consider the following three research questions: RQ1) Do the number of acute care hospital beds per 1,000 residents in the western states compared to the eastern states enable better readiness for patient care? RQ2) Do the number of hospital-based registered nurses per 1,000 residents in the western states compared to the eastern states affect the quality of service provided by the hospitals? RQ3) Please provide a research question of your choice using the same format as the previous two research questions for the data provided . The null and alternative hypotheses for each research question are below. You will need to provide the Null and Alternative hypotheses for your research question.
RQ1:
Ho: There is no significant difference between the average number of acute care hospital beds per 1,000 residents in the western and eastern states
Ha: There is a significant difference between the average number of acute care hospital beds per 1,000 residents in the western and eastern states
RQ2:
Ho: There is no significant difference between the average number of hospital-based registered nurses per 1,000 residents in the western and eastern states.
Ha: There is a significant difference between the average number of hospital-based registered nurses per 1,000 residents in the western and eastern states.
RQ3:
Ho:
Ha:
Results
[[[[[[[ HERE YOU WOULD ADD YOUR RESULTS FOR EACH RESEARCH QUESTION (ALL THREE) AND THE HYPOTHESES. HERE IS WHERE THE FOUR STEPS FOR HYPOTHESIS TESTING THAT WE DISCUSSED IN CLASS ARE EMBEDDED.
Conclusion
[[[[[ Summarize the article and discuss any implications or future research ideas with this data. ((In other words, what would you like to study further, and why?))
Appendix
[[[[[[[ HERE YOU ADD ALL R-CODES. MAKE SURE YOU LABEL EACH CODE.
