Clinical and Statistical Significance
Research is always conducted with the purpose of generating significant results either to solve current problems or to come up with new data on certain occurrences. However, it is not all the time research leads to provision of significant results. The term significance refers to the quality of being important or relevant to practice, and in research, two common types of significance exist. Clinical significance is defined as the research difference between new and old therapies large enough for alteration of the current practice (Cruz-Flores, 2018). The findings from the research must have a large impact on the current practice so that the new change can be laid down.
A difference exists between clinical and statistical significance. Clinical significance represents a subjective interpretation of study results as to whether they are important to the healthcare provider to change the current practice. Statistical significance produces results that often characterize a hypothesis as either true or false (Cruz-Flores, 2018). Clinical significance in the healthcare profession is seen to answer the question, will the results from the study matter to the patients? Statistical significance is determined primarily by the sample size and whenever the size is large, the results become statistically significant. Clinical significance analyzes the risks of making a change to the current practice, and if the risk is outweighed by the importance, the change is put into place.
Results from the research on the benefits of debriefing in the emergency department will be relevant to clinical practice, and the findings will determine the course of action. The debriefing process is aimed at improving the quality of care to patients, and the findings will be assessed by the use of the patient score sheet evaluations. An improvement in the response from the patients will have a clinical significance to the study.
References
Cruz-Flores, S. (2018). Clinical vs statistical significance. Retrieved from http://n.neurology.org/content/clinical-vs-statistical-significance
