Differentiate between range, interquartile range, standard deviation, degrees of freedom.

1. Reading Assignment (20 points): Read Chapter 6 ,“Descriptive Statistics”, in the textbook Statistics for Evidence-based Practice in Nursing (2017)
Answer the following questions in your own words:
a. What is the purpose of computing descriptive statistics? Why should we include these with graphical displays of a data set?
b. Which measure of central tendency and variability should be reported when an unusual data value is present in the data set? Explain?
c. The 95% confidence interval for sodium content level in 32 nursing home patients is (4.250 mg/day, 4,750 mg/day). What does this confidence interval tell us?
d. Differentiate between range, interquartile range, standard deviation, degrees of freedom.

2. SPSS Assignment (80 points)
Dr. Koestler read the mixed method article “Piloting Virtual Clinical Site Visits in a Family Nurse Practitioner Program”, written by Bice & Parker (2019) and decided to replicate the quantitative aspect of the study.

1. Use the data to prepare the following in SPSS
a. Measures of central tendency
b. Measures of variability
c. Confidence interval
d. Test for Normality
2. Run a descriptive analysis for the two variables “Type of Faculty Visit” and “Student Grades”.
a. [analyze-descriptive statistics-explore}. Add student grades to the dependent list -add Type of faculty Visit to the factor list- click on plots -choose histogram- click on normality plots with tests-click continue
b. Examine the kurtosis & skewness for the 3 types of faculty visits. Determine if any of them are normally distributed by:
i. Reading and explaining the Kolmorgorov-Smirnov & Shapiro Wilk scores
ii. Examining and explaining the Q-Q plots
iii. Viewing and explaining the box and whisker graph
3. Run an output for the variable “Student Grades” and determine the range, mean and standard deviation
4. Determine whether face-to-face or virtual visits impact student grades and explain why you think this.
5. The authors in the study collected quantitative data from nurse faculty and qualitative opinions from the FNP students. Offer your opinion in relation to the qualitative findings of Bice & Parker (2019) and share your thoughts about the participants perceptions.
6. Classify the variables as nominal, ordinal, interval or ratio (age, gender, professional preparation, years in practice)
7. Run outputs for frequency data: age, gender, professional preparation and years of practice
8. Create pie charts for the survey questions 1,2&3
a. [analyze-descriptive statistics-frequencies-add all three questions to the variable box-click on charts-pie charts-percentages-continue]
b. View all three pie charts and compare your findings with the Bice & Parker (2019) reported results. Are they similar or different, elaborate?
9. Submit the output and your written responses to assignment portal by due date