Statistical significance is an important aspect that can represent the trustworthiness of a study’s findings but may be intricate to achieve. In the provided case study, “Power Analysis,” the chances of detecting a statistically significant difference are at risk when assessing the mean number of admissions regarding the project’s second aim (Sylvia & Terhaar, 2018). Accordingly, the results of the research are likely to be jeopardized if one part of the analysis provides outcomes derived from an insufficient sample size (Sylvia & Terhaar, 2018). The project manager should expand the sample size to ensure that the study involves an adequate number of participants in both intervention and comparison groups of the two aims.
The sampling method that may help obtain the sample size necessary for statistical significance is snowball non-probability. The case study suggests that the project concentrates on older patients with diabetes and can gather 200 patients for each group but needs 255 individuals for the second aim (Sylvia & Terhaar, 2018). Consequently, as the investigation has an identified type of participants and needs more people, snowball non-probability sampling can be applied by inviting the required number of samples from referrals from current respondents (Bhardwaj, 2019). Such a method is associated with high chances of margins of error and is impractical if people refuse to cooperate (Bhardwaj, 2019). Nonetheless, the approach can be useful when it is difficult to find a certain kind of individuals, can collect samples relatively quickly, and is cost-effective (Bhardwaj, 2019). Therefore, to obtain a sufficient sample size, the project manager should consider asking present patients if they know people of similar age and with the same diagnosis who would agree to participate in the research.
References
Bhardwaj, P. (2019). Types of sampling in research. Journal of the Practice of Cardiovascular Sciences, 5(3), 157-163.
Sylvia, M. L., & Terhaar, M. F. (2018). Clinical analytics and data management for the DNP. Springer.