Evidence-Based Decision Making

Quantitative research is a means by which one can gain factual knowledge. Today, a number of such study design options are available to the researcher. However, when studying these quantifications, the researcher must still make a judgment on the interpretation of those statistical findings. To others, what may seem like conflicting, confusing, or ambiguous data requires thoughtful interpretation. Information for decision making is said to be almost never complete, and researchers [Page 434]always work with a certain level of uncertainty. The need for making and providing proper interpretation of the data findings requires that error-prone humans acknowledge how a decision is made.

Much of the knowledge gained in what is known as the evidence-based movement comes from those in the medical field. Statisticians are an integral ...