Topic 1 DQ 2

Please Respond to the following post with a paragraph, add citations and references.

“Mean, median, and mode are the three measures of central tendency used to describe study variables” (Grove & Cipher, 2017, p. 79). The mean is the average of all of the data. The median is the middle number when put in order and the mode is the number that comes up more frequently. The mean would be appropriate to use for learning about an area where average data such as the average of births per month in a hospital is needed in order to staff appropriately. Median could be used as useful data when talking about ages, for example the ages of women who are having children. An example of when it is appropriate for mode to be used would be when tracking illnesses that are going around, for example the flu versus strep, the one that would occur the most during that time. It would not be appropriate to use any of these if the data collecting is skewed in any way. The median is not the same as the mean and both of these values can be misrepresented in a case where the information is skewed such as wrong frequencies inputted the wrong way. The mode may not even be present depending on what data is being collected.

References

Grove, S. K., & Cipher, D. J. (2017). Statistics for nursing research: a workbook for evidence-based practice(2nd ed.). [elsevier]. Retrieved from https://pageburstls.elsevier.com/#/books/978032335…