THE CHOCOLATE

EXPERIMENT
DAEMEN COLLEGE ELC # 7
CHOCOLATES FOR STRESS !
 THE PARTICIPANTS
The participants were 5 full time, day-shift RNs on an acute care medical-
surgical telemetry unit of ERIE COUNTY MEDICAL CENTER of Buffalo, NY.
All participants are currently enrolled in Bachelors of Nursing programs
irrespective of their duration in the program.
 RESEARCH DESIGN

The study was conducted using mixed-method design of nursing research.

The participants were surveyed both quantitatively and qualitatively about

their chocolate tasting experiences.

Each of the study results are further discussed in this presentation ahead.
CONSENT FORMS
All the RNs were given a copy of the
consent form to be studied and
signed before participating in the
experiment.
 QUANTITATIVE STUDY

The Question

Among RN-BS students which chocolate is preferred ? Chocolate A or

Chocolate B ?

The Variables

Independent variable is the kind of Chocolate (Hersheys or Dove)

Dependent variable is the nurses perceptions measured on the Likert rating
scale
QUANTITATIVE
STUDY
A preliminary questionnaire to
assess the participant demographic
and health knowledge in reference
to the research topic was
formulated.
QUANTITATIVE
QUESTIONNAIRE
The participants were asked to try a
piece of each brand of chocolate
but most importantly to rinse out
their mouths with water in-between
brands
 OUTCOMES
According to the quantitative questionnaire:

80% RNs were neutrally hungry during the study.

100% strongly agreed with their concerns about the cholesterol
consumption
100% strongly agreed with avoiding unhealthy foods
80% agreed to love chocolates
60% agreed love HERSHEYS chocolate
40% agreed chose DOVE chocolate
 OUTCOMES
CRITERIA HERSHEYS NO. OF RNs DOVE NO. OF RNs
Texture 5 5 4 4
Moistness 5 5 4 5
Flavor 5 4 4 5
Appearance 4 5 5 5
Overall Rating 5 3 5 2
 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

The Question

What is the lived experience of chocolate A and chocolate B among RN-BS

students ?
The variable
The variable of interest are eating experiences and feelings of participants
who tasted 2 different kinds of chocolates, chocolate A and chocolate B.
QUALITATIVE
QUESTIONNAIRE
Participants shared their lived
experiences of chocolate eating
 OUTCOMES
In the qualitative review, 5 nurses described their chocolate eating
experience on two main criteria namely how quickly and smoothly the
chocolates melted in the mouth and how it made them feel.
3/5 nurses gravitated towards Hersheys that was described to have a
sweeter flavor than Dove. The nurses found the slightly darker or bitter notes
of dove to be reminiscent of coffee flavor that they heavily rely on during
their shift in order to stay awake and perform better. Hence, it was hard for
them to feel completely relaxed with the Dove brand of milk chocolates.
 CONCLUSION
The study with its quantitative data collection was able to reveal that 3/5 RNs
tested, i.e. 60% of the participants picked Hersheys milk chocolate over
Dove.
The qualitative description of their lived experiences also appeared to favor
Hersheys chocolate over Dove, mainly based on the smoothness of texture,
sense of calmness and lack of stress experienced after consumption.
Hence, it can be derived from the conducted experiment, that the Hersheys
brand milk chocolate is the preferred choice of RN-BS students for reducing
stress over the Dove brand milk chocolate.
Thank you for

watching my

presentation