CONVENIENCE SAMPLING

THE CONVINIENT SAMPLING METHOD:  Convenience sampling entails using the most conveniently available people as study participants.  In most cases, this criteria will follow easy accessibility of the research participants.  Let's have some few examples; 

Example 1:  A faculty member who distributes questionnaires to medical students in a class is using a convenience sample, or an accidental sample, as it is sometimes called.  This is because these students are easily accessible and in a big number most likely to meet the required sample size. 

Example 2):  The nurse who conducts an observational study of women delivering twins at the local hospital is also relying on a convenience sample. 

LIMITATIONS OF THIS TYPE OF SAMPLING:  1)  The problem with convenience sampling is that available subjects might be atypical of the population of interest with regard to critical variables and therefore introduce bias and confounding. 

2)  Convenience samples do not necessarily comprise individuals known to the researchers. Stopping people at a street corner to conduct an interview is sampling by convenience. Sometimes, researchers seeking people with certain characteristics place an advertisement in a newspaper, put up signs in clinics or supermarkets, or post messages in chat rooms on the Internet. These approaches are subject to bias because people select themselves as pedestrians on certain streets or as volunteers in response to posted notices.

RELATED;

1. SIMPLE RANDOM SAMPLING 

2.  STRATIFIED RANDOM SAMPLING

3.  RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

REFERENCES