Critiquing Quantitative, Qualitative, Or Mixed Methods

Staff nurses have great responsibilities in caring for patients. Often, these nurses experience heavy workload. Heavy patient load and stress contributes to burnout. Why is burnout important to discuss in relation to nurses? Burnout affects the performance of the nurse and the quality of care he or she provides to the patient. Therefore, it is imperative that staff nurses decrease the possibility of burnout and increase or maintain excitement and enjoyment in the field of nursing. If nurses do so, they will find joy in their work and quality of patient care will be increased. Contributors to burnout and

Researchers often times are faced with the decision of choosing a methodology of research; either Quantitative or Qualitative that they think best fits their study and objectives. This choice is guarded by the topic of study, the advantages and disadvantages, and the strengths and weaknesses of using either one or the other type of the methodologies.

I will be critiquing two different articles. Both studies are nursing studies that evaluate outcomes. I will be following specific key points for a quantitative perspective and a qualitative perspective. There is a guideline that I will be following for each article that includes identifying and examining the data collection and data analysis methodologies used in each study. The names of the articles are The Experience of Patients Undergoing Awake Craniotomy and The Effects of Crossed Leg Blood Pressure Measurement. The references will also be reviewed to determine validity and relationship to the new study.

Compare and contrast quantitative and qualitative methods on each of the elements listed. Please use scholarly, academic literature to support your response.

Thomas, E., & Magilvy, J. (2011). Qualitive Rigor or Research Validity in Qualitative Research. Journal of Specialists in Pediatric Nursing , 151 - 155.

This paper will address and evaluate the research problem itself, the design of the study, the sample, how the data is collected, its limitations, and its findings. Furthermore, how does this study impact the overall nursing process?

I will methodically analyze all parts of the study to assess the validity of the article, by contrasting and comparing the information provided, with previous literature. I will try to make sure that recommendations provided by the authors are congruous with nursing practice and beneficial to the advancement of it. I will as much as possible provide in depth detail of previous studies on the same topic that either support or contradict the analysis provided by this study and its authors.

Everyone possess critical thinking skills but when it comes to criticize a journal article it can be difficult for the first time, one of the best ways to develop critical thinking and reading skills is to use some strategies when reading and evaluating a research study (Wood & Haber,1998). The following essay it is going to focus in a critique of a qualitative journal article by giving its strengths and weakness, critical appraisal it is going to be done with support from different references and frameworks relevant to a qualitative study.

Select either the qualitative or quantitative study method for this assignment. In an essay of 750-1,000 words, summarize the study, explain the ways in which the findings might be used in nursing practice, and address any ethical considerations associated with the conduct of the study.

The study by Aiken et al in 2002 revealed that there was a higher chance of nurses experiencing job related burnout in hospitals with high Patient nurse ratios. Further, nurses in institutions which had the highest rates of patient to nurse ratios were twice likely to suffer from dissatisfaction from their jobs. These influenced the decisions of nurses to leave their current jobs and thus creating more staffing problems that would lead to more negative patient outcomes.

The article that I am doing a Research Article Critique is titled “Gender-specific Factors influencing Diabetes Self-care Behaviors and Health-Related Quality of Life among Older Adults with Type 2 Diabetes in South Korea”. I dissected the title into variables, “Gender Specific” is an independent variable, “Self-care behaviors and Health related” is a dependent variable, “Older Adults” is a descriptive variable, and “South Korea” is an extraneous variable. The title was well written, it was clear and stated properly, with more all variables in context. The population that was used in this study is older adults with type 2 diabetes.

The purpose of this assignment is to critically appraise a selected research paper following a data extraction relevant to the field of nursing. Critical appraisal is the process of evaluating the strengths and weakness of research, to find out if it is valid, reliable and applicable (Moule and Goodman, 2009). The following article to be critiqued is “A Nutritional Formula Enriched with Arginine, Zinc, and Antioxidants for the Healing of Pressure Ulcers” by Cereda et al. (2015).

A framework for a research helps with the organization of the study and provision of a context for understanding of the findings (Nieswiadomy, 2008, p. 111).  The different theoretical methods in this particular study help to provide reasons why nurses are experiencing burnout. “Burnout is seen as a persistent dysfunctional state that results from prolonged exposure to chronic stress” (Jourdain & Chenevert, 2010, p.710). A framework for a research study helps with the organization of the study and provision of a context for interpreting of the study findings (Nieswiadomy, 2008, p. 111).  The various theoretical approaches in this particular study help to define reasons why nurses are experiencing burnout. “Burnout is seen as a persistent dysfunctional state that results from prolonged exposure to chronic stress” (Jourdain & Chenevert, 2010, p.710).

In conclusion, this essay was dealt about a critical appraisal of qualitative study using CASP tool. By doing this module as a nursing student, this helped the author of this essay, to understand the importance of using the critical appraisal in the clinical practice. It also made the student nurse aware, by practicing the critical skills will help to improve the professional standard of competence according to the NMC code (2016). In order to improve the skills in the nursing practice, the student nurse decided to use a structure for her critical frame work, maintaining a reflective diary, and use the up to date evidence in the practice.

The purpose of nurses reading and critiquing research about the nursing field is to gain a better understanding of the research topic and to evaluate if this research will be effective in every day practice. Nursing is always evolving and changing, so it is important to keep up to date research on certain methods and practices used in the healthcare field.