Critical Appraisal Of A Quantitative Cohort Study On Australian Nursing Professionals

Research Question

Critical appraisal refers to the process of systematically and carefully evaluating a particular research article in order to judge the value, trustworthiness and relevance of the findings in related context (Burls, 2014). This assignment will focus on critical appraisal of a quantitative cohort study that was undertaken in order to investigate reasons that force nursing students to enter or leave their profession. The selected research article aimed to create a comparison between the reasons that influence nursing students to join or leave their profession. It is based on conduction of a quantitative cross-sectional cohort study that used online surveys to investigate the reasons (Eley, Eley & Rogers-Clark, 2010).

Research question- Although nursing is often considered as a rewarding career, it has been recognized as a stressful profession which is thought to accelerate departure of more than 32% of these professionals in Australia (Hegney, Eley & Francis, 2013). Some studies have identified low pay as the major factor that forces nurses to leave their profession (Tuckett et al., 2015). Others identified interest to care for people as the positive factors (Bartram et al., 2012). Thus, the research question focused on reasons or events that influence joining or leaving the nursing practice. It also aimed to investigate information on demographic profile of nursing professionals. However, it had a drawback that it considered self-reflective answers of participants from a specific locality (Queensland) which might have contributed to bias, since the prevailing factors can change based on their geographic location (Ding et al., 2015).

Research Design- It was based on distribution of an online survey to the participants for recording their responses to a set of formulated questions, following which results of the survey was statistically analyzed and differences in the responses were assessed. It was appropriate owing to the fact that in cross-sectional studies, samples are usually drawn from a larger population and studied for once (Barnett et al., 2012). Use of the survey was a correct step as it helped in measuring demographic variables, in addition to responses on the probable factors that influence their profession. Surveys are most commonly used to assess opinion, feelings and thoughts of an individual (Weigold, Weigold & Russell, 2013). Therefore, the design helped the researchers to analyze behavior of the participants. Using a representative sample, they were able to describe attitudes of the larger population.

Sample- 800 participants that included registered as well as enrolled nurses working in Public Health Services of Queensland health district, along with 442 nursing students were recruited for the study. The sample number was adequate as it would facilitate easy comparison between the responses. Having a small sample size might have contributed to bias in the results (Button et al., 2013). Enrolment of both nursing professionals as well as students was an adequate step as responses from the students would help in determining the factors that influence the decision to pursue the course. On the other hand, inclusion of RNs would provide adequate data on the contributing factors that govern their retention or resignation.

Research Design

Data collection- The researchers used an online survey instrument as the primary data collection. The method was appropriate in the context of conducting a cross-sectional research (Venkatesh, Brown & Bala, 2013). The online survey was participated to all respondents at the university and healthcare services through email and instructions for provided on gaining access to the instrument. In addition to asking the nurses to identify 3 reasons from the proposed list that made them enter or leave their profession, information was also collected on demographic variables. The researchers did not mention any ethical considerations that were taken into account. However, they should have mentioned about the approach that was taken to prevent fabrication of collected data (Sarwar & Nicolaou, 2012). Furthermore, there was no mention of maintaining confidentiality of collected information (Petrova, Dewing & Camilleri, 2016). Potential benefits and harms of the research findings were also not reported to the participants. Use of statistical method was appropriate as statistics provide empirical evidence to support the research question and emphasize objective measurements (Allwood, 2012).

Limitations- These are certain influences that cannot be controlled, which in turn place restrictions on the methodology and obtain results. The major limitations was that the researchers were aware of not being able to determine the exact number of participants who had received the survey owing because the survey was distributed by third parties. Another major limitation was based on self-selected participation, which indicates that the results were representation of the thoughts of participants residing in Queensland only (Ding et al., 2015). Thus, the responses might vary across other districts of states. Moreover, measuring variables at a particular time does not signify that the factors will remain constant in future. Thus, there is a need to directly distribute survey forms to the respondents. The study should have been conducted across several districts to ensure reliability of the results. Moreover, it should have been conducted over a longer time period to ensure consistency.

Findings- The findings show consistency with previous studies in that the nursing profession is predominantly pursued by women and less number indigenous people (Hegney et al., 2015). One third of the students were found in the profession for more than 5 years. This helped in determining the percentage of students who formed the nursing workforce in Queensland. Interest in work was determined as the highest factor for entering the profession. More than 40% students anticipated staying in their profession for less than 15 years, which indicated the importance of formulating retention strategies. Thus, the findings were able to answer the research question of interest. Credibility of the findings is supported by similarity of the survey questions with previous studies (Currie & Hill, 2012). This enabled comparison of results to the reported studies and provided evidence for relevance of the findings.

Sample

References

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