Critique for a Quantitative Article - Research Paper Example

Because each instrument has both merits and demerits, a researcher has to choose only appropriate tool to apply in his/her study. This paper reviews an article that describes evaluation study of an Advance Care Plan (ACP) in the Residential Aged Care Facility (RACF). The evaluation follows implementation of various strategies to improve outcomes of ACP. In-depth Review of the Article Introduction Section Purpose of the “Advanced Care Planning: How does current practice compare with best practice” study is clearly explained.

The author of the article, Elizabeth van der Spek, explains that the study is a post-implementation audit to determine whether ACP outcomes have actually improved. In the abstract section, the author says that after the Getting Research Into Practice (GRIP) phase of the project, it was necessary to evaluate effectiveness of strategies implemented. Main problem of the study was, thus, determining whether GRIP really had an effect in the RACF. The author exhaustively gives details of what she is doing.

As a proof, the author, in the background section, introduces her subject by comprehensively discussing importance of planning for end of an individual’s life. . However, after the GRIP phase, there is need to check whether the shortcomings have been eliminated. In page two, the author include an audit question to reveal what the study attempts to answer. Through the question, the author generates her study variables. Three types of variables are used; specific GRIP strategy, specific post-implementation ACP outcome, and standard ACP outcomes.

Based on findings of the study and using similar variables, the study can effectively be used to solve any clinical problem. Literature review, Theoretical Framework, Study Hypotheses In literature review, the author carefully introduces the concept of planning for end of a person’s life. As basis of the study, the author uncovers significance of “End-life wishes.” Spek, thus, did a wide research about her study topic. However, the author does not clearly relate her study with previous studies.

In fact, the study does not quote a similar research that had studied ACP. Consequently, the author does not describe literature gaps. That is, the study is geared towards improving services of RACF and not filling any literature gap. Theoretically, no plain study rationale is stated. Based on this fact, the entire project can be nullified. Ambiguity of the study is also evident in forming hypotheses. The study is a comparative research but no postulate is made about possible outcome of ACP in the facility.

Because of vagueness of hypotheses, the study does not allow easy testing procedures. Methodology Even though three classes of variables are used in the study, they are, nevertheless, not easily measurable. The strategies are considered as independent variables, which after implementations, lead to a change in the