To critique a research article from a professional journal - Essay Example

is historical, perhaps in memory of the role of hygiene in preventing the spread of infectious diseases based on the experiences of Snow and Chadwick in 19th century London (Course Notes). The second may well be described as a curious interest on a topic so basic but commonly neglected – even in a country like Switzerland that is known for being fastidious about cleanliness – as to be ironic. These made the article an entertaining and educational read and increased the author’s appreciation of evidence-based practice, or EBP, in the medical field.

As defined by Sackett, et al. (1996), EBP is “the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients.” When medical practitioners and health care professionals learn to combine in a balanced way what they learn from clinical experience and research findings, they are able to improve the knowledge of their profession so as to practice it in the best way possible for their patient’s benefit. Learning to critique a research paper is an important part of this process of improvement because it trains the practitioner to discern which of the prodigious amounts of information or evidence are useful and, at the same time, helpful for the patient.

We first look at the question, the answer to which is the rationale for the research study. We then proceed to critique the different parts of the paper and end with a set of recommendations. Most social research begins with a general problem that needs to be narrowed down to a specific research question that can be addressed in a single study. Any reader of a paper that clearly attempts to answer the basic question: “why do physicians fail to practice good hand hygiene? (Pittet et al. 2004, 2)” will initially register a degree of shock and ask, “What?

Doctors do not wash their hands?” The article’s background reveals that a specific problem was identified – less than half of the