Prescription for success in an associate degree nursing program - Article Example

?Prescription for success in an associate degree nursing program In the current advent of innovation and globalization, with shrinking distances and integrated economies, the world of health care is also undergoing a paradigm shift. Over the past several years, due to the growing burden of several diseases, there has been an exponential rise in the demand for health care professionals, including nurses, leading to a rapid influx of nursing students into nursing programs in order to overcome this existing nursing shortage. However, this rapid influx results in a trade-off between the quality of nursing education being provided vs. the quantity of students enrolled each year in order to increase the workforce. This paper critically analyzes the article, “Prescription for success in an associate degree nursing program” by the author Tanya L. Rogers, which highlights the aforementioned issue and explores the factors underlying success of students enrolled in an entry level nursing program. Initial reactions to the study After going through this article, my initial reaction to it was a mixed one. In my opinion, while this article addresses and underscores a very important issue, which compels the readers to read this article, the article itself does little justice to the topic that it is addressing and has several shortcomings. This is due to several reasons, the most important one being the lack of proper organization. As the readers go through this article, instead of getting a clear idea of what the author is trying to get across, they become confused. Although the author has attempted at organizing the article into different sections and subsections based on the themes identified from the research being carried out, the content discussed within these subsections is very ambiguous, particularly due to the use of pseudonyms which makes it confusing for the readers to identify whether the author is referring to the faculty members or the students. Moreover, the language used is also confusing at certain instances which makes it difficult for the readers to decipher what the author is trying to convey. For example, in the statement ‘however, according to Amanda (an instructor), all of the participants in this study thought that “[students] may be excellent in clinicals, but have trouble because they have [problems] taking tests (Rogers, 2010, p. 98),’ it is unclear whether the instructor Amanda believed that students who are adept in clinical might have difficulty in taking tests or all the participants in the study had this opinion or whether Amanda believed that this was the general opinion of all the participants of the study. Descriptive vividness of the article With regard to the descriptive vividness of the article, while there are certain sections of the article which have been described in adequate detail, such as the methodology, there are also certain areas which lack in clarity and detail and would have benefitted from further elaboration. For example, in the background section, the scope of the problem is not clearly defined, which should have been done, preferably with the use of statistical figures such as percentages. Doing this would have helped the readers gauge the magnitude of the burden that the problem of nursing shortage poses on the health care system and the nursing programs which leads them to increase admission rates to overcome this dire shortage of workforce. Similarly, the section mentioning the results of the study is followed directly by a section on recommendations and there is no discussion section preceding recommendations. As a norm for both qualitative and quantitative studies, the results are followed by a section on the discussion of the important findings from amongst those results and their comparison with existing studies. This was not done by the author. Moreover, although the objective of this study was to elucidate the factors underlying success of students enrolled in a nursing program and to throw light on the experiences of successful students, the main focus of the discussion provided by the authors was on the recommendations. The authors should have focused more on their research question and objective. Methodological congruence of the article Since this study aimed at elucidating the experiences and views of students and faculty on the factors underlying success in a nursing program, the study design chosen by the authors, i.e. a qualitative study design, was an appropriate choice. The methodology has been described in ample detail by the author which facilitates the replication of the study by other researchers. However there are certain areas which are not adequately discussed. Firstly, the author has not mentioned the sampling method that they have used. From the article it appears that purposive, convenient sampling was used but the author has not stated this. Moreover, although certain inclusion criteria for the study participants have been mentioned, such as students having exemplary clinical, academic and nursing test performances, there is no indication as to how the students and faculty were chosen, i.e. whether they were individually approached or any other approach was used. Similarly, no exclusion criteria have been defined and there is no rationale behind why this particular sample size (of 3 faculty members and 6 students) was chosen and why more participants were not recruited. Another important factor which should have been addressed is the discussion regarding the reliability and validity of the data collection tool used. The data in this study was collected using semi-structured interviews. However, it is unclear as to how the questions used were chosen and whether the questions were prevalidated. In addition, the role of researcher is not mentioned in the methodology. From an ethical perspective, the study was conducted after gaining approval from the institutional review board and informed consent was taken from all participants. Moreover, measures were undertaken to ensure the confidentiality of the study participants. Analytical and interpretive preciseness In this article, no particular statistical analysis was undertaken. Although this is a qualitative study and does not need complex statistical analysis, the inclusion of numbers and proportions to denote the popular responses should have helped in providing a clearer picture of the findings of this study. There is no indication of how many researchers were involved in the data collection and analysis procedure and what measures were undertaken to resolve any conflicts of opinions regarding data analysis and presentation between the researchers, if any. Moreover, from an interpretive perspective, in order to facilitate the understanding of the findings, the discussion of the themes identified should have been done separately for students and faculty because the way it is presented in the article is quite confusing. Philosophical or theoretical connectedness In this article, no theoretical framework or conceptual structure has been provided. However, since the study aimed at identifying themes, it wasn’t required. As discussed in Ryan (2007), studies which aim to generate theory from conducting research, i.e. “grounded theory” do not require the inclusion of a theoretical framework (Ryan, Coughlan, & Cronin, 2007). Heuristic relevance There are three known components of heuristic relevance, viz. intuitive recognition, relationship to the existing body of knowledge and applicability to nursing practice, research and education (Nursing Reseach, 2011). While going through this article, the readers do develop a sense of intuitive recognition since the topic under discussion is very relevant for both students and the faculty. However, the authors should atleast have provided some background in the form of the findings of previous studies in order to provide the readers with a background on what is already known on the topic, the shortcomings in the existing knowledge base and the need to conduct this study. The findings of this study are highly applicable to nursing practice, research and education because the identification of factors underlying success is the first step in order to devise measures to facilitate successful completion of nursing programmes by students after they have enrolled in a particular programme, which subsequently would help in overcoming the acute shortage of the nursing workforce that currently exists. What could have been done differently? There are certain measures which could have been undertaken to improve this article. Firstly, the authors should have provided a stronger background and literature review, with findings of previous studies included in order to convey the scope of the problem to the readers and rationalize the need to conduct the current study. Secondly, the methodology could have been improved by using a different sample selection method which was more objective and free of selection bias and the use of a larger sample size. Moreover, the inclusion of a comparison group in the form of students who were unsuccessful in order to elucidate which factors impeded their success and how they differed from successful students should have made the study stronger. The results for students and faculty should have been discussed separately in order to avoid confusion. Moreover, the presentation of analysis in the form of some statistics and with the aid of tables in order to highlight the most common responses and themes should have been done. Lastly, the emphasis of the paper should have been on the discussion of findings and their comparison with existing studies and then the authors should have made their recommendations. References Nursing Reseach. (2011, January 28). Evaluating and Critiquing Nursing Research. Retrieved April 6, 2011, from Nursing Research: http://www.nursingplanet.com/Nursing_Research/critiquing_nursing_research.html Rogers, T. L. (2010). Prescription for Success in an Associate Degree Nursing Program. Journal of Nursing Education , 96-100. Ryan, F., Coughlan, M., & Cronin, P. (2007). Step-by-step guide to critiquing research. Part 2: qualitative research. British Journal of Nursing , 738-744. Read More