Analysis of qualitative research article - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages Inappropriate assessment of patients by nurses may result in high incidences of suicide. Both qualitative and quantitative assessment methods are available for use and the method used may be depend on the setting. Purpose The purpose of the research was to understand how nurses conceptualize suicide among patients in addition to the strategies they use in the process of assessment. Due to the emerging trends in suicide assessment inappropriate assessment might fail to pick potential suicide patients. Research design and research tradition The traditional phenomenography which analyses the different ways in which people experience, conceptualize, identify, and familiarize themselves with various aspects of phenomena in the world around them was used in this study. This method is frequently used in health care research and was utilized in an inductive, qualitative and descriptive approach to help understand the conceptualizations of suicide by psychiatric nurses and the strategies that psychiatric nurses utilize when conducting a suicide evaluation. Sampling A convenience/snowball sampling method was utilized in the study to recruit six psychiatric-mental health nurse participants for the ten months study period. The participants were obtained from two advanced practice nurses agencies in different psychiatric settings and different Northeastern states with the help of nurse managers. One of the settings chosen was a psychiatric hospital's emergency assessment unit while the other was an inpatient psychiatric unit of a general hospital. Five of the six participating nurses were females with four of them having more than 15 years experience while the fifth had nine months experience as a psychiatric mental health nurse and more than five years experience as a mental health worker. The sixth participant was a male nurse with more than 15 years experience. All the participants were white with one having a master’s degree in nursing, three with bachelor’s degree and two with associate degrees in nursing. Data collection The research methods used for data collection were approved by the University of Rhode Island’s Institutional Review Board. Before data collection began consent was sought from both the participating nurses and the patients. The inclusion criteria for the patients included more than 18 years of age, ability to understand and speak English in addition to giving informed consent. The patients were also informed that their participation or non participation in the research would not affect the care they received from the institution. The data in this study was mainly obtained through interviews with the psychiatric nurses after suicide assessment of adult patients. The assessment sessions varied from between 15 minutes to one and a half hours among different patients. The interviews with the psychiatric nurses were recorded in a private room and were guided by a few questions. The nurses were however allowed to express their perceptions, in a clear and systematic manner, of how they conceptualize suicide and the strategies they use in the suicide assessment process. In a bid to obtain as much information and as possible the participating nurses were encouraged to think out aloud, deliberate, and even to pause before answering the questions if they need to. All the participating ...Download file to see next pagesRead More