The Practice of Nursing Research - Article Example

? Critical Analysis Introduction Halm, M. A. (2009). Hourly Rounds: What Does the Evidence Indicate?. American Journal of Critical Care, 18(6), 581-584 Dr. Margo A. Halm – She is specialist in clinical nursing and a quality and nursing research director at Salem Hospital in Oregon. In addition, she is also involved in staff mentoring of evidence based practice and clinical research principles. She holds a bachelor of science (Bsc), Master of Science (MS) and doctorate degree in nursing. To complement her education, she has worked in different hospitals mainly in critical care nursing. Grove, S.K. & Burns, N. (2008). The Practice of Nursing Research: Appraisal, Synthesis, and Generation of Evidence (6th Ed). New York: Saunders Dr. Susan K. Grove is a professor and a specialist in evidence-based practice. She holds a bachelor of science (Bsc), Master of Science (MS) and doctorate degree in nursing. In addition she is a certified gerontology and adult nurse by different accrediting nursing bodies besides authoring books. Dr. Nancy Burns is a Professor in the University of Texas, Arlington in the School of Nursing. Besides teaching and research, she is involved in evidence-based practice. She holds a bachelor of science (Bsc), Master of Science (MS) and doctorate degree in nursing. 2. Problem The problem statement of this article by Dr. Halm is Hourly Rounds: What Does the Evidence Indicate? This problem statement is quite significant in nursing practice because there has not been an agreement on how or what intervals should nurses make visits to patients in wards. As such, it is quite a significant question because different conditions of patients require them to be attended differently. According to Macnee (2004), it is quite hard to come up with a thump rule of patients visitations by nurses because some patients may require constant care while others do not. It follows then that it is of paramount importance to investigate this question. 3. Purpose of the article The purpose of this article is to discuss and articulate hourly rounds effects in in-patients and their outcomes based on available evidence. This purpose is quite clear and concise because checking on patients is one of the primary roles of nurses. It has become a common practice that nurses make their rounds in wards on a regular basis. These rounds are meant to make sure that patients get the best care besides assuring them that they are in good hands. In actual fact, Fain (2009) posits that patients are relieved of their anxiety by these rounds even when they are okay and do not need anything because they learn to trust that they are constantly being watched. Hourly rounds have been the most practiced forms of regular checking on patients because they give nurses the chance organize their work and react to situations proactively as opposed to reactive (Grove & Burns, 2008). 4. Literature Review The literature review was extensively done based on the question or problem statement. In essence, this is a synthesis of the various outcomes of researches carried on hourly rounds in nursing. According to Polit and Beck (2008), evidence based practice synthesizes available literature that touches on a particular subject with an aim of coming with the best way forward. In clinical practice, some problems have many ways of approach in order to solve them but not all of them are applicable in all cases. In this study, the problem under study was about the effectiveness of hourly rounds in in-patient. It follows then that previous peer reviewed research articles on hourly rounds were considered as being valid for this study. A total of eleven research articles were analyzed because they were at the heart of the study problem and their outcomes incorporated into this study (Halm, 2009). 5. The Study Framework The framework of this study is not explicitly expressed and the reviewer must extract information from the implicit. This is because the study is hinged on the statement problem and then it continues to delve into content matter of the different articles. Most of the analysis is done based on findings of other articles which are not implicitly mentioned in this article. As such, the framework of this research revolves around the effectiveness of hourly rounds with no prior consideration of where these rounds were conducted. As much as this satisfies the primary purpose of the research, it does not provide one on one comparison of similar situations where these hourly rounds were conducted. 6. Research Objectives, Questions, or Hypotheses The research objective or question was to find the effectiveness of hourly rounds. The outcome of in-patients is highly associated with rounds that nurses make in wards. This is because these rounds are meant to check on the wellbeing of patients and some patients require all round clock care. As such, different hospitals have adopted different time intervals for nurses to check on patients. Among these regular time interval rounds, the hourly rounds are most common and preferred. It therefore becomes of paramount importance to check on their effectiveness and whether they are worth being used. Against this background of the importance of regular checks on patients, the study seeks to find out what the available evidence holds. 7. The Major Study Variables Evidence based practice research articles do not follow the conventional flow of research in other scientific researches. This is because usually use a trilateral principle that integrates clinical expertise, scientific evidence and caregiver or patient perspective together (Newell & Bunard, 2006). As such, the variables are usually conceptual in nature whereby they are expressed in subjective terms. For this article, the dependent variable is clinical outcomes in inpatient settings because this is the desired findings of the research. On the other hand, hourly rounds is the independent variable because it is assumed that it is causing the desired outcome. 8. Attributes/Demographic Variables In this article, the sample is selected by default because it involves searching for articles that have got relevant information with regards to the study question. Unlike in qualitative or quantitative studies, the issue of sample validity does not arise because it is dictated by other factors. As such, research articles are located within a very narrow scope which is usually defined and guided by the research question. For this case, articles were found using the key words ‘hourly rounds.’ To further narrow the number of relevant results, only articles concerning medical research was accepted since this is a nursing research article. The final number of articles or sample that was used for this study was eleven articles which is quite relevant and viable. The appropriateness of this sample to this study is quite okay owing to the fact that the articles provide evidence that is needed for synthesis in order to check efficacy of hourly rounds. 9. The Research Design The research design of this article is quite straight forward and does not conform to the elaborate methodologies associated with clinical research. In essence, the design was dictated by the purpose of the study which was to analyze the evidence from the use of hourly rounds in nursing. In true or scientific experiments, the design has to be very elaborate on how subjects are chosen and assigned to respective groups. In contrast, this study had only one group that composed of all samples with no particular criteria being used to assign them to this group. The only criterion that was used was for selecting research articles from other articles based on their relevance to the study. It follows then that articles were searched from CINHAL and MEDLINE databases using the certain key words such as hourly rounds. 10. The Sample and Setting The sample used for this study was eleven peer reviewed journal articles that touched on hourly rounds use in in-patient care. These journal articles were included in this study by default whereby they contained relevant information or evidence required for the study. They were not handpicked but were searched from two scientific databases based on their information on outcomes of patients as per rounds done by nurses. Whether there were other articles that could have been included here is subject to debate but the articles used for the study provided enough evidence for consideration. 11. For Qualitative study Qualitative Approach Data Collection Method Analysis Procedure Researcher Participant Relationship Reflexivity Auditability Comparison of evidence Evidence from other Research articles Comparison of Evidence Not applicable Fair Good The findings are related to study frameworks in that they ascertained and underscored the importance of nursing rounds. However, it was also found that there were high incidences of unessential calls on nurses to make rounds. Another unexpected finding was that scripting is an impediment to making rounds because it makes it formal and normal as what to expect when making rounds. References Fain, J. A. (2009). Reading, understanding, and applying nursing research. Boston: FA Davis Company. Grove, S.K. & Burns, N. (2008). The Practice of Nursing Research: Appraisal, Synthesis, and Generation of Evidence (6th Ed). New York: Saunders Halm, M. A. (2009). Hourly Rounds: What Does the Evidence Indicate?. American Journal of Critical Care, 18(6), 581-584. Macnee, C. L. (2004). Understanding nursing research: Reading and using research in practice. New York: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Newell, R., & Burnard, P. (2006). Vital Notes for Nurses: Research for evidence-based practice. Boston: Blackwell. Polit, D. F., & Beck, C. T. (2008). Nursing research: generating and assesing evidence for nursing practice. New York: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Read More