Nursing Interventions and Other Factors Associated With Discharge Disposition in Older Patients - Assignment Example

How are the databases chosen related to the purposes of the study?

The data was pulled from multiple sources as a means of providing a general cross-jurisdictional approach to the research question.  Furthermore, the fact that individual statistics have been tracked by both patient records stored at a local and private level, as well as those which were stored and analyzed by governmental structure, assisted the researchers in putting together a well-balanced approach to answering the research question.

Will the use of the selected databases provide enough information to meet the purpose(s) of the study?

Due to the fact that the researchers have gone to such painstaking efforts to gather the data from such a wide array of sources and institutions, it is the belief to his analyst that the information obtained will more than meet the individual needs specified by the research question.

Are there any other databases you know of that would provide better data?

Although this author is aware of additional databases that could be used, for purposes of this research question, it is this author’s belief that the best and most reliable datasets and databases were employed.
What is your perception regarding the strengths and weaknesses in the use of these types of databases for these purposes?

One of the weaknesses that this author noted was the reliance on the 843 bed academic medical center in the Mid-West which was used to draw inference on the overall incidence of nursing outcomes with reference to hip-related injuries.  Although this is a useful dataset, the fact that it is regionally specific calls into question whether the information that it might provide would somehow be determinate of the region and not indicative of the overall/wider population model that the authors are trying to draw inference upon (Shever et al 2007).
What do you think are the barriers and facilitators for this kind of study?

One of the biggest facilitators is the fact that the study is being performed in tandem with the National Institute of Nursing Research.  In this way, the combined resources and expertise of the larger entity will necessarily help the researcher to meet the metrics and milestones as a function of the fact that this work is beholden to a larger whole.  Likewise, the largest single barrier is perhaps the fact that too much data is being analyzed in order to attempt to gain a perspective on the issue.  As most research design methodologies will indicate, it is important to include a large amount of data to weigh the given situation; however, the inclusion of too much or too large a sample will likely diminish the overall level of inference that can be drawn (O’Brien et al 2011).

What is your opinion on the use of standardized nursing languages?

This practice has both its positive advantages as well as its negative drawbacks.  The positive feature is of course the fact that that data can be measured and analyzed in a more efficient manner.  Due to the fact that the language has been standardized, the datasets can be brought into harmony with one another.  However, nuanced levels of meaning have most certainly been lost due to the fact that such a metric has been imposed. 

If you were to do this study, what, if any, changes would you make?

If possible, I would work to ensure that the standardized nursing languages have not taken away from any of the levels of inference that the study might be able to draw from.  Additionally, I would ensure that regionalized information, such as that which came from the Mid-West clinic would not have a negative impact on the geographic bias of the study.  Asides from these two factors, it is this author’s opinion that the study was conducted in an appropriate and rigorous manner.