Critiquing a literature review - Essay Example

AR-Order ID 789614 Submitted too: Nurses’ Perceptions of Research Utilization in a Corporate Health Care System. Limitations and Qualitative Application A PAPER SUBMITTED by::Author’s NoteAbstract:Nurses’ Perceptions of Research Utilization in a Corporate Health Care System proposes that the unique circumstances within todays nursing community requires a revaluation of research practices across the entire profession. Organizational programs that emphasize research and evidence-based practice have been effectively curtailed due to increasing costs and the staffing difficulties of the last two decades within certain elements of the health care system as a whole.

The biting reality that Dr. McCloskey attempts to explore in this study is that nurses must be able to evaluate research articles and engage in modifying practices that effect patient care regardless of cost or corporate structure. I.-Introduction McCloskey argues that the utilization of research is essential for nursing. As part of a larger systematic review on research utilization instruments within the magnet health care system the argument made is precise, logical, and very well-articulated.

However, the research conflicts on certain levels with many scholars who have continuously over the past two decades expressed profound concerns about whether nurses use the best available scientific evidence and research to guide their clinical practices.(Karkos,et al, 2006). This disparity between the availability of research evidence and its use in practice has created what is referred to as the research-practice gap (Larsen et al, 2002) within the professional application. The nature of this gap has been the subject of near continuous debate and conjecture and is the proximal focus of McCloskey’s research.

The research provided validates the premise that nurses have an evolving perception of how research transcends into their practice, and is to an extent based upon educational level and hospital position. McCloskey puts forward a methodology of “what is to be” integrated and used by administrators and by nurses at all levels of the profession in order to assume a more positive posture toward research and evidence based practices. The problem statement of the paper is answered to the extent of how staff demographics’ effect research utilization, and to a larger extent how the circumstances of the organization may in fact precipitate much of what is recognized as the research-practice gap(Larsen et al, 2002).

However, McCloskey’s research lacks sufficient depth to offer a specific formulaic approach to rectifying the research-practice gap as detailed in the wide panorama of the entire nursing profession.II. Research Goal:McCloskey sets out with a very simple tenant, conduct a research survey designed to explore selected characteristics of nurses based upon educational level, years of experience, and hospital position. The pretense of the survey was to establish a fair baseline of exactly what resources were available, what were the prevailing attitudes towards research, and how that research is translated into clinical practice.

The context of survey hoped to deliver a quantifiable statistical sample of the staff demographic within certain corporate health care facilities that could be dissected. The anticipated results of this study would shed light on the limits and implications of nursing research initiatives.III. Research Analysis: This research utilized a straight forward descriptive, quantitative design with survey methods aimed at nurses who were employed in a corporate hospital system consisting of five hospitals in a single large metropolitan area on the east coast of the United States.

The respondents were asked to provide demographic information including age, gender, years in nursing, level of education, current hospital, assigned unit, and years working at the facility. The Research Utilization Questionnaire (RUQ) instrument for this research was highly dated but noted to be efficient with a strong psychometric property and .an internal consistency for the identified subscales .(Tranmer,et al, 2002) This study targeted nurses within a magnet-hospital system with a survey that was convenience based to represent a much larger professional population.

The scope of the survey is the inherent weakness of the research.(Wallin, 2009) The limitations of research are a fixture of the particular system demographics and cannot be expanded beyond correlated similar systems.(Squires et al, 2009) By admission McCloskey’s research findings are far too narrow to provide a substantive base of findings that can be applied across a wider systemic element.III-Conclusion: The research results indicate that there are substantial differences between the nurse’s perceptions about research based on varying degrees of educational level and position within the organization.

The findings point toward a significant disparity between each layer within the staff demographic. How significantly this disparity affect’s perceptions of research in practice (Karkos et al 2006) remains unanswered and cannot be used as a litmus for establishing the parameters of research-practice gap profession wide. The limitations of the research samples size is indicative of a permeable ANOVA calculation that cannot be expanded exponentially.(Godin et al, 2008) The fundamental issue with McCloskey’s research is the limited pool of respondents, only 270 nurses responded out of a proposed sampling of 2,500.

This represents a rate of response well below acceptable scalable research standards.(Bostrom et al, 2008) While the research does demonstrate a qualitative facet, the quantitative limits are forbearing on the practicality of any results obtained.( Profetto-McGrath et al, 2009) Future studies must enlarge the scope of the sample group while continuing to focus on the perceptions that affect the conduct and the utilization of research in different organizational systems. New studies of this type should be focused on the global state of nursing and the barriers that affect general nursing practice and not relegated to limited organizational models.

(Barenholdt et al, 2007)IV. CITATIONS:Karkos, B., & Peters, K. (2006). A magnet community hospital: Fewer barriers to nursing research utilization. Journal of Nursing Administration 36(7/8), 377–382.Larsen K, Adamsen L, Bjerregaard L, Madsen L:(2002)There is no gap per se between theory and practice: Research knowledge and clinical knowledge are developed in different contexts and follow their own logic. Nursing Outlook 50(5):204-212.Tranmer, J.E., Lochhaus-Gerlach, J., & Lam, M. (2002). The effect of staff nurse participation in a clinical nursing research project on attitude towards, access to, support of and use of research in the acute care setting.

Canadian Journal of Nursing Leadership, 15(1),18–26.Wallin L, (2009) Knowledge translation and implementation research in nursing. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 46:576-587.Godin G, Belanger-Gravel A, Eccles M, Grimshaw G, (2008) Healthcare professionals intentions and behaviors: A systematic review of studies based on social cognitive theories. Implementation Science., 3(36)Bostrom AM, Kajermo KN, Nordstrom G, Wallin L. (2008) Barriers to research utilization and research use among registered nurses working in the care of older people: Does the BARRIERS Scale discriminate between research users and non-research users on perceptions of barriers?

Implementation Science., 3(1)Profetto-McGrath J, Smith KB, Hugo K, Patel A, Dussault B. (2009) Nurse educators critical thinking dispositions and research utilization. Nurse Education in Practice, 9(3):199-208.Barenholdt, M., & Lang, N.M. (2007). Government chief nursing officers’ perceptions of barriers to using research on staffing. International Nursing Review, 54, 49–55.