Protecting Nurses from Tuberculosis - Research Proposal Example

Running head: Globalization: A Critique in the Quantitative Measurement on Nurses’ Ability to Protect Themselves from becoming Infected with Tuberculosis as Influenced by Education, Gender and Age Globalization: A Critique in the Quantitative Measurement on Student Nurses’ Ability to Protect Themselves from becoming Infected with Tuberculosis as Influenced by Education, Gender and Age Student’s Name Name of University Total Number of Words: 1,075 Introduction Tuberculosis is a contagious disease which easily spread through the air. Once a person who is infected with tuberculosis in their lungs, there is a huge possibility that they can infect another person when they cough, sneeze, talk or spit (World Health Organization, 2009). Each year, a total of 8.8 million new cases are expected to arise. Roughly 1.75 million people around the world die of tuberculosis. (World Health Organization, 2005) Several research studies revealed that nurses are more prone to becoming infected with hospital-acquired tuberculosis because of their exposure to infected patients. (Maciel et al., 2007; Hosoglu et al., 2005) After conducting a hospital-wide study at Dicle University Hospital in southeast Turkey, Hosoglu et al. (2005) reported that nurses with 6.7 has the highest incidence and relative risk (RR) of becoming infected with pulmonary tuberculosis as compared to doctors (4.9) and paramedics (3.9). On the other hand, a recent open comparative study that was conducted by Maciel et al. (2007) revealed that nursing students between the age brackets of 18 to 27 years old with 20.3% has the highest significant change in the frequency of purified protein derivative reactivity (clinical sign of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection) as compared to medical students and economic students with 18.4% and 6% respectively. Given that tuberculosis is a preventable and curable disease, a primary research study will be conducted using quantitative research survey questionnaires to test the student nurses’ knowledge and competency in preventing the possibility of becoming infected with tuberculosis as influenced by education, gender and age. In the process of going through the main discussion, the accuracy and reliability of the quantitative research reports will be tackled. Prior to conclusion, recommended solutions that will directly address the problem with regards to the limitations of using the basic statistics will be provided in details. Proposed Research Method in Measuring the Knowledge of Nurses in Protecting Themselves from Becoming Infected with Pulmonary Tuberculosis Regardless of educational level, a total of 30 research survey questionnaires will be distributed throughout the nursing students who are currently enrolled at (insert name of school). Given that the study aims to determine the significance of gender in nurses’ knowledge and ability to protect themselves from becoming infected with tuberculosis, the researcher will equally distributed the research survey questionnaire to male and female nursing students. The quantitative research survey questionnaire will make use of demographic data and several questions that will test the nursing students’ basic knowledge on the spread of tuberculosis, clinical symptoms and microbiological information about the said disease. (See Appendix I – Quantitative Research Survey Questionnaire on page 7) In measuring the quantitative research survey result, the researcher will make use of basic statistics using the excel software. Research Findings The quantitative research questionnaires were equally divided to male and female respondents who are currently taking a nursing course at (insert name of school). Majority with 37% of the respondents belongs to the age bracket of 31 years old and above followed by 30%, 20% and 13% of the respondents belonging to the age bracket of 26 to 30; 21 to 25 and 18 to 20 years old respectively. Majority of the nursing students are familiar with the basic information and mode of transmission of tuberculosis except to diagnosing and treatment of the said disease. Based on the quantitative research survey result, 100% of the respondents are all familiar with chest x-rays in testing whether or not a patient is infected with tuberculosis but not with other diagnostic method like tuberculin skin test (93%), microbiological culture test (77%), blood test (63%), and microscopic examination (57%). With regards to the treatment for tuberculosis, 10% of the research respondents believe that antiviral drugs can be used to treat the patients. (See Appendix II – Summary of Quantitative Research Survey Results on page 8 – 9) Discussion The use of basic statistic method is useful in measuring variables related to demographic information of the research respondents. With the use of simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions, the utilization of basic statistics method can enable the researcher to have an idea on how well the research respondents know a specific information about the nature of tuberculosis. However, the use of this type of quantitative method is limited in terms of determining direct correlations between the nursing students’ ability to protect themselves from becoming infected with tuberculosis and other variables like gender and age. Recommended Solution for a More Accurate Quantitative Result Aiming to solve the limitations of using purely basic statistical method in terms of determining the statistical significance of levels of association between the knowledge and ability of student nurses to protect themselves from becoming infected with tuberculosis and other variables like age and gender, the use of STATA 9 software combined with the application of Fisher exact test is highly recommended (Maciel et al., 2007). With regards to being able to accurately determine the significance of age with the nursing students’ ability to protect themselves from tuberculosis infection, measuring the mean age of the nurses who are had been infected with the said bacteria should be considered (Hosoglu et al., 2005). Gathering student nurses in different educational level is very broad. For this reason, the researcher should also consider the working environment or hospital department where the nursing students are usually frequently exposed to. As a common knowledge, nurses who are working in a high-risk working environment has a higher chance of becoming of infected with tuberculosis within the hospital setting as compared to those nurses who are working in a low-risk working environment. Another important consideration is the duration or time frame wherein the quantitative research study is to be conducted. Basically, a short-term study does not provide the researcher with solid and unbiased research findings. For this reason, the research study that was conducted by Hosoglu et al. (2005) made use of a 15-year clinical and hospital data between the years 1986 to 2000 in order to minimize and eliminate bias result. Instead of gathering 30 nursing students as respondents, increasing the number of respondents up to 100 will increase the accuracy of the quantitative result. Conclusion Despite the nursing students’ knowledge with regards to the basic health information about the nature of tuberculosis, this group of young individuals is at high risk of becoming infected with mycobacterium tuberculosis. When conducting a primary quantitative research survey study, researcher should be aware of the situation being tested and variables that can distort the accuracy of the measurement. *** End *** Appendix I – Quantitative Research Survey Questionnaire Gender: ___ Male: ___ Female Age: ___ 18 – 20 y/o; ___ 21 – 25 y/o; ___ 26 – 30 y/o; ___ 31 & up Course: ___ Nursing; ___ Others (pls. specify) _____________________ 1. Is pulmonary tuberculosis a highly infectious disease? ___ Yes; ___ No 2. What is the main cause of tuberculosis? ___ staphylococcus aureus; ___ mycobacterium tuberculosis ___ pneumocystis jirovecci; ___ Epstein-Barr virus 3. What is the classification of tuberculosis? ___ air-borne; ___ blood-borne 4. Aside from lungs, does tuberculosis attack other system like the nervous system, lymphatic system, circulatory system and gastrointestinal system? ___ Yes; ___ No 5. How can we diagnose tuberculosis? (check all possible answers) ___ X-rays; ___ tuberculin skin test; ___ blood test; ___ microscopic examination; ___microbiological culture test; ___ urine test 6. Is tuberculosis a curable disease? ___ Yes; ___ No 7. Is tuberculosis treatable by antiviral drugs? ___ Yes; ___ No 8. Can we protect ourselves from becoming infected with pulmonary tuberculosis by undergoing regular screening test and receiving Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine? ___ Yes; ___ No *** Thank You! *** Appendix II – Summary of Quantitative Survey Results Demographic / Quantitative Research Question Frequency Percentage Gender Male Female 15 15 50 50 Age 18 – 20 y/o; 21 – 25 y/o; 26 – 30 y/o; 31 & above 4 6 9 11 13 20 30 37 Course Nursing Others 30 - 100 - Is pulmonary tuberculosis a highly infectious disease? Yes No 30 - 100 - What is the main cause of tuberculosis? staphylococcus aureus pneumocystis jirovecci mycobacterium tuberculosis Epstein-Barr virus - - 30 - - - 100 - What is the classification of tuberculosis? Air-borne Blood-borne 30 - 100 - Aside from lungs, does tuberculosis attack other system like the nervous system, lymphatic system, circulatory system and gastrointestinal system? Yes No 24 6 80 20 How can we diagnose tuberculosis? X-rays Blood test Microbiological culture test Tuberculin skin test Microscopic examination Urine test 30 19 23 28 17 - 100 63 77 93 57 - Is tuberculosis a curable disease? Yes No 30 - 100 - Is tuberculosis treatable by antiviral drugs? Yes No 3 27 10 90 Can we protect ourselves from becoming infected with pulmonary tuberculosis by undergoing regular screening test and receiving Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine? Yes No 29 1 97 3 References Hosoglu, S., Tanrikulu, A., Dagli, C., & Akalin, S. (2005). Tuberculosis among health care workers in a short working period. American Journal of Infection Control , 33(1):23 - 26. Maciel, E., Meireles, W., Silva, A., Fiorotti, K., & Dietze, R. (2007). Nosocomial Mycobacterium tuberculosis transmission among healthcare students in a high incidence region, in Vitória, State of Espírito Santo. Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical , 40(4). World Health Organization. (2005, April). Retrieved July 7, 2009, from Tuberculosis, World Health Organization, Fact Sheet No. 104: http://www.globalissues.org/article/218/diseases-ignored-global-killers World Health Organization. (2009). Retrieved July 7, 2009, from Tuberculosis: Fact Sheet No. 104, Revised in March 2007: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs104/en/ Read More