Introduction
Analyzing scientific material is a complex and voluminous process requiring considerable attention. Scientific publications consist of several parts, including the article’s title, abstract, description of the research methods and their results, and analysis of the data obtained. This article comprehensively critiques a study on patient mortality, nurse staffing levels, and work schedules. Additional material has been used to improve the quality of the review with clarifying questions for the article’s author to use in his work.
Title and Abstract
The article’s title is concise and reflects the topic of the study, which is covered in the analyzed report. The drawback is that there is no clear understanding of which specific patient population is being studied, for example, age or health status. The article includes an abstract, which is required for peer-reviewed publications (Trinkoff, et al., 2011). It summarizes the key elements of the material: background, objective, methods, results (with the necessary specific figures and data), and discussion. A list of keywords that reflect the direction of the article and the topics it covers are provided.
Introduction
The problem reflected in the introduction is unequivocally stated, and references to other scholarly sources are cited. The arguments for the new study are compelling, as the findings can help shed light on the difficulties that hospitals and their staff face when faced with nursing understaffing. The authors also examine other factors associated with increased patient mortality, such as chronic nurse fatigue and poor work schedules (Trinkoff, et al., 2011). For nursing, the issue is relevant because it directly affects healthcare workers, their morale and physical well-being, and the quality of their work. The cross-sectional method used by the authors fits the needs of the study. The quantitative approach increases the sample’s representativeness because it allows for a wider range of participants to be included.
The research publication’s hypotheses are clearly stated, including those based on prior research. The article focuses on the health workforce schedule and the staffing of health care facilities with professional staff. The hypothesis is created that the mortality rate of patients increases with a decrease in the number of nurses (Trinkoff, et al., 2011). The ideas are formulated correctly, and the key variables are specified and reported. Such variables include nursing frequency by hours per week, staffing data, and mortality statements. The literature reviewed in this study and the conceptual framework correlates with the claimed topic and the key thesis.
Methods
In addition to using pre-generalized data, the authors conduct their research to obtain the most relevant information from primary sources. Researchers have done a tremendous amount of study with a wide range of scholarly materials related to nursing management and the nursing work environment in the past 15 years before the article’s publication (Trinkoff, et al., 2011). This literature provided a solid foundation for the new study. The key concepts are conceptually defined in the paper’s abstract and then used throughout the main body of the report on the research methods and results.
Results
Important attention should be paid to the population and the data sample created by working with the interviewees. There is no data in the article as to whether the ethics board externally reviewed the study or what procedures the authors implemented to protect participants’ rights, as the survey was taken from outside sources. The study is risk-neutral for participants, as there were no fines or workplace disadvantages for nurses who agreed to complete the questionnaire (Trinkoff, et al., 2011). The data collection points were as stated, although the survey was conducted in only two states, which may not be enough to maximize the sample’s representativeness. The population is sufficiently described, with a clear number of participants, their place of employment, and the percentage who completed the survey. The person who took the questionnaire had specialized education, and the content of the material to be filled out was intuitive. Specific data on the process of training nurses to fill out the questionnaire competently was not indicated. The study results demonstrate that the methods used helped obtain reliable data.
Discussion
The researchers conducted a comprehensive analysis of each hypothesis and research question using appropriate statistical methods. The intention-to-treat analysis is not given in this article, as it is unrelated to the main topic (Trinkoff, et al., 2011). The amount of data for the study is interpreted by the authors as sufficient for adequate representativeness. Errors are minimized, the data have also been adjusted for possible risks. The study uses four tables related to the key variables to demonstrate the results, but adding graphs would be an advantage in perception.
All major findings are interpreted using the study’s conceptual framework and previous experiments. The cause-and-effect relationships indicate that nurses’ poor quality of rest and demanding work schedules prevent timely detection of patient deterioration. It is projected by the findings that in hospitals where nurses have only 5.5 hours of personal time between shifts, mortality from illnesses such as pneumonia is markedly higher (Trinkoff, et al., 2011). The authors discuss the implications of their work for clinical practice and research in this area. The implications are quite comprehensive, and the generalizability is addressed because the article states that the findings cannot be generalized to all hospitals. This is because the hospitals included in the study were mostly teaching hospitals.
Global Issues and Conclusion
To conclude this scholarly article’s critical analysis, several other important issues are to be considered. The report is detailed, with many specific mathematical data systematized in tables. On this basis, the results can be used by practicing physicians and nurses in nursing practice to improve the quality of work and thereby reduce the risk to patients. The true value of the results, based on the number and experience of the researchers and the volume of data they processed, is high.
Reference
Trinkoff, A.M., Johantgen, M., Storr, C. L., Gurses, A. P., Liang, Y., & Han, K. (2011). Nurses’ work schedule characteristics, nurse staffing, and patient mortality. Nursing research, 60(1), 1-8. Web.