FdSc
Foundation Degree Paramedic Science
Steve Pratten
Introduction to evidence-based practice
Assignment – Critique of research article, “life after cancer; Living with the risk”
Word count 2500 (excluding refs)
Submission date – 6th July 2012
The purpose of this essay aims to provide a critical evaluation of a research article titled life after cancer; living with risk (Wilkins and Woodgate, Cancer Nursing 2011 vol 34, no 6, P487-494) it will be structured according to the recommendations of the critique guidelines of Parahoo, 1988. Parahoo states that the title should not be long and complicated and should reflect as much as possible what the research is about (Parahoo and Reid
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There is an acknowledgement within the implications that the findings are a foundation which is subjective that further research would be beneficial to build on findings of the subject with the objective of improving detection, treatment and views on secondary cancer.
The literature review discusses numerous previous studies on the subject matter and references 11 others containing both qualitative and quantitative research giving a broad background into the study. The vast majority of previous studies appear to be of a quantitative nature which adds validity to the alternative qualitative approach chosen for this study.
All of this indicates that the authors have researched the topic and acknowledge previous work contributed by other researchers in the study area. This strongly suggests a high awareness of the topic and gives due credit to other researchers, it is mentioned in the data collection methods section of the study that the literature review influenced the interview guide developed to assist with data collection which further acknowledges previous research.
It does not appear within the context of the study that the literature review has bias or undue influence on the findings but rather to support their validity as the method of the study and findings of this study are presented from a different perspective. However to maintain a balanced perspective we should consider the reasons that to date only one previous study has been a
In reviewing this article, this writer was able critique the study and the suitability that it can possess if applied to actual practice. An important factor on whether a study can be considered valuable is if it is transferable in other situation, that is, a study's results should also be reflective if duplicated on other samples (Polit & Beck, 2006). Thus, the statistical power, internal and external validity are important to observe and note (Polit & Beck). If this writer were to carry out this study, it would have to be reflective of how the researcher performed it originality.
References to various other studies are made in the literature review, according to Parahoo (2006) describing other people's studies indicates that the researcher has made clear a link between previous knowledge which informs the reader of the background of the study. Benton & Cormack (2001) advocates the literature review should start with an introduction which should contain some reference to the sources discussed as well as an indication of the amount of previous work published. The reader fe
The study was a systematic review of scientific papers selected by a search of the SciELO, Cochrane, MEDLINE, and LILACS-BIREME databases. Among the 2169 articles found, 12 studies proved relevant to the issue and presented an evidence strength rating of B. No publications rated evidence strength A. Seven of the studies analyzed were prospective cohorts and 5 were cross-sectional studies.
Following the introduction, the authors continue into a review of literature in which the cited sources addressed relevance to the study’s variables. The review of literature consisted mainly of primary and current sources, with no citations preceding the article by five years. It is within this section of the article where the authors chose to further discuss the previous research conducted on the variables and how the variables have
The use of this systematic approach allows the reader to quickly discard papers which do not meet inclusion criteria.
The aim of this essay is to evaluate the implications of the recent government health initiative ‘Be Clear on Cancer’. Here, a brief history of why the initiative was introduced in relation to public health and the political agenda will be discussed. However, it is first essential to understand how the modern healthcare has been shaped by historic and recent developments. Furthermore, understanding the influence on healthcare practice of healthcare theories and various models will be investigated in this essay. Again, it is vital to critically relate the healthcare practice to the healthcare theories in accordance with the literature review.
In the introduction, the problem that is being addressed is not clearly stated. The entire introduction must be read in order to fully comprehend the purpose of the study, and the importance in the nursing field is not discussed. “The purpose of this study was to better understand the frequency and type of alterations in common medical interventions after placement of a DNR order in children with cancer at the end of life” (Baker, Kane, Rai, Howard, the PCS Research Working Group, and Hinds, 2010). This sentence represents the strongest point in the entire introduction. The sentence is clear, concise, and to the point. The weakest component of the introduction is the fact that it is too wordy and difficult to follow. The population of interest and the setting is very clear, the pediatric oncology patients at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital; however, this is discussed in the abstract, not the introduction. A quantitative approach is appropriate, because the researchers are focused on the frequency of medical
The level of evidence and strength of the article concluded the publication review. Study designs include systematic review (2), experimental (2) and cross sectional (1).
However, the pitfalls of the study are also included in this section as well as the factors that limited the study. This section should however, compare the results with those from other similar studies. Yet for this paper, that part was lacking. Besides, the paper discussed the potential limitations to the research as well as the strengths of the study (Viktrup, 2002). The study’s implication is also inclusive and is clearly structured and helpful. Finally, the paper had a conclusion that contained a summary and the recommendations.
Daymond et al (2011) were of opinion that literature review of a research should be done using a wide range of high quality literatures. On the other hand, Creswell (2007) argued that although an extensive literature review is important, outdated literatures could affect the result and findings of the study. The researchers offered unbiased and overt review by acknowledging the views of many authors and arguments about the problem of the study.
One might query the nature of the method used to collect and conduct the study due to the fact that it is a systematic review and meta-synthesis as a counterpart. LoBiondo-Wood & Haber emphasized, “a researcher who uses any of the systematic review methods of combining evidence does not conduct the original research or analysis, but rather takes the data from already published studies” (p. 229). This method was presented clearly and understandable to the
This study was limited due to the small sample size. Although the conclusions are valid, more research with a
Literature reviews are an examination of a study to determine its credibility or worthiness and information significance extracted from the existing research data (Wakefield, 2014). Literature reviews summaries, critically analyses, evaluates and clarifies the study authors’ ideas. The researched information provides the literature reviewer a summarize rational argument that defends and helps to explain the new research question, based on related policy and practice identified by
Each selected article was assessed for quality completed separately by the previous two authors using the Cochrane Back Review Group risk of bias criteria; greater than 6/12 indicated high quality or low risk of bias.8 The results from this assessment were included in the meta-analysis, in addition to another table with each study’s characteristics and results.
The primary purpose of the literature review is to define the research question and identify the appropriate methods of data collection (Coughlan et al., 2007,