Research Critique : Qualitative Review

When people think about nurses, many ideas come to mind. They think of the hideous old starched, white uniforms, a doctor’s handmaiden, the sexy or naughty nurse, or a torturer. The media and society have manipulated the identity and role of nurses. None of these ideas truly portray nurses and what they do. Nurses are with the patients more than the doctors. People do not realize how little they will encounter the doctor in the hospital until they are actually in the hospital. People quickly realize how important nurses are. Because nurses interact with their patients constantly, nurses are the ones who know the patients best.

As I begin my fifth year of working as a nurse practitioner in a leading children’s hospital, I am certain the pediatric acute care setting is where I will continue my career of service to children and their families. Although I hold a masters degree in nursing and have been a primary care certified pediatric nurse practitioner for many years, I wish to expand my knowledge of pediatric nursing to encompass the unique and challenging aspects of pediatric acute care.

Each day as a Hospice Nurse I touch lives. I cannot imagine a job more suitable for me. Each work day I make a difference in someone’s life. No one can die for us, but we don’t have to die alone; and, that is why I became a hospice nurse. Every day is different, presents new challenges, and always touches my heart. It’s beautiful when talent, and passion come together to make a difference.

Death is a part of life and eventually everyone on this earth will experience it. Nurses play an important role in death. Mourning the death of a loved one is something that almost everyone will experience in this lifetime because it is a natural response to death. Bereavement, grief and mourning are all effected by one’s culture, religion, the relationship with the deceased, personality, and how the person died.

Nurses are responsible in providing holistic, quality care to their clients. In order to effectively provide such care Boswell and Cannon (2009, p. 2 & 7) states that nurses must base their provision of care on the most current, up-to-date health information available and sound nursing knowledge. This is where evidence-based practice (EBP) comes in. Polit and Beck (2010, p. 4) defined EBP as "the use of the best clinical evidence in making patient care desicions". This usually comes from research conducted by nurses and other healthcare professionals. Thus it is pertinent that research reports are critically analyzed.

Cumulative grief is known as a caregiver’s emotional response to many episodes of grief (Shorter & Stayt). The multiple encounters with death give a nurse no opportunity to grieve adequately or completely for each individual patient that has died (Shorter & Stay, 2010). The unresolved grief accumulates and can lead to emotional and physicals problems which can then effect a nurse professionally and personally (Shorter & Stayt, 2010). The effects of cumulative grief include denial, feelings of decreased personal competency, overwhelming grief, low self-esteem, and pre-occupation with death (Shorter & Stayt,

The authors of this article method of data collection was based on a five-focus group and three individual interviews on the clients that participated in the MBSR training. They analyzed and constantly compared methods to develop a grounded theory (Schellenkens & Jansen, 2015, pg. 1813). They determined that their focus group involved participants that were open for

Nurses also provide end of life, and post mortem care. When a patient dies, the nurse often grieves alongside the family and helps to provide them with emotional support (Hecktman, 2012). Although the prognoses of childhood cancer have improved drastically over the last 30 years, many children still succumb to the disease. Nurses are the ones who provide constant bedside care, and often “must confront the limits of what medicine can do for people” (Schuster, 2013). This can prove to be difficult and bring on feelings of hopelessness and as though they are not helping their patients at all. Patients can leave lasting impacts on the nursing staff, and when multiple children die while in their care, the nurse may begin to experience cumulative loss. Childhood cancer is the leading cause of non-accidental death for children in Canada, and therefore, pediatric oncology nurses are often exposed to death on a routine basis, with little time to grieve between the deaths. It is imperative that nurses are aware of their stressors and how they respond to stress in order to effectively care for their patients.

Mor, V., Mukamel, D.B., & Spector, W. D. (2009). The costs of turnover in nursing homes. The Costs of Turnover in Nursing Homes. Retrieved from www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/... National Cent

Heintze, C., Sonntag, U., Brinck, A., Huppertz, M., Niewöhner, J., Wiesner, J., & Braun, V. (2012). A qualitative study on patients' and physicians' visions for the future management of overweight or obesity. Family Practice, 29(1), 103-109. doi:10.1093/fampra/cmr051

A pediatric oncology nurses care for children with cancer. They administer medications, record observations, communicate with doctors and parents and perform diagnostic tests. Dealing with terminally ill children on a regular basis can make this job challenging and emotionally draining. However, despite the difficulty of the role, helping children and their families by making them as comfortable as possible and offering emotional support can be professionally

Choosing nursing as my profession wasn’t unprecedented, due to my family’s uncommon involvement in the nursing world. My own mother is the only known member in my family engaged in such a profession because of her aptitude towards empathy and her keen sight for common sense. Her involvement made me aware of this type of profession and how I could help others, thus shaping my strong belief in becoming a nurse myself. My belief in this profession was further strengthened because of a nurse that took care of me during my lengthened stay in the hospital. I managed to contract a deadly virus that left me disoriented and scared and the nurse’s mere presence was the only thing that calmed me down. Her gentleness towards me caused me to idolise her and consider following in my

In relation to the purpose of this study, the driving force behind the research are three questions. What are nurses experience following patient’s death? What are their actions and coping strategies following patient death? Would better learning opportunities and supportive practice environments be provided once there is an understanding of nurses’ grief and coping process, if yes, was it beneficial. The researchers proceeded with a broad question which allowed the focus to be sharpened and delineated later in the

Gilmartin, J. (2003). Day surgery: Patients’ perceptions of a nurse-led preadmission clinic. Journal of Clinical Nursing 13, 243-250.

To analyse the objectives of this study further, interview questions were ready for opinion leaders, which include journalists, staffs of the management team and PR practitioners. Only key sentences or words of discussion were chosen due to the word limitation, the full-translated transcripts are attached at Appendix B. The findings of interview have three parts, which related to the three research questions.