Critical Appraisal Of A Qualitative Research Article On Dignity In Acute Hospital Care

Review the qualitative research article provided in the ‘Assignment 1’ resource folder on the MyLO site.

Critically appraise the article "The views of older people and health professionals about dignity in acute hospital care" using the CASP.

Criterion 1: Addresses the specified components of the CASP critical appraisal tool demonstrating understanding of key areas to be considered when critically appraising a qualitative research article

Criterion 2: Uses appropriate scholarly references to support answers

Criterion 3: Writes clearly and succinctly in an appropriate academic style, presenting work in accordance with the Presentation of Assignments guidelines and with correct referencing (Harvard Author-Date system).

Yes.

The research design comprises of a semi-structured interview conducted on the older patients and the health professionals. This interview method is appropriate as it is essential to gain deeper understanding about the perspectives of the patients and healthcare staffs regarding the maintenance of dignity in the acute care environment (Brodtkorb, Skisland, Slettebø & Skaar, 2017). This interview process would help the researcher to extract needful information from the target participants. With the help of semi-structured interview, the researcher was able to gain sufficient information from the patients and the health officials regarding the dignity of the patients during treatment. The research design navigated the research process towards the proper path through which needful research data could be extracted by analysing the information given by the participants in interview. The research design allowed smooth flow of information with higher level of accuracy as the participants comprised of the service users and the service providers.

Yes.

To conduct the interview process, the researcher undertook a purposive sampling technique to shortlist the research participants. Purposive sampling is conducted in accordance to the research objectives (Robinson, 2014). As the objective indicates towards older people in acute care environment, the researcher adopted purposive sampling as the sampling technique for this study. Sampling size was 38 healthcare professionals and 13 patients older than 65 years. This sampling technique is widely adopted by the researchers for qualitative study. To ensure that the research design seamlessly reaches its destination, a number of inclusion criteria were followed (Malterud, Siersma & Guassora, 2016). The researcher ensured that the patients who are being part of the interview are more than 65 years old, having a good command over English language, and are capable of taking part in the interview process.

Yes.

This study required information regarding the dignity of the older patients in hospitals. Thereby, semi-structured interview was adopted to bring out most relevant information from the patients as well as the healthcare professionals. Dignity is not only a matter of the patient; the healthcare staffs are equally responsible for handling the dignity of the patients. The hospital authority must keep a watchful eye to ensure that the patients are getting dignified care (McCormack & McCance, 2016). The data collection technique was mainly semi-structured interview conducted on participants who were 13 patients of 65-91 years, and 38 healthcare professionals. The interviews were recorded by the researcher so that there is no error in evaluation of the data. Field notes played a significant role as well because it enables the researcher to gain most relevant information from the interview. Data saturation was ensured as the data collection technique was prominent and capable of extracting most accurate information needed for the study (Palinkas et al. 2015). Collaborative discussion proved to be effective for the research process as it enabled smooth flow of data. Summary of each of the interview was prepared and handed over to the respective participants of the interview. Also, each of the participants was provided with follow-up telephonic interview. Prior to the interview, the participants were guided thoroughly so that the data collection technique bears the most effective outcome. Written consent was obtained from each of the participants before starting the interview. Moreover, interview took place on a mutually agreed time and venue.

Methodology

Yes.

The data analysis was clear and did justice to the research study. The chosen pragmatic thematic analysis was appropriate for the research study. The transcribed research data obtained from the interview was read and re-read by two researchers. Codes were created for those data and the similar codes were arranged to be kept together to make the further assessment easier. The researchers analysed the data and found relevant themes for different codes. This transformation made the data analysis less complex. The review of the themes was of much importance as themes are the backbone of this type of data analysis method (Vaismoradi, Jones, Turunen & Snelgrove, 2016). At last the themes were named and described in accordance to its functions. The exchange of mails between the researchers helped them to gain the most effective result. Larger study information was considered as an important source of relevant research content. The coding framework was helpful to address the issues regarding trustworthiness and rigour. The data analysis highlighted the major implications of this study and the interview data helped to understand the prevailing situation of the healthcare sector regarding the patient’s dignity. The contradictory data was taken into account as well to make the research error-free.

Yes.

Research findings of this data are clear and concise and much helpful to meet the aim of determining the level of dignified care in an acute care environment for older patients. Three main themes were generated which is considered as key findings of the study. The researcher has successfully argued to formulate the most prominent outcome. Both positive and negative data was analysed by the researcher to draw an integrated format of research findings. The research also contained sufficient evidences which reflected the authenticity of the findings. As findings are considered as the primary foundation of a research, the researcher has ensured that the findings are correct and reliable. As the research data was obtained and analysed by more than one researcher, it can be said that there is no chances of errands. Also, the participants were provided with summary of their interview sessions, the participants were able to come across their answers and were able to share their concern regarding the same (Dickson, Riddell, Gilmour & McCormack, 2017). This provided the researchers with the respondent’s validation, which directs towards the credibility of the research study. Triangulation also enabled more credibility on the part of data findings.

Results

The research has been able to produce an effective outcome which comprises of the responses obtained from the patient regarding safeguarding of their dignity. The positive responses reflect that the situation is gradually improving. Again, the negative response signifies that there is still room for further improvement in this sector. It has been assessed that the dignity of the patient is still a problem for the older patients. Despite of certain nurse or care givers being cooperative and considerate, there are nurses who are not considerate enough regarding the dignity of the patients. In most of the cases these nurses or care givers are poorly trained. Systematic dignity related training is highly essential for the healthcare professionals so that the cases of breach of dignity can be reduced (Lohne et al. 2017). Although this research highlights considerable amount of data regarding the study, it is understood that this topic of patient’s dignity requires more researches. This topic is having a depth which cannot be fulfilled by one or few studies. More studies are required in future to cover all the aspects of dignified care in acute care environment. This research has contributed immensely to the current study. Moreover, the research paved the way of the potential future studies regarding this topic.

References

Brodtkorb, K., Skisland, A. V. S., Slettebø, Å., & Skaar, R. (2017). Preserving dignity in end-of-life nursing home care: Some ethical challenges. Nordic Journal of Nursing Research, 37(2), 78-84.

Dickson, M., Riddell, H., Gilmour, F., & McCormack, B. (2017). Delivering dignified care: A realist synthesis of evidence that promotes effective listening to and learning from older people's feedback in acute care settings. Journal of clinical nursing, 26(23-24), 4028-4038.

Lohne, V., Høy, B., Lillestø, B., Sæteren, B., Heggestad, A. K. T., Aasgaard, T., ... & Lindwall, L. (2017). Fostering dignity in the care of nursing home residents through slow caring. Nursing ethics, 24(7), 778-788.

Malterud, K., Siersma, V. D., & Guassora, A. D. (2016). Sample size in qualitative interview studies: guided by information power. Qualitative health research, 26(13), 1753-1760.

McCormack, B., & McCance, T. (Eds.). (2016). Person-centred practice in nursing and health care: Theory and practice. John Wiley & Sons.

Palinkas, L. A., Horwitz, S. M., Green, C. A., Wisdom, J. P., Duan, N., & Hoagwood, K. (2015). Purposeful sampling for qualitative data collection and analysis in mixed method implementation research. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 42(5), 533-544.

Robinson, O. C. (2014). Sampling in interview-based qualitative research: A theoretical and practical guide. Qualitative research in psychology, 11(1), 25-41.

Vaismoradi, M., Jones, J., Turunen, H., & Snelgrove, S. (2016). Theme development in qualitative content analysis and thematic analysis. Journal of Nursing Education and Practice, 6(5), 100.