The purpose of this paper is to identify the quality of a research study.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the quality of a research study.

Purpose:

The purpose of this paper is to identify the quality of a research study. The ability to identify quality research and apply it to current nursing practice or to support a change in nursing practice is a skill set necessary for professional nurses.

Guidelines:

The assigned research article to be used for this critique: Grobecker, P. (2015). A sense of belonging and perceived stress among baccalaureate nursing students in clinical placements. Nurse Education Today,36, 178-183. (find the link above and in the Readings Module).

You must have a minimumof 3 references (one is the Grobecker article)

The research critique is about reviewing a research study to identify and assess the components that make up a quality research article.  The purpose of this paper is to identify the quality of the research as presented in the article.  Read the assigned article and look specifically for the following:

research purpose/question/hypothesis

research design

method of data collection

sampling

variables (independent and dependent)

legal and ethical considerations

data analysis

findings/results

weaknesses/limitations and further study

Use APA format.  The critique should be no more than four (5) pages, not counting the title page or reference page.

Criteria to be included in the critique paper

Introduction

Identify what will you be discussing in this paper

Research Purpose/Question/Hypothesis

State the research purpose/question/hypothesis

What problem or question was the researcher attempting to address? Try to state this in your own words. If you use the author’s words, you must use quotation marks and cite the reference with the page number.

Research Design

Identify the research design (type of study). Define the type of study with the appropriate definition from your textbook or article.  Cite your reference for the definition of the type of study.

Method of Data Collection

Describe how the data were collected.

Describe any tools (instruments) that were used.

Were the methods used appropriate to the research problem? Explain your response (provide a reference)

Sampling

Describe the characteristics of the sample (age, race, education level etc).

How a many people were in the sample? (sample size)

What are the criteria for eligibility in the sample? (Inclusion and exclusion criteria)

Do the eligibility requirements make sense? (Explain and support your response)

Variables

What were the variables in this study?

Is there an independent variable(s)? If so, identify it. Remember, the independent variable is the treatment or intervention that is being manipulated by the researcher.

Are there dependent variable(s). The dependent variable is the outcome or effect the researcher is interested in, or the response to the independent variable.

Legal and Ethical Considerations

Has the study gone through a review process to identify any ethical issues i.e. approval by an Institutional Review Board (IRB) or Research Committee?

Does the study have any ethical issues that need to be considered, what are they?

Is there evidence that informed consent was obtained from all participants in the study or their representatives?

Data Analysis

How were the data analyzed? How did the author(s) explain the method used to analyze the data

Did the author(s) discuss the reliability and validity of the instruments used in this study? Explain

What is the population that was sampled in this study?

Can these results be generalized from the sample to a larger population?

Findings/Results

What were the findings of this study?

What are the recommendations for future research?

Weaknesses/ Limitations and Further Study

Did the author(s) identify any  weaknesses or limitations of the study?

What are the author(s) recommendations for further study?

Conclusion

Based on this review, what is your assessment of the quality of this study?

How would you rate the study using the John’s Hopkins rating scheme?

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