Qualitative studies are widely applied in nursing practice to generate data on the type of care offered. This is because qualitative studies can study people’s feelings, emotions and reactions to various issues surrounding health care delivery. In this paper, a qualitative study relevant to nursing is critiqued with emphasis on the problem statement, purpose of the study, research questions, literature review, and theoretical framework. The article that is critiqued is:
Bluemel, M. K., Traweger, C., Kinzl, J. F., Baubin, M. A., & Lederer, W. (2011). Expectations of patients, nurses and physicians in geriatric nursing home emergencies. Emergency Medicine Journal, 28(4), 283-286.
Geriatric nursing care is a relevant problem in modern day nursing. There improving living standards means that people are living longer and there are more geriatric patients. In addition, chronic diseases largely affect geriatric patients making them require ED services.
Problem statement
Patient centered care is an aspect of providing quality health care services that meets and exceeds the patient’s expectations (Epstein & Street, 2011). Therefore, it is important for the expectations of the patient and the health care providers. The study seeks to generate data on what geriatric patients visiting the ED in nursing homes expect from the health care providers and from the health care system, and what the health care providers expect from the patient.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of the study is given explicitly in the text as to evaluate prospects and contentment of geriatric patients and EMS health providers after finishing emergency procedures in nursing homes (Bluemel et al., 2011). This research objective will allow the evaluation of the quality of EMS care offered and whether the EMS health care teams meet the expectations of the patients.
Research Questions
Research questions are derived from the problem statement and phrased in a manner such that their answers help to meet the objectives of the study. In this study the research questions are not highlighted in the text. However, various questions can be inferred from the study. For instance; what are the expectations of geriatric patients in nursing homes when they require EMS, what are the expectations of EMS teams when providing care to geriatric patients in nursing homes, and do the EMS care meet the patient expectations?
Research Method
The study was conducted as a prospective cohort study using interview to access the quality of life and to determine the level of satisfaction in the EMS care of geriatric patients (Bleumel et al., 2011). 152 geriatric emergency cases in nursing homes were used in the study when they met the inclusion and exclusion criterion. All participants gave written consent to participate in the study and the study was approved by relevant ethics committees. 90 nurses responded in 132 cases (86.8% response rate). The tools used in the study include the Center for disease control and prevention health-related quality of life 14 item-measure, questionnaires that assessed the contentment following EMS operations, national advisory committee for aeronautics scoring system scale and the Glasgow coma scale. The data collected was analyzed using SPSS V16.0.
Theoretical framework
A theoretical framework is a conceptual model that is used during research to aid in research interpretation. The theoretical framework can take various forms such as working or functional hypothesis and descriptive lists (Flick, 2009). In this study, the researchers have adopted a null hypothesis for the study which provides the conceptual framework. The null hypothesis used is “quantifications of the quality of EMS care do not differ among patient, nursing personnel or emergency physicians” (Bluemel et al., 2011).
Literature Review
The researchers have used the literature review section for a number of purposes. First, the reviewed literature places the problem of expectations for geriatric care in contexts of modern day nursing. From the reviewed literature it is possible to appreciate the relevance of the study and compare it with previous studies in this area. The use of recent peer reviewed studies in the literature review improves the credibility and the reliability of this study. This makes the study suitable for use in evidence based care.
Study Findings
The researchers found that communication deficit and on-site cooperation are the most common challenges that reduce contentment during geriatric EMS. The patient expects timely responses and interventions that are in his best interest while the EMS staff expects cooperation so as to ease diagnosis and to determine the required interventions. Overall, geriatric patients are satisfied with EMS care but the short comings in communication and cooperation provides a room for improvement of geriatric EMS care. This can be done through continuous education of EMS providers.
Conclusion
Geriatric EMS is more complicated because most patients have multiple morbidities including verbal limitations. In this study, the satisfaction of geriatric EMS users and the EMS providers is evaluated. This is a relevant research topic as the data can help improve the quality of care offered. The researchers use rigorous data collection and analyses methods improving the credibility of the research findings.
References
Bluemel, M. K., Traweger, C., Kinzl, J. F., Baubin, M. A., & Lederer, W. (2011). Expectations
of patients, nurses and physicians in geriatric nursing home emergencies. Emergency Medicine Journal, 28(4), 283-286.
Epstein, R. M., & Street, R. L. (2011). The values and value of patient-centered care. The Annals
of Family Medicine, 9(2), 100-103.
Flick, U. (2009). An introduction to qualitative research. New York, NY: SAGE Publications
Limited.
