Elements of a Quantitative Research Article
This paper will appraise a quantitative article by Lin and Ma (2009). The article is entitled “Willingness of nurses to report medication administration errors in Southern Taiwan: A cross-sectional survey”. The appraisal will identify the following aspects of the article population, research study design, independent and dependent variables, and sampling techniques. In addition, it will discuss issues related to the internal and external validity of the study.
The population in research is defined as all individuals or objects with the same defining attributes (Polit & Beck, 2008, p. 67). The population for the study consisted of all nurses in Southern Taiwan. The study employed a quantitative cross-sectional survey design as data was collected from a convenience sample of nurses over a period of one and a half months (1st February 2005 to 15th March 2005). The dependent variables measured in the study were experience of medication administration errors (MAEs) and willingness to report MAEs. MAEs in the study was defined as medication errors that happen during the process of administration of medications. The independent variables assessed in the study included age, experience, educational level, and job positions of the nurses, hospital funding, type of hospital, and nursing background. The sampling technique used was convenience sampling. In convenience sampling, the researcher uses the most conveniently available persons as study participants (Polit & Beck, 2008). The participants in the study were recruited from students pursuing a Bachelor’s continuing nursing educational program at a Southern Taiwan University.
Regarding issues related to external validity, the concept of external validity relates to inferences about the degree to which associations and relationships noted in a study hold true over differences in people, settings, conditions, treatments, and outcomes (Polit & Beck, 2008, p. 302). The use of a convenience sample in the study is a threat to the external validity of the study being reviewed. This is because one of the weaknesses of a convenience sample is that it draws a sample that is atypical to the population it is supposed to represent. In this case, the sample for the study was drawn from a bachelor’s degree continuing educational program. The extent to which this sample is representative of the mixture of nurses in Southern Taiwan is not clear. Therefore, the findings of this study should be generalized with caution to all nurses in Southern Taiwan. The external validity of the study could have been enhanced through the use of random sampling. Random sampling helps to eliminate the effect of extraneous variables.
Internal validity concerns the validity of inferences that is, the degree to which it is feasible to make an inference that an independent variable truly influences a dependent variable. It relates to the making of inferences on whether an observed empirical relationship between independent and dependent variables is influenced by the independent variable rather than other factors (Polit & Beck, 2008). For instance, the study established that willingness to report MAEs, a dependent variable, was influenced by type of hospital, job position, and nursing grade. Nurses working in mission and private hospitals were more willing than nurses in the public sector to report MAEs. Nurses in higher job grades like head nurses were more willing than licensed practical nurses to report MAEs. The researchers tried to enhance the internal validity of the study at the outset by keeping constant the independent variables (Lankshear, 2004, p. 150). For instance, the study excluded supervisors as they are more likely to report MAEs. In addition, it excluded deans of departments and clinical nurse specialists as they are likely to have more knowledge about MAEs.
In summary, this paper has identified the population, study design, independent and dependent variables, and sampling technique used in the Lin and Ma (2009) study. The article is entitled “Willingness of nurses to report medication administration errors in Sourthern Taiwan: A cross-sectional survey”. The paper has also discussed issues related to the internal and external validity of the study.
References
Lankshear, C. & Knobel, M. (2004). A handbook for teacher research: From design to implementation. New York, NY: Open University Press.
Lin, Y. & Ma, S. (2009). Willingness of nurses to report medication administration errors in Southern Taiwan: A cross-sectional survey. Worldviews on Evidence Based Nursing, 6(4), 237-245.
Polit, D. B. & Beck, C. T. (2008). Nursing research: Generating and assessing evidence for nursing practice. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, Williams, & Wilkins.
