Measures of effects can be explained to being the indexes that normally summarize the strength of the link between various exposures and their specific outcomes thus helping the medical practitioner make effective decisions in their everyday practice (Rothman, Greenland & Lash, 2008, p.72). In the nursing practice, the measure of effects strategy is an imperative approach that helps the nurse in knowing not only whether a certain exposure such as smoking can be linked to a certain outcome such as myocardial infarction, but also determining the magnitude of this relationship.
Enormous risks would be posed to the patients if the use of measures of effects is not applied in the nursing practice. This is because it is very important to consider how a certain exposure is related to a given outcome and explain on whether this relationship is statistically significant. There would be no accurate evaluation of the diseases or habits that influence a patient’s health if the nursing practice fails to adopt the measure of effects. Epidemiological studies in the nursing field must be adopted so as to determine the effect of exposure, where the” measure” is expressed as a ratio or a difference, this is usually carried out through three distinct approaches: the risk ratio, odds ratio and the incidence rate ratio.
Measures of effects strengthen and supports nursing practice in many ways. For instance, in a randomized study such as the Heart Outcomes Prevention Study (HOPE), measures of effect is applied in determining the effect of Ramipril on the risk of cardiovascular events (Edwall, Hellström, & Danielson, 2008, p.388). Additionally, considering the data from the Diabetes Control and Compilations Trial of the year 2001, Neuropathy occurred in a total of 9.6% of the usual care group while 2.8% occurred in the treated group therefore, through measures of effects, the relative risk reduction was determined to being 0.5 (LeRoith, Taylor & Olefsky, 2009, p.132). This is a clear example that shows how important the use of measure of effect is especially in the notion of determining the magnitude of a certain disease.
References
Edwall, L. L., Hellström, A. L., Öhrn, I., & Danielson, E. (2008). The lived experience of the
diabetes nurse specialist regular check‐ups, as narrated by patients with type 2 diabetes. Journal of clinical nursing, 17(6), 772-781.
LeRoith, D., Taylor, S. I., & Olefsky, J. M. (2009). Diabetes mellitus: A fundamental and
clinical text. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Rothman, K. J., Greenland, S., & Lash, T. L. (2008). Modern epidemiology. Philadelphia:
Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
