The study is “Recognizing and Responding to Uncertainty: A Ground Theory of Nurses’ Uncertainty” (Carnley, Doran, Tourangeau, Kushniruk, and Nagle, 2012).
The study was conducted to develop a substantive theory to help understand nurses’ experience and respond to uncertainty in practice. The aim was to explain how nurses seek information when uncertain and experience uncertainty (Carnley, Doran, Tourangeau, Kushniruk, and Nagle, 2012).
The study is a qualitative study since it was developed to explain nurses’ behaviors in uncertain situations.
This is a descriptive study. The researchers used all methods used in descriptive statistics. They used registered nurses working full- or part-time and not a probability. They also included age group and gender in their study.
The variables used were two. The first variable was the two classes of nurses (full and part time). This was important since the decisions made by the nurses are different. The nurses’ experience was the second variable. A decision made by a “more” experienced nurses cannot be the same as a “less” experienced nurse.
The convenience method of sampling was used since the participants volunteered themselves. This was not appropriate as it is bias. The view of the volunteers may not represent the views of the other people.
The data collection used was face-to-face interviews. An advantage of this method is that when is able to gather different opinions. However, the greatest limitation is that it is based on the individual wiliness to give the information.
Open-coding was used to analyze the recorded interviews. This is a descriptive method. They also used rigor method to confirm the credibility of the information. The researchers used a sample hence it is an inferential method.
The study contributes to the improvement of nursing care. Nurses’ decisions are very important when attending to a patient. The theory teaches nurses to recognize, manage, and strategies to apply when face with uncertainty (Carnley, Doran, Tourangeau, Kushniruk, and Nagle, 2012).
References
Carnley, A., Doran, M., Tourangeau, E., Kushniruk, A. & Nagle Lynn (2012). Recognizing and Responding to Uncertainty: A Ground Theory of Nurses’ Uncertainty: Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing. Indianapolis: Sigma Theta Tau International.
