1) Purpose of study
A statement of purpose clearly specifies what a researcher wants to learn or attain at the end of the study (Kothari, 2004).
The purpose of the study is to describe decision making by caregivers of patients with Heart failure.
2) Research question
The implicitly stated research question for the study is, “How do caregivers of family members with HF make decisions?”3) Research designResearch design according to Kothari (2004) refers to the general strategies a researcher in cooperate several components of research in a systematic manner that the research problem is address at the end of the research.
The research design employed in the research is qualitative research design
4) What characteristics does this study possess that are qualitative in nature? Review Chapter 2.
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qualitative research is researching behavior it is naturally within the setting. The research does not manipulate the environment but only studies as it is. In this research the researcher only studies how the caretakers make decision but does not influence the way the caretaker make decision.
The qualitative research also has an extensive narrative to explain the situation in order to understand the subject and the study area well. In this research the researcher spent considerable amount of time giving the description of the environment
Another important characteristic of qualitative research studies is inductive data analysis. The research release on generalization of the research results.
5) peer review status6) Is there evidence of any conflict of interest? Do the authors have any potential financial gain from the results of this study?7) Describe the population for this study.The research comprised of participants purposively sampled by the researcher from the caregivers in the cardiology offices, in-patient hospital units over a period of twelve months between the years 2008-2009 in Southeastern United States8) Samples selected and the weaknesses of the sampling technique
The research selected 20 participants and of the twenty participants the research further grouped them based on the four stages of the heart failure classification.
The weakness of this sampling strategy is that the sampled population may not be the representative of the entire population and furthermore, it is possible to put much reliance on the data achieved purely because the sampling is so small. The sample population used may not necessarily be entirely the population that the researcher is trying to reach.
9) Subjects vulnerabilities and risks
Yes the subjects were vulnerable.
First the family structure and family secrets might be exposed during the study. This might cause serious strained relationship between other family members and the caregiver. Some decision that the caregiver makes in the course of discharging his/her duty might be in contravention of the law and the results of the research can be used as a basis for his/her prosecution the court of law.10) HIPAA concerns
The HIPAA concern in this research is the protection of the patient privacy. This research may expose some of the private patient information.
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11) Purposethe purpose of the research by Schwarz et al (2008) was, “ to examine the effectiveness of post discharge tele-monitoring by an APN on reducing subsequent hospital readmissions, emergency department (ED) visits, and costs and increasing the time between discharge and re-admission”12) Research questionsthe research was guided by the following research question.
- Does the use of post discharge tele-monitoring reduce the rates of hospital readmissions for patients with HF?
- What is the influence of using tele-monitoring on the cost of health care for patients with HF?
- Did the use of tele-monitoring reduce the caregiver mystery?
13) Description of Research designthe research design used is mixed research design. Where the quantitative and qualitative research has been combine in the study to collect and analyze data14) Characteristics quantitative researchThe quantitative research is usually based on the numerical measurement and thus tend to use statistical strategies of analyzing and presenting data. In this research the researcher has used numerical data collected from the subjects to present their information.
The results are not attached to any researcher’s judgment but fully rely on the statistical values to explain phenomena.
The research is more of theory or belief proving. For example in this research the researcher is testing to verify if the use of tele-monitoring has any influence in the quality of the patient with heart failure and the caregiver. So quantitative research emphasizes more on proof instead of discovering
15) Evidence of peer review
16) Is there evidence of any conflict of interest? Do the authors have any potential financial gain from the results of this study?
There is no notable conflict of interest on the researchers’ part. 17) Describe the population for this study.The population of the study comprised of the patients aged 65 years above who are suffering from New York Heart Association (NYHA) II, III, or IV and are functionally impaired in one way or another and receiving home care.
18) Strengths and weaknesses sampling strategy?The population was selected using a non probabilistic sampling technique. Where the sample was selected based on the researchers discretion. For this sample were eliminated following a given criteria which was that the participant must be 65 years and above, had NYHA, functionally impaired, under the care of participating home care agency.
While the sampling technique can provide the researcher with some data that can be used to make justification for the generalized conclusion from the data
The shortcomings of the sampling technique are the results might not be a representative of the whole population. Furthermore the purposive sampling is susceptible to researcher’s biasness since the sample is selected based on the researcher’s judgment. This further might be difficult for the researcher to convince the reader that the data in reliable since the method used has not been subjected to any scientific research
19) Participant risks and vulnerabilityThe notable risk that the participant might suffer is the loss of confidentiality and loss of privacy if the research do not stick to research ethic.
Other risk that the participant is faced is the uncertainty of who would compensate them in case of a negative publicity as a result of the research results publication.20) HIPAA concerns
The HIPAA concern in this research is the protection of the patient privacy. This research may expose some of the private patient information.
References
Sanford, J., Townsend-Rocchicciolli, J., Horigan, A., & Hall, P. (2011). A process of decision making by caregivers of family members with heart failure. Research & Theory for Nursing Practice, 25(1), 55–70.
Schwarz, K., Mion, P., Hudock, D., & Litman, G. (2008). Telemonitoring of heart failure patients and their caregivers: A pilot randomized controlled study. Progress in Cardiovascular Nursing, 23(1), 18–26.
Kothari, C. R. (2004). Research methodology: methods and techniques. New Age International.
