Background
The article is a study conducted by Leona R. Zboril-Benson focusing on identifying the cause of absentee among nurses in Canada. It is apparent from the study that the country is experiencing the lack of nurses and the large number of employed nurses was shown to have higher probability of leaving their job, which manifests in the frequency of absenteeism based on the responses from the correspondences. The problem was attributed to the health-care restructuring in the public and private health-care sector in Canada. The problem in focus is the increasing number of nurses calling in sick, which in return is causing an apparent problem in the health-care sector in the country. To be able to determine the cause of the aforementioned issue, a quantitative method was employed to measure the variables described in the article.
Choice of Statistics
Descriptive statistics was chosen for this study, which was similarly utilized in the presented study. Therefore, the chosen statistics acts in defense of the statistical method used in the article by Zboril-Benson (2002). By definition, descriptive statistics is regarded as method of analyzing data, which allowed Zboril-Benson to draw conclusion from. Descriptive statistics aids the researcher in interpreting, summarizing and to describe the data that relates to the determination of the causes mentioned in the article. It is often difficult to visualize the idea that raw data tends to imply. However, descriptive statistics allows researcher to easily interpret the data by means of measure spread and measurement of central tendency. In the article, the correspondents are consists of 4,936 nurses practicing in long-term and acute care in the province of Saskatchewan in Canada. That number represents the bulk of the samples used in the study. Questionnaires were mailed to the correspondents as the data-gathering tool, which on the other hand represents the source of raw data to be analyzed. As shown in the research article, the frequency of absence-causing events was determined during the past three months of the research duration. Frequency is a factor that describes the central position of the group of data. Furthermore, the measure of spread was also discussed in the data analysis section of the research where 475 of the respondents was determined to be the number of nurses that has not been absent in the past three months. In addition, measuring spread also points out the mean number in one of the variables in the stud, which is the number of days a nurse was reported to be absent from work. It was found from the research that the mean number of absences was 2.89 days (Zboril-Benson, 2002). Typically, descriptive statistics utilizes measuring spread and central tendency, which was stipulated in the article as the main point of describing the raw data. Generally, the study presented herewith examples a research that uses descriptive statistics.
Purpose of the Study
The main purpose in the study is to determine and profile the main reasons for absenteeism among nurses in Saskatchewan province of Canada. Due to the apparent cost of absenteeism among nurses in the country, finding out the reason for such is of vital importance considering the imminent shortage of professional nurses in Canada.
Related research question and hypothesis
The research question discussed and interpreted by the raw data in the article are the perceived causes of absenteeism. On the other hand the hypothesis in the study suggests that restructuring in health-care has an apparent impact to nurse absenteeism.
Findings and conclusion based on statistical data
It was concluded from the statistical data that health-care restructuring drastically changed the work environment of nurses causing the increase in absenteeism especially in the acute-care sector. Several reasons are attributed in these findings such as increase in patient acuity, staffing levels, changes in staffing mix and heavier workload. There is an existing disparity in the findings such as minor ailments, which represents 3.90 of the mean score and a score of 4.32 that represents the number of nurses found to have reasons related to work fatigue and overload (Zboril-Benson, 2002). These scores reflect percentage of nurses that considers leaving their jobs in which 41.7% out of 450 respondents reported to be calling in sick or commits absenteeism. On the other hand, 50.4% or 227 of the respondents directly attributed their absenteeism events to overworking and stress (Zboril-Benson, 2002).
Final appraisal
The use of descriptive statistics in the article largely contributes to the determination of the critical problems perceived to have contributed to the number of nurses calling in sick. The methods and approach made by the research study in terms of the use of descriptive statistics was on the level of impeccability that defines accuracy. The objective of using descriptive statistics is to numerically express the variables and define the relationship it has on the research question. The use of raw data to map out the important attributes to the absenteeism reasons came effective, as the findings and conclusion have provided a greater light to the given purpose of the research.
References
Zboril-Benson, L. R. (2002). Why nurses are calling in sick: The impact of health-care restructuring. Canadian Journal of Nursing Research, 33(4), 89-107.
