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Nurses use research to answer questions about their practice, solve problems, improve the quality of patient care, generate new research questions, and shape health policy. Nurses who confront questions about practice and policy need strong, high-quality, evidence-based research. Research articles in peer-reviewed journals typically undergo a rigorous review process to ensure scholarly standards are met. Nonetheless, standards vary among reviewers and journals. This article presents a framework nurses can use to read and critique a research article. When deciding to read an article, determine if it’s about a question you have an interest in or if it can be of use in your practice. You may want to have a research article available to read and critique as you consider the following questions. Does the title accurately describe the article? A good title will pique your interest but typically you will not know until you are done reading the article if the title is an accurate description. An informative title conveys the article’s key concepts, methods, and variables. Is the abstract representative of the article? The abstract provides a brief overview of the purpose of the study, research questions, methods, results, and conclusions.

This helps you decide if it’s an article you want to read. Some people use the abstract to discuss a study and never read further. This is unwise because the abstract is just a preview of the article and may be misleading. Does the introduction make the purpose of the article clear? A good introduction provides the basis for the article. It includes a statement of the problem, a rationale for the study, and the research questions. When a hypothesis is being tested, it should be clearly stated and include the expected results. Is a theoretical framework described? When a theoretical framework is used, it should inform the study and provide a rationale. The concepts of the theoretical framework should relate to the topic and serve as a basis for interpreting the results. Some research doesn’t use a theoretical framework, such as health services research, which examines issues such as access to care, healthcare costs, and healthcare delivery. Clinical research such as comparing the effectiveness of two drugs won’t include a theoretical framework. Is the literature review relevant to the study and comprehensive?

Does it include recent research? The literature review provides a context for the study. It establishes what is, and is not known about the research problem. Publication dates are important but there are caveats. How To Write An Article Critique? include articles published within the last 3 to 5 years. It can take more than a year for an article to be reviewed, revised, accepted, and published, causing some references to seem outdated. Literature reviews may include older studies to demonstrate important changes in knowledge over time. In an area of study where little or no research has been conducted, there may be only a few relevant articles that are a decade or more old. In an emerging area of study there may be no published research, in which case related research should be referenced. If you are familiar with the area of research, review the references to determine if well-known and highly regarded studies are included.

Does the methods section explain how a research question was addressed? The methods section provides enough information to allow the study to be replicated. How To Write A Critique Essay? of this section indicate if the design is appropriate to answer the research question(s). Did the researcher select the correct sample to answer the research questions and was the size sufficient to obtain valid results? If a data collection instrument was used, how was it created and validated? If any materials were used, such as written guides or equipment, were they described? How were data collected? Was reliability and validity accounted for? Were the procedures listed in a step-by-step manner? Independent and dependent variables should be described and terms defined. For Figure 1. Female 69.2 Male 30.8% , if patient falls in the hospital are considered the dependent variable, or outcome, what are the independent variables, or factors, being investigated that may influence the rate at which patient falls occur? Is the analytical approach consistent with the study questions and research design? The analytical approach relates to the study questions and research design. A quantitative study may use descriptive statistics to summarize the data and other tests, such as chi squares, t-tests, or regression analysis, to compare or evaluate the data. This data has been done with the help of Essay Freelance Writers!