Ambulatory Surgery Patients: A Critique

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Critique Part A Research is an essential component in the healthcare setting, as a result of new knowledge constantly being discovered and put forth by professionals. The ability to examine, and critique research such as published scholarly articles is a necessary skill for healthcare professionals to have in order to apply the research to their practice, theory or education. The following paper is a critique of “The Effect of Hand Massage on Preoperative Anxiety in Ambulatory Surgery Patients” (Brand, Munroe, & Gavin, 2013). Through critical thinking, the writer will effectively analyze the steps of the research process with the purpose of critiquing the overall study.
Critique
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As a result of the acknowledged problem, the study was conducted with the purpose to contribute to the growing knowledge on nurse management of preoperative patient anxiety in the ambulatory surgical setting. The purpose of the study can be easily identified by the reader under the heading titled “Purpose and Research Questions” by including this heading the researchers made their purpose clear and concise to the reader. However, the research problem wasn’t clearly stated for the reader. It would have been beneficial to the reader had the author used phrases such as “little is known about...” and “there is a paucity of research...” to allow the reader to quickly determine the key problem (Macdonald, 2017). The research problem has significance to the nursing profession as nurses provide care, compassion, and reassurance to patients; therefore nurses understand the importance of minimizing preoperative anxiety for patients (Brand et al., 2013). Introducing new and innovative techniques within the scope of practice such as hand massage to nursing staff will improve the care of patients, and achieve an overall goal to decrease preoperative patient …show more content…

Informed consent is a necessary step researchers must take to ensure their study remains ethical. It requires the researcher to inform individuals about the potential benefits and risks of a study before the individuals can volunteer to participate (LoBiondo-Wood & Haber, 2013). The study was explained, and discussed with potential patients whom met all requirements for the study via telephone; those interested in participating then signed an informed consent form. Participants in this study were protected from physical and emotional harm, as there were no great risks associated with participating. Researchers only selected patients physically suitable for the study and ensured nurses were properly trained in massage techniques to avoid patient physical pain. Although it is possible that some patients may have been at risk for emotional harm as patients were advised to not take any antianxiety medication on the day of the surgery (Brand et al., 2013). It can be assumed due to the nature of the study that the risks involved were presumably low there was no indication that researchers verbally informed participants of possible risks. These risks may have been specified on the consent form, but there was no mention of it in the article. Because there was no award or incentive for

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