NUR504 Assignment: Critique of Research Studies Part 2

 
Critique of Research Studies - Part -2
Hauwa Belel
Grand Canyon University; NUR-504
Date
 
Quantitative
Fernandez-Parsons, R., Rodriguez, L., & Goyal, D. (2013). Moral distress in emergency nurses. Journal of Emergency Nursing, 39(6), 547-552. DOI: 10.1016/j.jen.2012.12.009 · 
Method
Protection of human rights
In the study, the researchers sought the approval of the review boards when collecting data and information.  Even as the study participants provided consent to participate in the study efforts were made to maintain anonymity. For instance, they did not collect demographic data since the nurses worked in a small department and this ensured anonymity and confidentiality to minimize risks. Additionally, none of the study participants were harmed for partaking in the study research.
Research design
The research design in the study was quantitative, cross-sectional, descriptive, and the non experimental approach was appropriate to determine how moral distress and occupation stress related to burnout and compassion fatigue affected nurses working in the emergency department. In assessing the levels of moral distress among the emergency nurses, the research sought to evaluate the phenomenon at a single point in time and how different variables are associated with moral distress with surveys to determine the emergency nurse perceptions and experiences. The researchers utilized the Moral Distress Scale–Revised (MDS-R), which has established reliability and validity (Fernandez-Parsons, Rodriguez, & Goyal, 2013).
Population and sample
The sample was collected for registered emergency nurses above the age of 18 working in a northern California community hospital with 242 beds (Fernandez-Parsons, Rodriguez, & Goyal, 2013).  The cross-sectional and descriptive design was appropriate for the research who understood the phenomenon of moral distress in the emergency department better and was representative of the sampled population. The nurses were eligible to participate in the study regardless of how many hours they worked at the hospital.  There were 51 nurses who completed the survey against the 97 who had initially been contacted and this represented 53% response rate, but there was no power analysis conducted.  The research results were evaluated based on the responses of the 51 nurses, with some working in the emergency department for 3 months and others up to 27 years.
Data collection and measurement
Data was collected representing the responses of emergency nurses on moral distress in the workplace, and the different factors that resulted in moral distress were ranked depending on the mean frequency.  The scores for the different factors and situations were recorded and divided by the total number of participants (51) to get the mean of frequency scores.  The researchers relied on the SPSS software, version 18 to analyze the data for frequency and intensity of the moral distress (Fernandez-Parsons, Rodriguez, & Goyal, 2013).