Qualitative Research Critique and Ethical Considerations

Qualitative Research Critique and Ethical Considerations
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Qualitative Research Critique and Ethical Considerations
Qualitative study 1: The Effect of Hand Hygiene Compliance on Hospital-Acquired Infections in an ICU Setting in a Kuwaiti Teaching Hospital
Qualitative study 2: Precautions Taken by Nurses about the Prevention of Hospital-Acquired Infections in Intensive Care Units
Background of study
The researchers, Salama et al. (2013) and Kirtil and Akyuz (2018), conducted studies that sought to investigate how hospital-acquired infections can be reduced. Salama et al. (2013) sought to establish whether hand hygiene compliance would affect hospital-acquired infections (HAI) in the intensive care unit in a Kuwaiti teaching hospital. On the other hand, Kirtil and Akyuz (2018) sought to establish some of the interventions nurses use to help reduce the prevalence of HAIs in the intensive care unit. Both studies focused their attention on the intensive care unit.
HAIs have become quite rampant in healthcare facilities, especially in intensive care units. Furthermore, they happen to lead to increased comorbidities as well as mortality rates, and these issues happen to increase the cost of healthcare in general.
These studies sought to determine how much hand hygiene could help reduce the prevalence of HAIs in ICUs. This is quite significant in nursing because nurses are greatly affected by HAIs. In addition, they happen to be closest to patients, and therefore, many of them are likely to contract HAIs. Therefore, the studies’ significance is not limited to how HAIs can be prevented for the sake of patients alone but also nurses, and these two studies help to shed light on that.
There is no specific research question provided for both studies. However, they are specific to the objective they seek to study. For Kirtil and Akyuz, the objective was mainly to investigate some of the precautions nurses have to take to avoid and reduce HAIs in the ICU. For Salama and colleagues, the objective was to determine whether a hand hygiene campaign would help enhance compliance and subsequently reduce HAIs. Thus, the studies simply sought to determine how best nurses can keep themselves safe and free from contracting HAIs in a hospital setting.
How does the article support the nurse practice issue I chose?
Both articles are specific to the issue I chose. As already indicated, the articles focus solely on how nurses or healthcare practitioners can reduce HAIs, especially in the ICU. Both articles will be used to shed light on the effectiveness of hand hygiene in reducing HAIs in the ICU.
The PICOT question I chose focuses on hand hygiene as an intervention. The two studies focus on education on hand hygiene and other measures like wearing gloves, cleaning certain tools, and following protocol while conducting some procedures. Furthermore, the two articles focus specifically on nurses and healthcare practitioners and not on patients. This could limit the use or effect of both articles because patients are the ones greatly impacted by HAIs. However, it is crucial to note that the beneficiaries will be patients if healthcare practitioners enhance their hygiene efforts. Therefore, inadverte...