Quantitative Nursing Research Article Critique

The article, Nurse Staffing Level and Overtime Associated with Patient Safety, Quality of Care, and Care Left Undone in Hospitals, by Cho et al. seeks to describe how quality nursing care is related to overtime and nursing staff level in Korean hospitals. The title of the article was appropriate because it highlights the articles main ideas and points out the scope of the study. From the abstract, the researchers provide a comprehensive summary of the research report. They are keen to ensure an informative overview of the participants, procedure, data collection, outcomes, and conclusion of the study. The problem statement related the comprehensive study results on quality nursing care in western countries with the few studies conducted in South Korea. Although the problem statement describes the need of the study, it is difficult to locate it because it is not explicitly indicated. In nursing, a problem statement suggests the issue or the idea that the researcher attempts to explore in the study.

Information provided by the researchers covers an in-depth analysis of the current state of nursing care in Korea. The authors cite recent literature to illustrate the importance of quality care in health services. Using this literature, the researchers point out the components of quality health care and solutions to an improved health care system. An essential aspect of their study is the use of primary sources to evaluate the problem statement in the research. For example, they cite a study conducted in 2015 to quantify the poor condition of nursing staffing level in many Korean hospitals (Cho et al., 2016). Also, they refer to recent studies to point out the impact of care left undone in the provision of healthcare. In the literature review, the researchers specify the need to research Korean hospitals. They explain why the study results from western countries cannot be generalized and applied to other countries. For this reason, the review provides a solid foundation for the study.

An appropriate theoretical framework is provided in the research study. The researchers begin by identifying a study area and analyzing the significance of the problem in nursing. They then conduct a comprehensive literature review that draws concepts of the research findings. In the end, the study results create a conceptual relationship between the variables and outcomes. The directional hypothesis in the research states that nurse staffing level and overtime work were significantly associated with nurses perceived patient safety, quality of care and care left undone in South Korea (Cho et al., 2016). It indicates the critical variables in the research study. Participants in the study wrote a written consent to safeguard their rights and the study approved by IRB to minimize risks.

The research applied an analytical cross-sectional study design. As an observational method, the study was subject to recall bias. Study participants included all NRs on duty at the time of data collection. A stratified random sampling method was used to select the study population based on regions. The final analysis included 51 hospitals with a total of 3037 RNs with 92.6% response rate on all questionnaires provided (Cho et al., 2016). The study sample was appropriate. Questionnaires provided the necessary information as per the problem statement. However, the authors did not indicate the reliability of the results obtained through surveys. Data collection was divided into three parts. The researchers used different units such as poor or excellent as indicators of quality care and patients safety. Data were analyzed through STATA 13.1 software model. To minimize errors, a multilevel logistic regression analysis was used to control variables such as age and gender (Cho et al., 2016). Statistical significance was denoted by P0.05.

The researchers tabulated the results and quantified the percentage outcome of key variables in the research. The research findings were descriptive enough and included an explicit representation of predictor variables. The tabulated predictor values provide precise information in support of the research hypothesis. There is an elaborate interpretation of the research findings and compared them with results from other countries such as the U.S. The interpretation also included descriptive analyses of the possible causes of low-quality care and cared left undone in Korean hospitals. Limitations of the research are confined to the disadvantages of a cross-sectional study. Outcome and exposure are measured simultaneously which obscures validity of the causal relationship. The study was prone to selection bias, recall bias, and non-response bias. Although the results had a statistical significance, the researchers could not objectively associate them to clinical relevance. Despite these limitations, the study benefited from a high response rate which was highly suggestive of a more realistic representation of current nurse staffing levels and overtime (Cho et al., 2016). Information from the research is significant in the improvement of healthcare systems and worthy of publication. The researchers proposed further studies for countries with different healthcare systems.

References

Cho, E., Lee, N., Kim, E., Kim, S., Lee, K., Park, K., & Sung, Y. (2016). Nurse Staffing Level and Overtime Associated with Patient Safety, Quality of Care, and Care Left Undone in Hospitals: A Cross-Sectional Study. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 60, 263-271. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2016.05.009