Short-term Placement of New Nurses: Impact on Poor Patient Outcomes - Essay Sample

Introduction

The title of the article provides reasonable insights into what readers can understand in regards to the phenomenon of interest. Developing countries have an inadequacy of the nursing personnel in the job market, hence leads to poor patient outcomes (Ulvund & Mordal, 2017). Therefore, the title captures the relevance of the study in relation to the problem. As such, it is a genuine concern on how to factor in the idea of the short-term placement of new nurses into practice to reduce the shortage. However, it is imperative to note that the title only contains vital information regarding an interest group. The fact that it only addresses the impacts of short-term clinical placement on nursing students is an indication that the study exclusively focuses on a group of interest, as opposed to the general population.

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The title tends to convey a connecting context to the study since it seeks to address the compelling need to offer international students with short-term placements. That will ensure that the young professionals sharpen their cultural skills and competencies to meet the ever-growing clinical demands. As the authors describe, it is imperative to note that if student nurses fail to get an opportunity to gain an international placement, it may impact negatively on their professional career. Generally, the title of the study is strong in capturing the concern of the interested group in the research. However, it has a weakness by addressing only the needs of a particular group of interest as opposed to solving a general societal problem.

Critiquing the introduction, Background, and Literature Review

The introduction of the study is bright as the authors establish the context of the study. The authors also summarize the current problem at hand and the level of understanding on the same. They even go ahead to capture the purpose of the study in a clear hypothesis and research question. In that case, the context of the research is well taken care of in the introduction part of the paper.

Research is primarily about investigating problems and questions of society and providing recommendations and solutions to that effect (Lee, Kim & Sok, 2016). The introduction and background of every study should present a grounded history and uniqueness of the research problem and why it is essential to research. It should also indicate how and why the research question must be investigated to find solutions to the existing issues. That will give a strong reason for participation to make a societal difference. Looking at the article, it fails to address the history and background of the problems faced by nurses in developing countries for lack of these short-term placements. In other words, it was unable to discuss pertinent issues concerning how placements will impact the affected societies in general, if not the selected group of nurses.

Comprehensive research is about looking at the history of problems and the work and recommendations previous studies have made to that effect. That calls for the logical building of the gap that exists in knowledge. I believe that the authors did an excellent job to highlight how nurses from developing countries have been struggling to meet the international standards of cultural diversity competencies. It also looked at how nurses from other developed parts of the world benefit from exchange placement programs to sharpen their professional skills. Therefore, it was necessary to place this work into the context of contribution to the understanding of the research problem. However, the authors failed to link the relationships of various works of other previous researchers. That would have been necessary to describe the relationship between different works that point at the same path of the need to improve nursing placements in such areas.

Sampling and Recruitment

The authors described satisfactorily the population study parameters and how they designed to interview 18 Norwegian nurses who had participated in the international placement programs. However, some identifiable weaknesses showed up in the recruitment and sampling exercises. The 18 sample size was probably too small to represent the opinions of the entire affected population. Therefore, the sample size would have been more substantial than that to represent an accurate position, not only of the participants but also the affected populations.

Secondly, there was no specific inclusion or exclusion method to qualify or eliminate the participants. That was evident as the issue of age, gender, and socio-economic status of the participants did not feature. Every study needs to address specific methods used in selecting the participants (Almalki, 2016). That will be an essential tool to reflect the credibility of the exercise without any deliberate intentions. In that context, there should have been a specific neutral and random method of selecting the participants to avoid bias or fraud in the process.

Data Collection and Analysis

Being a qualitative type of research, the authors show how collecting data by way of interviews, and other subjective methods were necessary. The authors also described how the study used a qualitative descriptive design to collect data from the participants. Opinions, attitudes, and feelings towards the issue of short-term clinical placements and the challenges involved. The data collection exercise was free from any manipulation or unethical behaviours. That hinted for a credible and honest analysis that would produce strong recommendations to solve the research questions. The qualitative data collected was suitable for a descriptive study to determine the general perspectives of the participants in relation to the research question (Ness, 2015). The authors have also defined how the research used descriptive statistical tools to summarize the collected set of data and extract tendencies and dispersion. In that regards, it was a comprehensive analysis method to solve the research problem.

Ethical Considerations

One of the most significant ethical concerns in every study is voluntary consent by participants Ulvund & Mordal, (2017). That aspect has been excellently covered in the study as the authors describe how they selected 18 Norwegian nurses who volunteered to take part in the interviews. When participants are coerced, manipulated or unduly influenced to take part in research, it raises a lot of questions regarding the integrity and honesty of the study. Another aspect of ethical participation the authors demonstrated was "beneficence" or "no harm" as popularly known in the research community. The researchers demonstrated their professional mandate to conduct research that would significantly and effectively benefit the target population. Under normal circumstances, research should bring more benefits than harm to both the participants and the target population (Roberts, 2015). Lastly, there was a well-protected aspect of the confidentiality and privacy of the participants. That ensured that no identity or details of any participant were leaked out during and after the study. Such ethical issues that the study emphasized qualified the exercise to be credible.

References

Almalki, S. (2016). Integrating Quantitative and Qualitative Data in Mixed Methods Research--Challenges and Benefits. Journal of Education and Learning, 5(3), 288-296. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1110464

Lee, H.K., Kim, S.Y. and Sok, S.R. (2016). Effects of multivitamin supplements on cognitive function, serum homocysteine level, and depression of Korean older adults with mild cognitive impairment in care facilities, Nursing Scholarship, 48(3), 223-231

McCusker, K., & Gunaydin, S. (2015). Research using qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods and choice based on the research. Perfusion, 30(7), 537-542. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0267659114559116

Ness, L. R. (2015). Are we there yet? Data saturation in qualitative research. http://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1049&context=sm_pubs

Roberts, L. D. (2015). Ethical issues in conducting qualitative research in online communities. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 12(3), 314-325. HYPERLINK "https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14780887.2015.1008909" https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14780887.2015.1008909

Skinner, S.R., Smith, J., Fenwick, J., Hsendriks, J., Fyfe, S., & Kendall, G. (2009). Pregnancy and protection: perceptions, attitudes and experiences of Australian female adolescents. Women and Birth, 22(2), 50-56.

Taylor, S. J., Bogdan, R., & DeVault, M. (2015). Introduction to qualitative research methods: A guidebook and resource. John Wiley & Sons. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=pONoCgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR11&dq=qualitative+data+collection+methods&ots=Qhzegv7z4S&sig=Y3ojV1j9F91LAwk1WEa-INt5tvE

Ulvund, I., &Mordal, E. (2017) The impact of short term clinical placement in a developing country on nursing students: A qualitative descriptive study, Nurse Education Today, 55, 96-100. DOI: 10.1016/j.nedt.2017.05.013