Running head: QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH CRITIQUE
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH CRITIQUE 6
Quantitative Research Critique Paper
This paper presents a quantitative research critique for a chosen article. The selected article is "The effects of the relaxation response on nurses" level of anxiety, depression, well-being, work-related stress, and confidence to teach patients," written by Catherine Calder Calisi. There are three types of research questions in this study: the teaching method for relaxation response (RR), which is a relaxation technique formulated by Benson, measuring the effects of RR on anxiety levels and work-related stress of the nurses, and investigating the confidence of those nurses to teach the same technique to their patients. The primary hypothesis being tested was that nurses would experience an improvement in stress levels, and reduction would be observed in work-related stress. The secondary hypothesis was that nurses would have confidence in teaching the RR technique since they learned and practice it themselves.
The background information begins by defining burnout and compassion fatigue that are the most common causes of tiredness among the nurses. The current workload and increased demand for patient care lead to physical, mental, and emotional stress, causing decreased take acre of their well-being, called burn out or compassion fatigue (Calisi, 2017). Fluctuating patient care demands and longer working hours force the nurses to work more than their normal routine hours, leading them to become more tired. Being constantly exposed to stress-induced environments, as the nursing profession, causes chronic stress that leads to burnout (Roberts & Grubb, 2014). Such chronic stress can affect nurses' behaviors in the form of extreme sensitization (Wilson, 2013). Although they have to show compassion to their patients despite their work-related stress, their mental and physical fatigue does not let them perform at their maximum. Workloads push the nurses to omit their work breaks and attend to the patients. The persistent stress due to long working hours, double shifts, and night duties pose the risk of fatigue and burnout, even compromising quality in patient care (Stimpfel, Sloane & Aiken, 2012).
The background is supported by various previous scholarly studies that mention vitality is necessary to perform at the full potential. Vitality is referred to as a sense of liveliness, buoyancy, and healthiness. Nurses on the spectrum of high vitality have a commitment and a sense of purpose daily towards their job and service to their patients. It has been studied that nurses need to have self-compassion for exhibiting meaningfulness in their duty and motivation in their work, so that patient satisfaction becomes evident.
The literature review also discusses in detail the wellness strategies for reducing nurses' stress. Several techniques, such as yoga,
This technique aims to calm down the physical and mental stress by slowing down the mind and invigorating the body and spirit. The literature suggests that if nurses are taught this relaxation method, then there would be a morale boost observed in their daily practices, affecting directly and positively on patient care.The relaxation response technique was first developed by Dr. Herbert Benson, mainly a diaphragmatic breathing arrangement for an insistent mental concentration. The procession of everyday tiring thoughts is discontinued by this practice and should be exercised for 10 to 20 minutes daily. It even helps alleviate other relevant troubling conditions like hypertension, insomnia, depression, phobias, etc.
There did not seem any bias in the selection of the studies for the literature review since when research is conducted for the keywords like nurse burnout, fatigue, stress reduction techniques, and patient satisfaction, a plethora of studies is obtained only directing that stress...
…and there was no coerced participation.
This study's main strength was for the well-being of the most recognized professionals in the healthcare industry, the nurses. They are the primary contact points for the patients, and if they are not feeling well mentally and physically, patient satisfaction would be adversely affected. Taking ethical consideration into account was an additional strength of this study. Still, there were limitations and weaknesses, such as the inclusion of small sample size, acceptance of all data in the pilot study, and the investigation's restriction to one type of nurse specialty, cardiac. There was no limitation as such that was not mentioned.
The author's suggestion for future research on the topic is to validate additional methods for reducing nurse fatigue, burnout, and stress levels. Including a larger sample size and quantity of intervention might reveal positive results for less anxiety and work-related stress. Using another approach for the same research question would not be necessary since the research design and methods were appropriate; however, using a large sample size might change the results for the primary hypothesis.
Conclusion
The selected article evaluated the effects of the RR method on reducing stress, anxiety, depression, burnout, and compassion fatigue among the nurses and whether they gain confidence after being educated about the RR procedure for teaching it to their patients. The results showed that the RR technique did not significantly produce positive results for reducing work-related stress. Still, it does provide confidence for the nurses to train it to their patients. This was the only positive result gained from the study due to sample size limitations in this pilot study. A recommendation for the future research question for a follow-up study can be to gauge the importance of educating the nurses during their graduate programs for self-compassion and self-care and its advantage for stress…
