Foundation Degree Paramedic Science Essay

engagement Critique of search article, liveliness by and by genus Cancer Living with the insecurity Word count 2500 (excluding refs)Submission date 6th July 2012The purpose of this try aims to provide a critical evaluation of a research article deed of conveyanced life after genus Cancer biography with risk of infection (Wilkins and Woodgate, genus Cancer Nursing 2011 vol 34, no 6, P487-494) it will be structured according to the recommendations of the reexamination guidelines of Parahoo, 1988. Parahoo states that the title should non be longsighted and complicated and should reflect as much as possible what the research is slightly (Parahoo and Reid 1988, P69). The title in this case meets this criteria, it is concise except clear and suggestive of the content and context. It does not presume to validate or invalidate the research over again this is a recommendation of Parahoo 1988.The title is 2 parts, life-time after malignant neoplastic disease this could be interpreted as life of a c ber or relative after a cancer patient has died or indeed life for a cancer patient after boffo treatment. The second part of the title (living with risk) goes roundway to qualify the first and elicit that the casing matter discusses living with risk after cancer treatment. It does not thus far explain in the title what the risk refers to. This comprehend risk could be research into a possibility that cancer survivors take more risks in everyday life than non-cancer survivors as they progress positiond their the harsh reality of their possess unwholesomeness and overcome this. It is not until reading the full text that it becomes app arent that the risk refers to the risk of macrocosmness diagnosed with a secondary form of cancer.The researchers of the arena dupe a strong affiliation to the field and both possess appreciate formal qualifications, unusu eithery both in the fields of nursing and medicate making both very credible. nary(pren ominal)conflicts ware been disclosed again adding credibility to the study and findings as unbiased.The abstractionist of the does provide an overview of the intentions of the study, the sample utilise, an overview of the results, conclusions and the implications for practice. The abstract lists key areas under the bullet points of, background, objective, order, results and conclusions. Making the study easy to follow and read in a logical and original initialise.The abstract is suitably brief but enticing with a newsworthiness count of 225 words, this word count is an average size for an abstract but goes slightly over the 150-200 words recommended the book entitled, the art of abstracting, (Cremmins, Edward, The Art of Abstracting second Edition, entropy Resources Press, April 1996)The objective attempts to explain the rationale for the study and is neatly and subsinctly summarised in wizard sentence. The manner of the study is of an interprative, soft reputation exami ning in some depth the feelings perceptions and views of cancer survivors though a descriptive approach victimization face to face semi structured audiences. The c whole into questions took place in the subjects own homes, this would suggest that the subject was quiltable and at ease leading to an open, uncivil and honest converse providing valuable and unbiased selective information. An interview guide was used during the interview to assist role players to articulate their thoughts the study does not go into both further detail to clarify what was contained within the interview guide and how this may affect either results obtained from questions passim the interview process.The results data was analysed by the immutable comparative method of data analysis. This method of data analysis lends itself to interlocking and sensitive situations allowing the researcher to gain the trust of the subjects. (Method of qualitative Analysis, Barney G. Glaser, Social Problems, Vol. 12, No. 4, 1965, pp. 436-445) The conclusion summarises the key findings and recommendations contained within the study and is to the point leading onto the implications for work which are summarised in context with the study. There is an acknowledgement within the implications that the findings are a foundation which is subjective that further research would be near to build on findings of the subject with the objective of improving detection, treatment and views on secondary cancer.The literature come off discusses legion(predicate) preceding(prenominal) studies on the subject matter and references 11 others containing both soft and quantitative research good-looking a broad background into the study. The vast majority of previous studies egress to be of a quantitative nature which adds stiffness to the alternative qualitative approach elect for this study. alone of this indicates that the authors have researched the topic and acknowledge previous work contributed by oth er researchers in the study area. This strongly suggests a high awareness of the topic and gives due credit to other researchers, it is mentioned in the data collection methods section of the study that the literature analyze influenced the interview guide developed to assist with data collection which further acknowledges previous research. It does not appear within the context of the study that the literature review has bias or undue influence on the findings but preferably to support their validity as the method of the study and findings of this study are presented from a different office. besides to maintain a balanced perspective we should consider the reasons that to date nevertheless one previous study has been a qualitative study with almost 10 clock times that amount of previous quantitative studies in the area, the rationale for this is approach is discussed and addressed with good issuing in the last paragraph of the literature review. An argument for victimisation qualitative a method for this study is that quantitative studies can be criticised for attempting to clip a extremely complex situation into a simple social movement and effect paradox. Therefore the rationale for exploitation qualitative methods does seem highly relevant and would support the data collection method chosen and the contemplate design. As interviewing allows the researcher to gain unique insight into other perspectives ab out(a) the phenomenon being researched (Glesne and Peskin 1992) the argument put across is a rather obligate one to support further research using the method chosen to give a balanced view with evidence from both qualitative and quantitative data research rather than from just one perspective.The hypnosis attempts to establish the perceived risks of a secondary diagnosis of cancer following successful treatment and attempts to obtain the views of the participants in relation to screening for the well-established increased medical examination r isk, the hypothesis isthmuss out to demonstrate that views are conflicting and wide ranging throughout the text this hypothesis becomes well established.The overall approach of the study as previously discussed was an interpretive, descriptive qualitative design although the purpose states that this is part of a larger mixed method study aimed at establishing themes and patterns through the views and opinions of participants that had been peculiar(prenominal)ally selected for inclusion due to their previous diagnosis, treatment and subsequent survival of several(a) forms of cancer. The sample group was a relatively small number using only 22 participants (16 women and 6 men, it could be argued that this was a female prevail sample group that may have implications on the results) merely using the qualitative format the sample group was of an acceptable size, the focus of the qualitative data is on the quality of the data unruffled as to each one participant is a source of a la rge saturation of data. (Boswell and Cannon, ingress to nursing research, qualitative research meathods, chapter 8, page 196.)The sample group was specifically selected to fit the inclusion criteria (Cancer survivors who were 5 or more years out from the initial cancer diagnosis, at least 19 years nonagenarian at the time of the interview, resident to the area of the interviews and could speak and understand English) The nature of the selection and inclusion was purposive in nature, this is perfectly acceptable as the objective is to explore and describe the phenomena and not generalise the findings as qualitative research by its nature is not specifically designed to be representative of the general population. (Holloway and Wheeler, 2010, p 138)The research method chosen was specifically designed to be an emic perspective to describe the thoughts and feelings of post cancer patients, this method is ideal to understand and describe complex and sensitive training. Purposive try has been used as the participants have all been selected due to specific criteria. The primitive goal in purposive sampling is not to generate a sample that is representative but rather one that is selected to represent plastered subject characteristics that are relevant to the investigation. (Stommel and Wills, Clinical research, concepts and principles for advanced practice nurses, p302-303) A clear description of the sampling rationale and recruitment process is evident, (Bluff 1997).To tap variation participants were selected that had differing ages at the time of the initial diagnosis and different types of cancer. This demonstrates an splendid cross section of variables to maximise results. Participants were recruited exclusively from a central cancer registry and hospital based database, the study goes on to state that this register is largely untapped meaning that the participants would not have preconceived ideas or previous experience of introductory studies of this kind. Non eligible potential participants were excluded from the study prior to recruitment to ensure validity of the study.The age range was 19 87 years, however with the upper age range it could be concluded that the perceived risk of secondary cancer and subsequent screening views may straggle vastly from younger participants due to the age difference. Fifteen of the participants were employed (full or part time) and the remaining participants were either retired or disabled, it could be argued that unemployed and separate people were not represented in the sample group who may have had differing views from the sample group interviewed. This assumption could also be continue that as all participants were white, ethnic groups were under represented and again may have differing views due to racial, cultural or social backgrounds. An argument that only white participents were deliberately selected for the study is a moot point as cancer is not a racially or culturally specific disease as perhaps a study into something like reap hook cell crisis would be. The age range was wide and the average age is listed as 40 years old at the time of diagnosis however we know that some participants were far from the average age at the time of diagnosis but this maximises variation in the study.The data was collection method for the study was done using a semi structured interview technique the same researcher (Krista Wilkins, PhD, RN) completed all of the 23 face to face interviews. By using the same researcher we can anticipate continuity of the interview with the same structure being followed throughout. It is noted that 1 participant was interviewed twice because the first interview had ended early, the study does not elaborate as the reasons why the first interview ended early. By being interviewed twice an argument could be put that the data collected should not be included as the participant may have had time to think about, discuss and research the upcoming que stions in the buy up interview which could potentially affect the validity of the findings, this presumably was not considered to be an issue as the participant and data were not excluded from the study or conclusions drawn.As mentioned previously in the literature review key themes that had been detect in the literature review were included to develop an interview guide. This suggests that all of the interviews were conducted not only by the same researcher but also following the same structure (or semi structure) with the interview guide being used as an aide memoir to keep the interviews on dog and relevant. A person centred open ended approach was used as research shows that people respond well to this type of questioning ensuring that the information elicited was detailed, personal and rich in information.(Geer JG, Public opinion quarterly, volume 52, issue 3, p356-357)The interviews took place in the participants own homes which would establish both comfort and confidence i n a familiar and safe environment encouraging an open, honest and useful interview and eliminating the desire for social acquiescence however we must remind mindful of participant reactivity to the researcher in this technique. The interviews lasted generally no longer than an minute, the timeframe given is credible and suggestive that the participant was allowed sufficient time to relax and open up within the interview ensuring rich data collection but without the effect of feeling hie or exhausted discussing a potentially stressful, personal and emotive topic.However no upper or lower time limit was set so that if the data being collected at the point of an hour was valuable the participant was not cut short and valuable data excluded. Field notes were taken immediately after the interviews and included observations about the place and impressions including non-verbal communications. This could be criticised as being a subjective observation and no reference is made to indicat e the qualifications of the interviewer to make meaningful conclusion from observations of this type. All interviews were digitally recorded (with the participants consent) the recordings and field notes were later transcribed verbatim which supports the validity and credibility of the study immensely.There was no evidence of a pilot lamp study to add further validity to this study. In this study all proper ethical principles have been adhered to, ethical permission was granted by gaining informed consent from all participants and from local university and hospital ethical review committees. The process lead to a delay between the study being carried out and payoff with the study taking place between July 2008 and July 2009 and publication in issue 34 of the publication, Cancer nursing in Nov fall 2011. (Wilkins and Woodgate, Life after cancer living with the risk, Cancer nursing, issue 34, p487 494, declivity 2011) but this length of time is not uncommon.The importance of ga ining ethical boon is so that no harm comes to participants and the research community as a whole is not affected by the negatives of publicity which bring the research community into disrepute and go against the very objective of research to repair evidence based practice (Blaber, A. 2008, Foundations for Paramedic Practice, a Theoretical Perspective). The data analysis in this case forms the main body of the study and gives numerous personal experiences and thoughts to form the findings, all quotes have been annomalised to maintain the dignity and concealing of the participants. The data is broken down in a logical format helping the reader to understand the conclusions reached by the researchers and go a long way to help understand how the findings were reached.The limitations of the study are readily admit and openly state that the findings are not generalised to all cancer survivors, it goes on to state that the data was only collected at one time point, this could be addres sed by further studies and perhaps a longitudinal study would be beneficial to broaden the picture. The study failed to bust any risk perceptions due to different variables for example age, type of cancer etc. To its credit the limitations does acknowledge that ethnic variability may have revealed additional information.The discussion is an in depth appraisal of the study as a whole including the findings, the conclusion is brief and does not introduce any new information, rather it summarises the previous sections of the study and draws the reader to an informed conclusion. theatrical role ListBlaber, A. (2008) Foundations for Paramedic Practice, a Theoretical Perspective. Open University Press, pg 49.Boswell, C and Cannon, S. (2011) gateway to nursing research, qualitative research methods, Jones and Bartlett publishers, chapter 8, pg 196.Cremmins, E. (1996) The Art of Abstracting 2nd Edition, Info Resources Press, pg. 46Geer JG, (2005) Public opinion quarterly, volume 52, issue 3, Lawrence Erlbaum associates publishers, p356-357Glaser, B. (1965) Method of Qualitative Analysis, Social Problems, Vol.12, No. 4, pp. 436-445Holloway, I. and Wheeler, S. (2010) Qualitative Research in Nursing and Healthcare. tertiary ed. West Sussex, UK Wiley-Blackwell, pg. 6, pg.138.Parahoo, K. (1988) Research Skills, Number 5. Critical Reading of Research. Nursing Times, 84 (43),pg 69-72Stommel, M and Wills, C. (2004) Clinical research, concepts and principles for advanced practice nurses, Lippincott Williams and Williams, p302-303Wilkins, K and Woodgate, R. (Dec 2011) Cancer nursing, Life after cancer living with the risk, Lippincott Williams and Williams, issue 34, p487 494.