AppraisalPartTwo.docx - Running Head RESEARCH ARTICLE...

Running Head: RESEARCH ARTICLE APPRAISAL, PART TWO
Research Article Appraisal, Part Two
Chelsea Thompson
University of Texas at Arlington
NURS 5366
November 23, 2019
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RESEARCH ARTICLE APPRAISAL, PART TWO
Research Article Appraisal, Part Two
The research article, Decreased stress levels in nurses: A benefit of quiet time, will further
be critically appraised in this paper. This study appeared in the American Journal of Critical
Care in 2015. The sample, measurement methods, collection and management of data, data
analysis, researchers’ interpretation of the findings, legal and ethical issues, and evaluation will
all be examined.
Sample
The researchers used convenience sampling to obtain their sample. They attended
mandatory staff meetings on an intensive care unit and explained the study to all registered
nurses that were present. There was no planned sample size for this study, the researchers just
asked for volunteers to participate in the study. The volunteers were then further educated on the
tools that would be used during the study, risk/benefits were discussed, and consent was
obtained. The participants were only from day shift and had to be present on the floor from two
pm to four pm, and they had to be an intensive care nurses (agency and float nurses were
included as long as they had a background in intensive care). Nurses who had no background in
intensive care, and nurses who were taking care of overflow patients were excluded from the
sample. The exclusion of these nurses is fair because their baseline stress level may have been
more elevated from being in an unfamiliar environment. Twenty-two nurses were observed over
a five-week period. One hundred forty-two observations were collected, however, eighteen of
them were excluded and only one hundred twenty-four observations were used in the data. The
eighteen observations that were not included in the study were because of a cardiopulmonary
resuscitation event, and participants not being present on the floor for the entire time between
two pm and four pm. There was not biases with this sample selection due to the fact that
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RESEARCH ARTICLE APPRAISAL, PART TWO
participants volunteered. The sample may have been a good representative of the population on
that intensive care unit (would need to know the total number of nurses present on the floor), but
as far as nursing as a whole it was poor. This study only took place on one unit, in one hospital,
and only on day shift, therefore, really limiting the sample size and its ability to represent all
intensive care nurses.
Measurement Methods
The level of stress of nurses and noise levels were measured before and after the
initiation of quiet time (decreased light levels) in this study. The 100-point visual analog scale on
a perceived stress survey was used to measure the stress level of nurses, a digital sound level
meter was used to measure noise, and an illumination meter was used to measure the intensity of
lights. The illumination meter and sound meter were able to provide a ratio level of