Research Critique, Part 1
To write a critical
appraisal that demonstrates comprehension of the research study conducted,
respond to each of the questions listed under the headings below.
Do not answer the questions with a yes or no; rather,
provide a rationale or include examples or content from the study to address
the questions.
CRITICAL APPRAISAL GUIDELINES: QUALITATIVE
STUDY
Problem Statement
·
Identify
the clinical problem and research problem that led to the study. What was not
known about the clinical problem that, if understood, could be used to improve
health care delivery or patient outcomes?
This gap in knowledge is
the research problem.
- How did the author establish the
significance of the study? In other words, why should the reader care
about this study? Look for statements about human suffering, costs of
treatment, or the number of people affected by the clinical problem.
Purpose and Research
Questions
- Identify the purpose of the study. An
author may clearly state the purpose of the study or may describe the
purpose as the study goals, objectives, or aims. - List research questions that the study
was designed to answer. If the author does not explicitly provide the
questions, attempt to infer the questions from the answers. - Were the purpose and research questions
related to the problem? - Were qualitative methods appropriate to
answer the research questions?
Literature Review
- Did the author cite quantitative and
qualitative studies relevant to the focus of the study? What other types
of literature did the author include? - Are the references current? For
qualitative studies, the author may have included studies older than the
5-year limit typically used for quantitative studies. Findings of older
qualitative studies may be relevant to a qualitative study. - Did the author evaluate or indicate the
weaknesses of the available studies? - Did the literature review include
adequate information to build a logical argument?
Conceptual / Theoretical
Framework
- Did the author identify a specific
perspective from which the study was developed? If so, what was it? - When a researcher uses the grounded
theory method of qualitative inquiry, the researcher may develop a
framework or diagram as part of the findings of the study. Was a framework
developed from the study findings?
Reference
Burns, N., & Grove, S. (2011). Understanding
Nursing Research (5th ed.).
Elsevier. ISBN-13: 9781437707502
