Quantifying the Cost of Pressure Injuries in Australian Aged Care

Abstract

Table of Contents Title Page1 Introduction3 Methodology3-5 Sampling5-6 Ethics6 Conclusion6-7 References………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………8 Critique Essay: The direct cost of pressure injuries in an Australian residential aged care setting Introduction Nursing is a compassionate job as it involves direct contact with people in dire need of health-related solutions. To this effect, a nurse must work following the set nursing standard to enhance the effective relationship with the target audiences and success in meeting their health-related demands. However, a nurse must express defined abilities while analyzing nursing practices, as nursing information will not always be as direct as one would expect. There is the need to be a critical thinker to maintain the capability for practice and evaluate outcomes to inform nursing practice. Therefore, this essay aims at gauging such abilities by providing a thorough critique of "The direct cost of pressure injuries in an Australian residential aged care setting" article by Wilson, Kapp, and Santamaria about methodology, sampling, and ethics. Methodology Wilson, Kappa, and Santamaria employed a quantitative method in their observational longitudinal panel study. Basically, these authors aimed to "develop a costing tool to quantify the direct cost of PI treatment in the residential aged care setting" (Wilson, Kappa, and Santamaria, 2019). The quantitative method is often used in nursing research as it provides objective data that the researcher can comfortably communicate through statistics and numbers (Sun et al., 2018). According to these authors, many scholars argue that quantitative research is more scientific than qualitative research, which best response to the scientific nature of the nursing demands, but this does not justify ignorance of qualitative methods in science-related fields. However, many scholars have ignored the qualitative method path arguing that it offers a simple description of content under study compared to a quantitative approach that provides sophisticated data analysis systems that quantitatively communicate data (Thompson et al., 2018). To this effect, it is imperative to consider the characteristics of research methods before choosing to understand the best that would respond to the topic based on its nature. Paying close attention to the quantitative approach as employed in this article, one can argue that though it provides logical statistics that give precise results on the topic, the need to incorporate a qualitative method was essential in analyzing the quality of responses from the interviewee. A quantitative method is a research approach that helps investigate a research problem. Based on Wilson, Kappa, and Santamaria's article, it is evident that these authors aimed at getting the exact figures about the costs of pressure injury treatment from a specific target audience. The fact that their main problem of study mostly involved statistics compared to the quality of responses, then the method employed remains the most viable. However, it is imperative to consider the main participants, who in this case are not data but a human who offer their responses through interviews, surveys, or any other form. Though the twenty participants may offer defined figures about costs incurred during their injury-treatment journey, the quantitative approach may limit them in elaborating on their experiences that would justify why such costs became realized. Then what are these features in a quantitative method that enhances the realization of statistics compared to defined quality responses that spell the reality of the experiences in any given situation? The quantitative method employs closed questions that provide a definite answer to satisfy its statistical approach to analyzing results. Though this approach has various advantages, like realizing objective data that the researcher can directly communicate through numbers and statistics, it denies the researcher a chance to have a detailed analysis of the problem that open-ended questions used in the qualitative method offer. Though the article's research findings offer quantified costs about the study problem, mixed approaches would have enhanced the realization of accurately calculated costs of pressure injuries allowing a logical judgment of such costs to the Australian economy from the selected sample participants. Sampling Wilson, Kappa, and Santamaria conducted this research using purposeful participants selected from the pressure injury population. In purposive sampling, the researcher selects a sample of participants based on their knowledge about the topic of study and the problem at large from a broader population perspective. Based on this quantitative study conducted in this article, it is evident that the sample participants being victims of pressure injuries and with vast knowledge of the costs incurred in every phase of their treatment had rich information in response to the problem of study. According to Palinkas et al. (2015), purposeful sampling is mainly used in qualitative research as it enhances the identification of information-rich in cases related to the topic of study. A quantitative approach in the analysis allows generalization of sample participants during their selection process as either way; their responses will directly indicate a yes or no to the questions asked. However, in qualitative research, the approach differs as it requires analysis of different views, suggestions, and all responses, whether direct or indirect, regarding the problem, studied. To this effect, employing a purposeful sample is of greater relevance to qualitative research. It allows the researcher to exhaust all the selected participants' information about the topic. In this article, the authors have chosen the sample participants based on the purpose of the sample, which allows for exact answers based on their experiences with PIs and costs incurred. However, if such a sample were employed in qualitative research, detailed explanations would have been offered to allow the researcher to have a deeper understanding of the primary triggers of the rising costs and thus strategize the best mode of addressing such economic threats in the long run. One can conclude that the selection approach enables the realization of great responses from experiences. The selection may be biased as most victims would wish to air their views. Ethics The article's authors under consideration have clearly outlined the ethics processes they followed while undertaking their study. Such a move proves essential as it demonstrates their respect for medical-related standards and principles while analyzing a problem, as argued by (Kara, 2018). It is imperative to remain considerate of the topics and seek the relevant authorities to approve any urge to investigate a sensitive issue, especially in science-related research. The authors of the reviewed article demonstrate adherence to the ethics process by identifying ethics approval from the Human Research Ethics Committee of the governing university and the participating aged care providers. The authors express significant consideration of the topic and the nature of its impact, thus conducting their research in line with the most preferred ethical measures to avoid inconveniences or unnecessary allegations in the long run. Conclusion Based on the nature of methodology, design, and sampling employed in the reviewed article, one can rate it as moderate since it used a single quantitative approach which yielded statistical results with little to no consideration of the quality of such responses. According to (Prasad, 2019), qualitative content analysis allows for more realistic results as it offers the researchers a chance to analyze an issue from a broader perspective than quantitative approaches, thus confirming the modernity of developments in quantitative research. Quality research proves essential as it offers the researcher and the target audiences substantial grounds for arguing the issue at hand, thus requiring a mixed approach of research methodologies while conducting nursing research (Doorenbos, 2014). There are no significant flaws in the article except that it lacks substantial facts to confirm the quantified costs of PIs, which call for further consideration of the topic using a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods. However, it is essential to acknowledge the authors' efforts in ensuring a readable article, well-presented results, and identifiable arguments justifying their focus throughout the study. References Doorenbos, A. Z. (2014). Mixed methods in nursing research: an overview and practical examples. Kango kenkyu. The Japanese journal of nursing research, 47(3), 207. Kara, H. (2018). Research ethics in the real world: Euro-Western and Indigenous perspectives. Policy Press. Palinkas, L. A., Horwitz, S. M., Green, C. A., Wisdom, J. P., Duan, N., & Hoagwood, K. (2015). Purposeful sampling for qualitative data collection and analysis in mixed method implementation research. Administration and policy in mental health and mental health services research, 42(5), 533-544. Prasad, B. D. (2019). Qualitative content analysis: Why is it still a path less taken?. SSOAR-Social Science Open Access Repository. Sun, F. K., Long, A., Chiang, C. Y., Huang, H. M., Hou, Y. C., & Yao, Y. (2018). Rationale underpinning postgraduate student nurses' choice of research methods used for their masters’ theses. Nurse education in practice, 33, 127-132. Thompson, L. M., Zablotska, L. B., Chen, J. L., Jong, S., Alkon, A., Lee, S. J., & Vlahov, D. (2018). Development of quantitative research skills competencies to improve doctor of philosophy nursing student training. Journal of Nursing Education, 57(8), 483-488. Wilson, L., Kapp, S., & Santamaria, N. (2019). The direct cost of pressure injuries in an Australian residential aged care setting. International wound journal, 16(1), 64-70.