Pilot study:The effect of Healing touch on anxiety, stress, pain, medication usage and physiologicalmeasures in hospitalized sickle cell disease adults experiencing a vaso-occlusive pain episode

Critical Thinking, Part 2
**Please note: Your responses should be your own words and written in complete sentences. “Yes” or “no” answers will not be accepted . Except for section 1, your responses should include an explanation/rationale. N/A responses require justification of why that criteria/question does not pertain to your article.
1. Selected Article
APA formatted citation.

2. Credentials
What are the credentials of the first author? What do the credentials mean? For example, a BSN refers to a baccalaureate in nursing which indicates that the author has successfully completed a 4 year Bachelors of Science Degree in nursing at a University setting. RN means that the author is a nurse who has graduated from a college’s nursing program or from a school of nursing and has passed a national licensing exam and is registered in a particular state(s). Only respond to the credentials listed for the first author. Do not assume other credentials. In addition, related the meaning of the first authors credentials to the competencies identified by the American Association of the College of Nursing (AACN)
Answer in table format: First Column the credential (s), second column-include what the credentials mean and the third column will need to relate to the AACN criteria or the level of education of the first author.

3. Title
3a: Is the focus of the study apparent in the title? Can you specifically identify that this is a research study from the title?

3 b: Can you tell the phenomenon of interest (PoI) for the study from reading the title? What is the PoI and why could you identify it from the title?

4. Abstract
4a: Are the essential contents of the research in the abstract? (Hypothesis, research question, objectives, focus, methods, analysis, description of the research and the major findings)

4b: Copy the abstract provided and highlight and underline those components essential to an abstract. If your article does not have an abstract, then you should just state “Not Applicable”.
NOTE: Use APA 6th edition

5. The Research Problem
5a: State the research problem. On what page of the article is the research problem found? (Hint: you may not find the term exact wording “research problem”. Frequently found in the introduction but not always.

5b: Are the problem/phenomenon/question/objectives/focus/aims of interest clearly identified?

5c: Is the rationale (reason) for selecting the problem or significance of the problem clearly identified? This is usually found in the introduction/background.

5d: If applicable, does the problem statement give precise information about the independent (IV) and dependent variables (DV)? Identify the IV and DV for your study. State the page number you found this information.

5e: Are operational and /or conceptual definitions of terms provided for a clear understanding of the study included Write the definition(s) as the author provides. Include the page number if found. If not included, what operational definitions would you suggest to be included in this study report?

6. Review of Literature- Remember ROL is what is known and not known about a phenomenon of interest.
6a: Is the review of the literature relevant to the study? Is the relationship of the problem/question/hypothesis to previous research clear?

6b: Are primary sources used in the review of the literature?
6c: Are secondary sources used in the review of the literature? Identify all secondary sources. Use proper APA format. (Note: There should be very, very few secondary sources

6d: Does the review of literature include recent literature? What is the range of years for the review of the literature? What page (s) did you find the review of the literature? What heading was used to identify the review of the literature?

6e: Do the authors identify what is known and not known about the phenomenon of interest? Was it clear to you what is already known about this phenomenon and what needs to be known?

6f: Does the review of the literature end with a brief summary of the literature and its implications for the problem? What page number did you find this summary and what specific paragraph?

7. Theoretical/Conceptual Framework (Chapter 4)
NOTE: Numerous studies do not indicate a theoretical or conceptual framework. You will need to look
7a: Is there a theoretical/conceptual framework identified and if so, what is the theoretical/conceptual framework? Is it a nursing framework? If not a nursing framework, what discipline is the origin of the framework/theory? State the page number.

7b: Is the framework, if identified, appropriate or a good fit for the research problem?

8. Research Variables and the Hypothesis
8a: Did the author explicitly state a hypothesis of any type? State page number

8b: If so, what is the hypothesis?

8c: What kind of hypothesis is presented? (Null? Direct? Associative? Etc.) Answer NA if the author did not provide a hypothesis.

8d: Did the hypothesis contain the population, intervention, comparison and outcome? If no hypothesis was provided-what hypothesis might you suggest? Is your suggested hypothesis written as directional? Null?

9. Research Design/Method
9a: What is the research design/method (blueprint) of the study? Where did you find this information? Include page number and quote from the article
9b: Is the design (you must understand the design to answer this question) of the study related to the way the data were collected, analyzed and reported?

9c: Does the design compensate for threats to internal and external validity of the study? If yes, which one. Identify each threat and discuss.
9d: How many groups were involved in the study? How were participants assigned to groups?
9e: If comparison groups were used, were they equivalent?
9f: Are important, uncontrolled, extraneous (AKA: intervening, mediating, confounding) variables identified and described?
10. Sample Selection
10a: Did the authors study a population or sample? (State the page number you found this information)
10b: Are the characteristics (demographics) of the sample/participant group described? State the page number where this information is found. Include a brief description of the sample. Do not just indicate that it can be found in a table.
NOTE: This information is often presented in a table format.

10c: What was the inclusion/exclusion criteria related to the population/sample, if specified? State the page number where this information is found.

10d: What sampling design did the authors report? Did they clearly describe the way they obtained (recruited) the sample? Where did you locate this information in the article?

10e: Is the sampling design one that is likely to produce a representative sample? Is this important to the methodology? How will this sampling design affect generalizability)?
NOTE: For some types of research, representativeness is not important. It depends on the design of the study.
10f: Is the sample size sufficient, given the design of the study and/or the number of variables in the study? Does the study discuss power analysis? Is power analysis even appropriate for the design of the study? If your answer to power analysis is yes, please provide the page number(s) where this was addressed. If you say yes and no power analysis is provided-discuss your rationale for your response.

10g: Does the report indicate the response rate (i.e. the percentage of contacted persons agreeing to participate in the study) State the page number found. With the information provided is it possible for you to calculate the response rate?
Please add your additional references here using APA format.
Use of APA according to the Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th Ed.).
Additionally, use of good grammar, spelling and proofreading work is required.

 

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