Introduction
Nurses play a significant role in caring for the aged, therefore mitigating the challenges in the healthcare system. Many nurses have resigned due to increased work pressure and feeling of being undervalued. With growing challenges within the healthcare system, various nursing roles have arisen through task specialization. The article “Nurses in the Lead: A Qualitative Study on the Development of Distinct Nursing Roles in Daily Practice” fills the gap in the research on nursing roles’ development. Jannine von Schothorst and others studied nurses in a Dutch teaching hospital that adopted an experimental development process. While the paper expounds on the formulation of nursing roles between the different educational levels, there are many generalizations and preliminary cohort studies in the research. The essay critically analyzes the research by discussing its strengths and weaknesses.
Article Summary
The research aimed at understanding the formulation of role distinction among nurses of different educational levels. The research adopted an ethnographic case study which requires observation of study subjects in their real-world environment. The research was conducted in a Dutch teaching hospital with a bed capacity of 481 and 2600 employees, including 800 nurses (van Schothorst–van Roekel et al., 2021). Researchers sampled the wards by selecting two general and two specific care wards. The researchers observed that the hospital nurses developed new role distinctions through small-change experiments through their data analysis.
Therefore, they concluded that small exchanged experiments, actions, and appraisals, clarified differences between nurses’ roles.
Analysis
The research presents several strengths that could validate its results and conclusion. The researchers used an ethnographic case study to observe and shadow the nurses. Ethnographic research helps identify and analyze unexpected issues since it involves direct interactions with the study subject (Verd et al., 2021). Furthermore, the research was conducted between July 2017 and January 2019 (van Schothorst–van Roekel et al., 2021). The period of study was sufficient enough to make valid observations. Also, the choice of study setting was relevant since the researchers could study nurses of different educational levels. Therefore, using an ethnographic case study, a long study period, and an appropriate research setting could have contributed to valid research observations and conclusions. However, the research presented several weaknesses that could invalidate its findings.
As reflected in the research article, the generalization of nurses fails to provide causal link evidence for subgroups and nurses in general. The number of nurses that participated in the study was too insignificant to generalize with the existing worldwide population of nurses. Also, the study focused on the development of nurses’ roles’ distinction within the Dutch context only. Therefore, other countries such as the United States and Canada could not be subjected to the findings given the distinct cultural differences that shape social structures within healthcare systems. Cultural influences the behaviors and ethics among nurses and possibly affect their perspective in different roles (Karatuna et al., 2020). Furthermore, observation as a data collection technique could be inaccurate due to behavioral changes among the nurses. Therefore, the research presented several weaknesses that could inaccurately present the findings and conclusion.
Conclusion
Nurses are of different educational levels and therefore take part in distinct roles in a healthcare center. However, role distinction among nurses has been ignored in medical research. The study conducted in a Dutch hospital by Jannine von Schothorst and others helps people comprehend the nursing roles’ distinction formulation s between different educational levels. The researchers concluded that small-exchange experiments clarified the role distinctions among nurses. Although their choice of research method and period validates their results, generalization and biased research method invalidate their conclusion.
References
Karatuna, I., Jönsson, S., & Muhonen, T. (2020). Workplace bullying in the Nursing Profession: A Cross-cultural Scoping Review. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 111, 103628. Web.
van Schothorst–van Roekel, J., Weggelaar-Jansen, A. M. J., Hilders, C. C., De Bont, A. A., & Wallenburg, I. (2021). Nurses in the lead: A Qualitative Study on the Development of Distinct Nursing Roles in Daily Nursing Practice. BMC Nursing, 20(1), 1-11. Web.
Verd, J. M., Barranco, O., & Lozares, C. (2021). Blending the Focused Ethnographic Method and Case Study Research: Implications Regarding Case Selection and Generalization of Results. Field Methods, 33(1), 25-41. Web.