Critique of a Research Article
In the area of research, undertaking a paper which meets all professional requirements is a challenging affair especially where it deals with health care issues. This paper critiques a healthcare article authored by Boreland, Scott-Hudson, Hetherington, Frussinetty, & Slyer, (2015) by the title, “The effectiveness of tight glycemic control on decreasing surgical site infections and readmission rates in adult patients with diabetes undergoing cardiac surgery: A systematic review.” The title of the research paper clearly states the objectives and the bases of the research which was being explored. The title of the research uses extraneous words, extensively broad and delicately explains the results which are to be expected in the research. The research objective of the article is to review the impact of tight glycemic control by continuous infusion of insulin to achieve levels of glucose in blood on infections of surgical sites. This was done on the premise of the rate or readmission rate of diabetic patients after surgical operations.
In their meta-analysis of the study subject, the authors attempt to systematically examine the impact of the use of tight glycemic control and its effects in decrease infections in surgical sights which would then correlate to the readmission rate of diabetic patients. In this case, the Boreland, Scott-Hudson, Hetherington, Frussinetty, & Slyer attempt to determine acutely ill patients of diabetes can be alleviated from the perils of surgical infections during surgery, by using tight glycemic control. They hold the belief that research which was held before by other researchers provided insufficient findings on the effects of tight glycemic control on diabetic patients during surgical applications. Therefore, their research was intended to corroborate the research on the subject matter by infusing its findings and then drawing a balance between the two to create a conclusive finding for the subject matter. Tonelli, Hackam & Garg, (2008) suggests that a critique of a research paper would find and utilize all the research which has been undertaken to comprehensively answer a specific topic and a compilation of all of the information regarding the subject matter for reading assessment.
There is minimal use of literature review in this article and is infused in the introductory part of it. It is fundamental for a research paper to have a literature review because it guides the paper by providing written information on a subject under investigation by a researcher (Forceville, 2006). The paper uses samples of paper which have been done previously regarding diabetic patients and glycemic conditions. The authors then infuse the information from the literature which had undertaken systematic research on matters of heart diseases, cardiac surgery, glycemic control, and diabetes. The paper used validation for their research by citing several research articles by the American Disease and Prevention control, Diabetes Association, American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, The Society of Thoracic Surgeons, among others. They isolated and used those research publications which were relevant to their field of study and used them as corroborating factors to yield concrete conclusions for their research.
The article is relevant to today’s health matters because diabetes is one of the chronic diseases which claim millions of lives worldwide. Since there is no cure for diabetes, appreciate mitigation procedures are necessary to lengthen the days of the victims. In clinical matters, glycemic control is relevant because it can prevent the onset and progression of microvascular complications. Studies have shown that glycemic control has a high correlation with either the onset or the progression of nephropathy and retinopathy. However, those patients already with cardiovascular diseases would not benefit from the glycemic control. However, those patients who have been newly diagnosed with diabetes can benefit from glycemic control in both short terms and long terms effects. For short term, it can it can aid a patient from contracting a cardiovascular complication while on the long term it can hinder death from the disease or serve as myocardial infarction prevention.
There have been increased numbers of older populations would wide undergoing surgical operations, where it is the age where diabetes is more prone. In these surgical operations, the medical care quality is a matter of concern, with the site of the surgery being scrutinized. Research conducted on glycemic control have shown that application of strict glycemic control on patients can lower the risks of surgical sites from developing infections. The application of glycemic control reduces the risk of developing SSIs for those patients undergoing surgical operations. However, what the article did not point out is that there can be adverse outcomes for patients who have cardiac operations under tight glycemic control. Notably, this can cause the patient to suffer cardiac arrest which can lead to death or develop into other complications. However, the study is relevant to today’s society because diabetes and other related complications are very prevalent and continue to claim many lives.
The authors of the article have employed a quasi-experimental approach among other aspects of research methodologies to arrive into a conclusion. However, they do not give a theoretical framework on which their research is founded on. The research was more inclined into the negation or justification of the application of tight glycemic control on patients who are suffering from diabetes. It follows an empirical pattern of analysis of the subject matter to conclude the study subject being undertaken. However, the absence of the mentioning of the theoretical framework gives the article a validation of systemic scientific elements which makes it credible and scientifically legitimate. The research has followed a qualitative approach in its analysis of the data findings. Qualitative research is highly regarded as an inductive process, where it is done in a natural environment to give insights to several subjective experiences of research (St. Pierre & Jackson, 2014).
Since the study has deployed a systematic review of the literature and publication which have dealt with tight glycemic control on surgical sites operations. The methodology which was used for collection of the data from the publications was done in three phases. One of the criteria is on the publication which has intensive use of the keywords relevant to the study subject. Secondly, the keywords were subjected to them and lastly, a search for references with the same index terms and keywords. They provided a correlational chart which the reader can use to understand how literature was selected for mining of information regarding the tight glycemic control. On this part, the authors have provided a complete reference list of the articles, publications and the sites which they were extracted from.
The collection of the literature for their research is authentic and give the research a legitimate measure which is necessary for validating conclusions which they will draw from the data. They have given a clear overview of how the data was mined from the publications for analysis and how data was synthesized digitally, with years of the dates of research on the publications being given a span of 14 years. More relevant is the way in which the samples of the population used for data in the article are extracted from a publication from all over the world. This gives the research a broader perspective on the samples taken to conclude from for the research. There is a chronological and logical way in which results are derived from the results as analyzed from the data.
The authors provide the reader or medical practitioners with a systematic approach to the way tight glycemic control could be used on diabetic patients. The results as derived from the research are very logical, and the authors have given the reader a disclaimer on the limitations of the study. The authors advise that the research results could be used for clinical use only as they can have adverse effects if used by people with limited understanding of tight glycemic control. The conclusions are given in a tabulated format, and each result is given with relevant evidence. The results can be applied for clinical services because they have been drawn from various publications where the authors have had both experimental and non-experimental methodologies of data collection. The conclusions are derived logically,and it is prudent they be applied in a clinical environment. Using the findings from the data collected, the authors found out that the application of tight glycemic control has a huge impact in controlling blood glucose on surgical cardiac wounds to patients who have diabetes.
The study is done in an excellent scientific and professional manner, and there is no other way a quasi-experimental study could be done any better. The research is done delicately, taking care of the shortcomings which might arise from the study limitations from the publications. Every evidence to support their findings is given regarding the benefits which can be realized for the infusing of tight glycemic control during cardiac surgical operations. However, they try to give the dangers associated with the practice, something which is essential because they believe that the research can be used for clinical operations.
The writings for this research are straightforward. However, it is commendable in how they give guarded advice because the practice can be influenced by many variables and alter the results from one patient to another. They provide an analysis of how their research can be used for clinical service and lament the way some of the health sites usually do not update their data, an aspect which can lead to their findings not being used for clinical purposes in the near future. Diabetes is a disease which is ravaging the world population, and a cure has not been found yet. Therefore, as scientific research on the disease continues, there is a need for continued improvement and conducting of more research to better the application to tight glycemic control on surgical sites infections. This would lead to the development of better ways to cater to the probable adverse effects such as cardiac arrest or death, which can be caused by application of the tight glycemic control.
To conclude, the article is done professionally and scientifically to address the subject matter. The recommendations which the authors possess both warnings and advise, such that the application of tight glycemic control can lead to reduction site infections during surgery, which would, in turn, lead to a reduction of readmission cases of those who have had surgery. The article has painstakingly undertaken the necessary steps of research to provide scientifically legitimate findings, which can be used in clinical practice.
References
Boreland, L., Scott-Hudson, M., Hetherington, K., Frussinetty, A., & Slyer, J. (2008). The effectiveness of tight glycemic control on decreasing surgical site infections and readmission rates in adult patients with diabetes undergoing cardiac surgery: A systematic review. Heart & Lung, 1-11.
Forceville, C. (2006). Book Review: Corpus Approaches to Critical Metaphor Analysis. Language And Literature, 15(4), 402-405. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0963947006068661
St. Pierre, E., & Jackson, A. (2014). Qualitative Data Analysis After Coding. Qualitative Inquiry, 20(6), 715-719. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1077800414532435
Tonelli, M., Hackam, D., & Garg, A. (2008). Systematic Review and Meta-analysis: When One Study Is Just Not Enough. Division Of Nephrology And Department Of Epidemiology And Biostatistics, University Of Western Ontario, London, And †Division Of Clinical Pharmacology And Toxicology, University Of Toronto, And Cardiac Rehabilitation And Secondary Prevention Program, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, Toronto, Ontario, And ‡Division Of Nephrology And Department Of Public Health Sciences, University Of Alberta, And Institute Of Health Economics, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, Clin J Am Soc Nephrol(3), 253–260.
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