The utilization of the best clinical and medical evidence to make patient care decisions is termed as evidence based practice. These evidences are generally, reached upon from research carried out by health care professionals, nurses or any other person having an interest in the medico-clinic sector. Therefore, research can be said to be a systematic probe or inquiry that applies disciplined and well-structured methods to give answers to questions or put forth proposals of solving problems (Ryan, Coughlan, & Cronin, 2007). Research in nursing as one of the key sectors in the health care system has seen remarkable growth and expansion in the past decades. This has provided nurses with an increased sound and clear evidence ground from which to perform their practice.
Many questions still endure and much is yet to be carried out in incorporate and integrating research based evidence into nursing. The exactness, authenticity, and reliability of the research findings need to be examined critically by careful analysis as to give an in-depth or broader understanding in determining the appropriate evidence for use in practice and providing a platform for conducting further research. This article “The Experiences of Inactive Nurses Returned to Nursing after Completing a Refresher Course” by Victoria R. Hammer vividly exposes and acknowledges the need for the state to return the inactive nurses to service a solution to the increasing shortage nurses which may affect the next decades if nothing is done.
Live saving practices such as nursing, ought to be given an upper hand, and its staff should be maintained and updated occasionally. Shortage of nurses will give indications of poor patients’ care that may calumniate to increase the spread of diseases and increased mortality rates. The experiences of the inactive nurses after their return to the practice can be used significantly in evidence-based practice to help improve patients’ health. Despite the adequate description of the significance of the study, as a study to describe the experiences that a selected group of nurses went through in the process of being refreshed and returned to practice, and their perspective of the meaning of their experiences, the research fails to describe its purpose clearly. The focus in the study was the experiences encountered by the nurses who finished an independent study refresher course for RNs from a Midwestern university between the years 2000 to 2005.
The interpretations of the quotes and questions help in understanding the themes more vividly. A reason such as, their return to the service was for the fulfillment of their purpose in life and that they had taken time to reflect on what was important to them, gives more insight for their willingness to attend the fresher training so as to return to the service. The three themes relating to experiences in the locating of the refresher course included the Internet, word of mouth, and the State Board of Nursing. The themes relating to supports in completing the refresher course are understood more by the explanation of the involvement of their families, allies, mentors, self motivation, and self regulated study. Other themes such as themes relating to barriers, seeking of employment as a fresher nurse, and experience during the first months of employment were well interpreted.
The methodology adopted does not raise any suspicion, as it meets nearly all conditions for methodology congruence. The criteria adopted for conducting the study, included choosing participants who had successfully completion of the refresher course, were employment in nursing within 6 months after course completion, lived within driving distance of the research centre, had the will to engage in face-to-face interviews, and were enthusiastic to permit the researcher to review the conducted interviews for themes. Prospective participants were sermons by the university to ask for permission to give their names to the researcher. Nine willing participants who met the criteria received invitation letters. Participants were contacted through telephones to set up the other procedures of the interview.
The face-to-face interview was performed for each participant who was issued with a copy of the interview questions. The use of digital voice recorders, coded by number and date for the entire duration of the interviews, provided an easy mechanism to review the interviews. The researcher’s observations hand written notes were made soon after the completion of each interview, and the participants’ data and information were kept in separate files. The researcher, with the help of his team reviewed analyzed the transcriptions to ascertain that quotes and themes supported the main theme. The researcher further kept an audit trail to detail the decision points, procedures, and methods used in conducting the study.
The only sort comings noted in the methodology adopted was the inadequacy in the sampling procedure of the participants and the lack of description of the researcher’s role. Otherwise, a careful attention to procedural approach was observed, with the identification of the theoretical base of the study; no assumptions were made. Sufficient trust, an open dialogue, and conversational approach were adopted, adequate time was located for the interviewers, and the method of access to them was logical. The findings reveal that the participants described the phenomenon being interviewed and that the findings were validated by the data. The data presented in the research was of enough depth to support the conclusions, that track keeping of inactive nurses and intentional plan for their come back to the service could help solve the nursing shortage at present and in the coming decade.
The analytical and interpretive preciseness was quite accurate and well managed. The categories, themes, or findings presented a whole picture of the study and the findings yielded a meaningful picture of experiences encountered by the inactive nurses who returned to the practice after attending a refresher course. The findings in the interviews, which were audio taped, and noted down by the researcher, were returned to the participants for reviewing. The researcher together with the peer briefer conducted the data analysis.
The audiotaped interviews were transcribed after being transferred to a computer database. Participants along with the researcher then reviewed and verified the exactness and accuracy of the transcriptions. A pseudonym was given to participant-approved transcriptions and was differentiated from the participants’ identification details. Selected two participants took part in reviewing the themes while another member checked to determine the truth in the interpretations of the researcher’s.
The research depicts philosophical connectedness to the topic as its findings and data clearly connected to the nursing practice. The findings show the importance of the refresher course to the inactive nurse and outline their experiences, which can be used to improve the patients’ health care system. The researcher identified the philosophical basis for the study by acknowledging that there was a decline in the number of nurses in the country and re-employment of inactive nurses was the right way to go. The researcher made some citations from individual writers and institutions in his approach of the study. He refers to people like, Al-den & Carrozza, 1997, p. 14; Hawley & Foley, 2004; Roberts, Brannan, & White, 2005; and Berliner & Ginzberg, 2002 among others. The philosophical basis of the study was consistent with the study assumptions that the nurses need a refresher course before being inducted, the data collection, analysis, and interpretation.
The researcher provided citations for the philosophical approach adopted. The research holds a lot of relevance to the nursing community. The phenomenon described in the study can be well recognized as it relates and touches the concerns of every one. Decrease in the nursing staffs who maintain the hospitals always draw concerns; therefore, the need to increase the number of nurses is of great importance. The findings of the research are consistent with common experiences going on in the health care system, and relates directly to their needs. The research sufficiently examined the existing need of having inactive nurses, undertake a refresher course, so as to actively again take up their key role of life saving. This being the first research of its kind, the researcher did not make any comparison and contrast to the findings with those of other studies. He instead makes recommendations.
The research holds a lot of applicability to nursing practice, in that if the experiences of the refreshed nurses are positive, then, the process is to be encouraged, so that more nurses can be brought back to the life-saving practice. The research points out being refreshed or rather being re-educated on the finer details of the profession, as the key to being re-employed. This gives the findings a lot of relevant to nursing. Findings in the research provide more information on the experiences of the refreshed nurses, who rejoin the survivors. It is clear that the nurses’ experiences were not only centered at the work place or the training center, but it was also on financial benefits, children, purpose in life, family and friends, self-centered hard work and mentors. The researcher concludes his work by giving recommendations, and a list of reference to be considered while going through this work. However, he fails to indicate any suggestions for further study.
This article holds quality and substance in respect to the phenomenon that it discusses. Despite a few discrepancies such as the sampling techniques adopted, the article vividly paints the picture of the refreshed nurses and the need to have then return to the practice. The findings on their experiences underlined the meaning of the research.
