A 4 page article analysis that critiques a study performed by Aiken, et al (2003). The writer discusses the researchers' organization and presentation of their study, its significance, methodology and data, concluding that this is study was well conducted and significant. Bibliography lists 3 sources.
Name of Research Paper File: D0_khaiken.rtf
Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
and concise introduction that is quite convincing as to the need for this research. They begin their discussion of this research project by citing the chronic problem of nursing understaffing.
In a previous study, this research team determined the for each additional patient added to the workload of a staff RNs, the risk of death following surgery increased by 7
percent. Having shown that nursing staff is crucial to issues of mortality, Aiken, et al, address in this study how the educational levels of nursing staff could also be a
factor regarding mortality rates. The researchers cite statistics showing how the nature of nursing education for RNs has changed radically over the last several decades. While the majority of RNs
used to graduate from hospital diploma programs, today, the majority graduate from university baccalaureate programs. The research described in this article was designed to investigate what benefits, if any, derive
from this drastic change. As this suggests, the purpose for this study is clearly stated and supported. However, Aiken, et al (2003) do not provide an extensive review of the
literature as part of their argument. However, they do state that "little is known about whether the educational composition of registered nurses (RNs) in hospitals is related to patient outcomes"
(p. 1617). This suggests that the subject for this study is so under-researched that there are no previous studies to cite, which further indicates the importance of this research. A
quick survey of available online nursing databases confirms that there has been virtually no research on this topic. One article in the British Journal of Nursing was on this topic
("Death rates and nurses education, " 2003) but rather than cover additional research, it recapped the Aiken, et al study. Swindells and Willmott (2003) conducted a similar study in England