Article Critical Review
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about serious implications across all industries. Among the most affected industries is the healthcare sector, in which hospitals have been forced to alter their methods of operation to protect their workers from the disease while providing care to patients diagnosed with COVID-19. As a result, nurses have submitted diverse opinions concerning their experiences during the pandemic. The article Nurses’ perspectives of taking care of patients with Coronavirus disease 2019: A phenomenological study by Rathnayake et al. (2021) investigates nurses’ perceptions regarding changes in their working conditions that have resulted in the increased infection rates of COVID-19 globally. The study aimed to explore the experiences and challenges of nurses who had been providing care to hospitalized patients with COVID-19. To achieve the study objective, the researcher conducted a qualitative study involving a purposive sample of 14 nurses. The study mainly focused on assessing the physical and psychological distress experienced by nurses during the pandemic, their level of motivation, the role played by support mechanisms, their key educational needs, and how modern technologies supported COVID-19 care. This study seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of concepts and strategies used by the researcher throughout the research process. Although the study developed a realistic conclusion, its inclusion criteria and sampling strategy might have attracted biased conclusions.
The study employed a qualitative study involving a snowball sampling strategy. Study participants included nurses caring for COVID-19 patients in various hospitals in Sri Lanka. The sample was selected purposively through social media networks. During the initial selection of the sample, the researchers used their judgment to choose nurses (Rathnayake et al. 2021). The selected sample was then used during the snowball sampling process, during which they made suggestions concerning other individuals who could provide the information required in the study. The sample size was determined through data saturation, through which nurses who could not speak Sinhala and those who worked in private hospitals were excluded from the study. Although the selected sample provided the researcher with the required information, the sampling strategy used in the study might have attracted biased conclusions. According to Bhardwaj (2019), a snowball sampling strategy is blamed for impeding the detection of an error in research since people refer to those they know and have similar traits (p. 157). Therefore, the information collected by the researcher might have been prone to prejudice.
Moreover, the inclusion and exclusion criteria used in the study indicate a possibility for biased conclusions. The study allowed nurses who provided care to COVID-19 patients in public hospitals to participate in the research process. As a result, the researcher failed to analyze the challenges experienced by nurses who provided care to COVID-19 patients in private hospitals. Since it could be possible that nurses in private hospitals were exposed to different situations from those in public facilities, the researcher ought to have included both groups to assess for any significant difference in their motivation, physical and psychological distress, and educational needs. Also, the study excluded nurses who could not speak Sinhala. Such an exclusion criterion implies that the study did not observe inclusivity. Therefore, the inferences developed could have influenced the participants’ sociocultural backgrounds.
I believe the study effectively analyzed the nurses’ perspectives on caring for patients with Coronavirus. However, the study findings could have been optimized using a larger sample, embracing sociocultural diversity among participants, and using a probabilistic sampling strategy. The study could also have included different types of healthcare professionals working for different types of organizations. Such a strategy could have provided a more accurate conclusion concerning the research question.
References
Rathnayake, S., Dasanayake, D., Maithreepala, S. D., Ekanayake, R., & Basnayake, P. L. (2021). Nurses’ perspectives of caring for patients with Coronavirus disease 2019: A phenomenological study. Plos one, 16(9), e0257064. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257064
Bhardwaj, P. (2019). Types of sampling in research. Journal of the Practice of Cardiovascular Sciences, 5(3), 157. https://www.j-pcs.org/article.asp?issn=2395-5414;year=2019;volume=5;issue=3;spage=157;epage=163;aulast=Bhardwaj
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