Reply to a peer’s post critiquing the methodology and applicability of their chosen studies. Use evidence-based literature to back your critique.

Qualitative
research

We
first must understand what qualitative research consists of, and how this
particular article fits these dimensions in making it true qualitative
research. Qualitative research describes feelings, objects, interviews, and places,
and uses surveys to gather information. These types of studies will normally
consist of smaller focus groups and have more subjective views and direct quotes.
Kraus¹ presents a qualitative research study that looks in depth at
the feelings of Certified registered nurse Anesthetists (CRNA) during the
COVID-19 pandemic.  The methodology was a
qualitative descriptive study that consisted of a focus group of 12 individuals
with a mean age of 46, a minimum age of 33 years old, and a maximum of 60 years
old. These interviews were conducted via telephone and all of the participants
consented before the start of the research study. The bulk of the information
that was gathered was based on five important themes that the researcher
believed were essential for the main topic “Experiences of CRNAs during
Covid-19”.  The researcher was able to
use these themes which consisted of the roles of CRNAs during COVID-19, the
collaboration that CRNAs experienced during the pandemic, the mental
implication for the CRNAs, and finally the last theme which consisted of the
pride in the profession. These were the foundation of the conceptual framework
that helped the researchers generate their results, which included that
Covid-19 did create some mental fatigue and even burn-out. More interesting, a
lot of the CRNAs build a sense of pride in their profession in relationship to
the positive impact that they were able to provide the hospital with their
skills during that time of need. According to the reports by Kraus¹
CRNAs were used as bedside nurses, they were placing central lines in critically
ill patients, and they were also considered the airway specialists intubating patients
one after another. The various roles of CRNAs during the Covid-19 showed how
diverse this profession is, and the multiple hats that CRNAs wore during the
pandemic. The strengths of qualitative research helps the reader understand the
feelings that are occurring within the study group and feel more of a
connection, the weakness of this approach is that it becomes subjective and
it’s open to interpretation which could have been a completely different point
of view from what the author intended it to be.

Quantitative
research

Requires
the researcher to obtain a larger group set, to obtain better numerical values
that will be beneficial for the computing of the data that then will be
presented to the reader. The information of the data can be viewed as numerical
or could be translated to a numerical value. This makes one of the key
differences between quantitative research versus qualitative. The information
obtained becomes more concrete versus subjective. The Quantitative research
article by Morrow² took an in-depth look at the number of CRNAs that
are performing Opioid-Free Anesthesia (OFA) and what were the actual barriers
to adopting this method.  The researcher
used a previous pilot study done in Arizona to determine the sample size that
was going to be needed to yield results. Morrow² determined the
population size was 56,000 CRNAs at the time of research, with that population
number an estimate of 351 respondents would help create a 95 % confidence level
with a 4.25 % precision. The researcher was only able to successfully have 339
CRNAs finish the survey which asked specific questions versus open-ended
questions. The finding of this article noted that CRNAs who were younger in
their 30s to mid-40s would perform OFA using peripheral nerve blocks as a
methods for pain control. Other findings that were noted were that CRNAs who
had a doctoral degree were more willing to try new techniques compared to the
CRNAs who have their bachelor’s with a certificate, which lacked exposure to
multimodal anesthetic plans during their initial training. The strength of this
method of research is that the actual numbers are data points that are derived
from larger sample sizes. This type of research gives the reader more information
and presents it with certainty. This type of research helps CRNAs that have
been in the field for a long time to view continuing education as a tool, to
keep relevant with new approaches/studies in anesthesia, especially when it
comes to dealing with pain control and the use of less narcotics. A separate
article written by Kamal³ emphasizes the importance of postgraduate
students attending conferences in their respective fields of study, and being
up to date with the current evidence-based practice models and techniques. The
weakness of this type of research is that the numbers could be potentially
skewed by the researcher to have a more favorable outcome to prove a certain
hypothesis provided by the researchers. Overall, I like this type of
quantitative research because, if there are numbers that do seem right, you as
the reader could verify the data points and determine if they a creditable or
not.

References

1.    
Kraus,
Mitchell,D.N.P., C.R.N.A., Montague, Emma,D.N.P., C.R.N.A., Krawczyk,
Susan,D.N.P., C.R.N.A., Simonovich SD,PhD.R.N. Called to Lead: A Qualitative
Examination of the Experiences and Contributions of Certified Registered Nurse
Anesthetists During the COVID-19 Pandemic Response in the United States. Aana
J. 2023;91(2):144-152. https://0634aeu20-mp03-y-https-www-proquest-com.prx-keiser.lirn.net/scholarly-journals/called-lead-qualitative-examination-experiences/docview/2805237175/se-2

2.    
 Morrow, Morgan,D.N.A.P., C.R.N.A., Gibson,
Amanda,D.N.A.P., C.R.N.A., Stein A, PhD., Burns, Sharon,EdD., C.R.N.A.
Opioid-Free Anesthesia and Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists: Barriers to
Implementation. Aana J. 2022;90(2):127-132. https://0634a3ujr-mp01-y-https-www-proquest-com.prx-keiser.lirn.net/scholarly-journals/opioid-free-anesthesia-certified-registered-nurse/docview/2712891885/se-2

3.    
 Kamal M, Bhargava S, Katyal S. Role of
conferences and continuing medical education (CME) in post-graduate anaesthesia
education. Indian Journal of Anesthesia. 2022;66(1):82-84.
doi:https://0634a3vba-mp01-y-https-doi-org.prx-keiser.lirn.net/10.4103/ija.ija_1102_21