Critical Appraisal of a Clinical Trial on an Educational Program to Decrease Monitor Alarms in a Medical Intensive Care Unit

Running head: NURSING
Critical appraisal
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1NURSING
Answers
1. The population of interest was registered nurses working at a 20-bedded MICU. The
sample population comprised of 54 RNs who were working in 0.2-1.0 full-time-
equivalent (FTE) designations (Brantley et al., 2016). The researchers accurately
described the sample recruitment site and convenience sampling technique. This
sampling technique allowed the researchers to select participants based on their
proximity and convenient accessibility to the researcher (Etikan, Musa & Alkassim,
2016).
2. Owing to the fact that this was a quantitative study, alarm data were pulled out from
already prevailing computer log files, in relation to occurrence of perceptible monitor
alarm signals. This was the primary measure, in addition to number of low Spo2
alarm signal events that were collected from bedside alarm history, with the help of
Alarm Reporting Tool (Brantley et al., 2016).
3. The data collection was quantitative in nature, which elaborates on the fact that the
researchers tried to draw definite conclusion by emphasizing on objective
measurement obtained by conducting numerical and statistical analysis of data
(LoBiondo-Wood & Haber, 2018). Conduction of χ2 analysis helped in establishing a
correlation between the dependent and independent variables (staff educational
program and rates of monitor alarms in ICU) (Test, 2015).
4. The participant assessment procedure comprised of development of a non-equivalent,
pre-intervention, and post-intervention group design that helped in evaluating the
impact of educational program on alarm management in a sample that comprised of
MICU nurses. The educational program was conducted in the form of a 15-minute
session that was provided on a weekly basis for modifying the high and low alarm
settings, based on presenting complaints of the patients (Brantley et al., 2016).