Nontechnical skills of the operating theatre circulating nurse: An ethnographic study - Article Analysis

Running head: ARTICLE ANALYSIS 1
Redaelli, I., 2018. Nontechnical skills of the operating theatre circulating nurse: An ethnographic study. Journal of Advanced Nursing, pp. 2851-
2859 Critique
Student’s Name
University

ARTICLE ANALYSIS 2
Redaelli, I., 2018. Nontechnical skills of the operating theatre circulating nurse: An ethnographic study. Journal of Advanced Nursing,
pp. 2851-2859 Critique
Journal and Authors
 Is the journal peer reviewed?
 Do the authors have the appropriate
expertise to conduct such a study?
This was a peer reviewed article from the Journal of Advanced Nursing which has been reviewed
by experts in the field of practice before being published.
The author is an independent researcher in the field of nursing with expertise and authority. She is
a current clinician nurse and a Ph.D. holder which gives her enough authority to work in this field.
Title and abstract.
 Is the title of the research paper congruent
with the text?
 Were the aims and/or objectives stated?
 Does the abstract contain sufficient
information about the stages of the research
process?
The title of the subject is clear since it focusses on the non-technical skills that circulating nurses
require which shows that the article is an ethnographic study. A good research article is supposed
to have a clear title they make it easy for the reader to connect the title or subject of study and the
method that was used. By having keywords like nontechnical skills and circulating nurse, it
becomes easy to search the article in databases.
The abstract of the article gives the aim, background, design, methods, results, and conclusion of
the study. The abstract gives a glimpse of the article by highlighting the summary of the whole
article (Howell 2103, p. 15). A good abstract is supposed to offer an overview of the whole
research which allows the reader to understand what the whole result entailed. It is also supposed

ARTICLE ANALYSIS 3
to offer keywords that define the content of the research. Thus this article has been presented well
focusing on the sections that have been listed above but the authors did not highlight the aims and
objects of the study in the abstract. Despite that, the abstract covers enough details that meet the
needs of the researcher.
Identifying the phenomenon.
 Is the phenomenon focused on human
experience withinthenatural setting for that
particular phenomenon?
 Is the phenomenon relevant to nursing,
midwifery and/or health?
The focus of the phenomenon is to understand the nontechnical skills of nurses when working
within clinical settings. This has been adequately detailed in the study making it easy for the
reader to understand the requirements of the study. The study was done in an Italian hospital with
six operational rooms. The focus of the study was in different surgical rooms where surgery was
being done. The settings and the phenomenon for this study are highly relevant to the field of
nursing since these skills are necessary for nurses to deliver quality care work within the surgical
room. Since surgical rooms require the presence of circulating nurses, then the nontechnical skills
are important in increasing patient safety. According to Redaelli (2018, p. 2852), most literature
that exists fails to explain the skills required in surgical areas. Colquitt & George (2011, p. 433)
states that a good grand research is supposed to build on the existing research by identifying the
gaps in the literature to formulate a study that seeks to address these gaps. This study builds on
the findings of this study by identifying the gaps in cognitive and social skills that circulating

ARTICLE ANALYSIS 4
nurses require. It is from these gaps that the study is developed to find the limitations that have
existed in other studies.
Structuring the study
 How was published literature used in the
study?
 What was the theoretical framework chosen
and is it clearly stated?
 Does the theoretical framework fit the
research question?
Bhakar & Nathani (2015, p. 28) suggests that the role of previous literature is to offer background
information on the topic and gaps that exist in the field of study. The literature used for the
background of this study was based on previous research studies that have been done on the
subject by identifying their strengths and the gaps that they have. The literature offers background
information on the topic but has not sued any theoretical framework that was used to assess the
study. The literature offers clear background information on the topic which makes it easy to offer
an overview on the topic.
Context and participants
 Is the context (participant, group, place)
clearly discussed? Does the context fit with
the research question and methodology?
The participants of the study were surgical nurses working in different surgical rooms. Since this
was an ethnographic study, the observation was done in the operating department of a hospital
with six operating rooms located in northern Italy. This context fits the research question since
ethnographic studies entail studying participants in their original settings thus the findings are