Analysis of a Randomized Controlled Trial on the Effectiveness of Nursing Practice Services

Article Analysis: Wang, C., Schmid, C. H., Fielding, R. A., Harvey, W. F., Reid, K. F., Price, L.
L., . . . McAlindon, T. (2018). Effect of tai chi versus aerobic exercise for fibromyalgia:
comparative effectiveness randomized controlled trial. BMJ, 360(851).
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Introduction
The role of randomized control trials is to test the effectiveness of a certain medical or
any other intervention that is done on patients. This is through using the control group whose
findings are compared with those that are gathered from the general group.
Section A: Are the results of the trial valid?
The focus of Wang et al. (2018) trial was to compare the effectiveness of nursing practice
services and standard medical care in the emergency department in hospitals. The study used
patient that were presented in the emergency department with primary analgesia within 30
minutes from being seen. The trial included 260 patients who were all engaged in the study to
measure the outcome of the study process. The primary outcome for this study was the
proportion of patients that received analgesia within 30 minutes while the secondary outcome
was the time of analgesia from the time the patient presented pain and the changes in the scores.
Patients were randomly assigned to the two study groups where any patient cod fall in
any group. The assignment to the groups was blinded and patients could not understand the
group that they had been assigned to for increasing the validity of the data and reducing bias.
Analysis of the patients was done based on the groups that they belonged to within the
requirements of the NP or ED medical care group. Zhong (2019) suggestst that blinded studies
have been regarded as offering the best outcome since they ensure that the participants are placed
in different groups without knowing that one group is controlled to increase the outcome of the
results. To the collected data more valid, the researchers were also blinded in the study so that
they did not know which group was the control and which one was not.
Baker, et al. (2017) suggests that the success of any randomized control trial is based on
the ability of the researcher to account for all participants in the study at the end of the research.

This increases the confidence level of the study by ensuring that the findings are valid. Since the
participants in the study were not aware of the groups that they belonged to, they participated in
the study until the end of the study. Further, all patients were analyzed within the groups that
they belonged to which made it easy to account for the two groups. This trial is highly valid
because the participants took place until the end and the trail was not stopped on the way. The
health workers and the study personnel were all blind to the treatment and did not specifically
understand which group was the control and which one was not. Blinding reduces bias and
increases validity of the data that is collected since it prevents manipulation of the data by the
health and research teams to favor their needs.
All the groups were similar at the start of the trail since the criteria for capturing the
patients to be included in both groups was the same. This was the patients that were presenting to
ED with pain complaints and had been allocated analgesia for their episodes were eligible for
being included in the randomized trial. This means that pain was the primary identifier for
patients that were eligible to participate in the study (Bondemark & Ruf, 2015). The randomized
allocation was based on every 4th patient that was used to allocate the patients to the trial. The
participants in the group were supposed to be aged between 17-80 years with admission to the
ED department with pain as the main indicator that qualified the patient for inclusion in the trial.
The role of control experiments is not to make the groups different but rather applying unbiased
control to measure the differences in the outcomes.
All the groups were treated similarly since the patients in both the groups had come to the
facility with analgesia and needed treatment. This means that the standard medical care that the
patients are supposed to receive is done on them to ensure that their wellbeing is not
compromised. Broekhuizen, Pothof, Craen & Mooijaart (2015) suggest that the role of control