Article Appraisal

Running head: ARTICLE APPRAISAL 1
Article Appraisal
Student’s Name
University

ARTICLE APPRAISAL 2
Article Appraisal
Introduction
The role of an introduction is to provide the background of the research problem by
highlighting the general and the specific knowledge about the topic. This relates to studies that
have been done and the existing knowledge on how to deal with the issues. This introduction is
supposed to open up the introduction to existing literature linking it to the research problem and
identifying the gaps that the study will address. A good research study builds on the existing
practice knowledge to address the existing gaps or to add knowledge to existing research. In their
study, Tayyib & Coyer (2016) have introduced the research topic by giving the background
information on pressure ulcers and the existing prevention measures in critical care. This study is
developed from the gap that there is little evidence of strategies for integrating routine strategies
of care to prevent pressure ulcers. By synthesizing the best available evidence on single
strategies for pressure ulcer prevention, and reduction of clinical incidences the authors have
analyzed the previous research studies that have been done on the problem. The gaps,
recommendations, and limitations of these studies form the basis of the review which is used to
determine the way this study will be done.
The study was built on research studies that had been done on single prevention strategy
for pressure ulcers. The studies that qualified to be reviewed are the ones that used the adult
patient population who had been admitted in hospital wards. In every study, the researcher must
identify the appropriate population that reflects the requirements of the population. Different
patient populations can yield different results which means that the researcher must narrow down
to a specific patient cohort (Zhao, Tian, Cai, Claggett, & Wei, 2013). Patient cohorts are
effective in collecting data since they share common medical and issues and the data collected

ARTICLE APPRAISAL 3
can be easily generalized to the larger population within this cohort. This is the reason why the
study focused on studies with adult patient populations admitted in hospital wards. To achieve
clear results, the patient cohorts have to be based on patients who fall within the same category
and meet the same clinical settings. Further, the clinical setting of the population is important in
determining the reliability of the results since they increase the uniformity of the findings in
different populations.
Literature search
In a systematic review, caution needs to be put on the type of papers that are included in
the study. This implies that the inclusion/exclusion criteria must focus on the research topic and
the type of population under study. Further, the level of evidence used in systematic reviews has
to be high to provide reliable data that is used in developing the review. This is why this study
was based on randomized controlled trials that offer the best evidence involving the use of
control groups within the population (Booth & Tannoc, 2014). The role of controlled randomized
trials is to provide a high level of research findings through using the general and the controlled
group where the findings between the two are compared with each other to determine the
effectiveness of the interventions. These studies offer the best evidence for use in systematic
reviews since they form the basis of for future research implications to determine the areas that
need to be addressed. Marx, Milley, Cantor, Ackerman, & Hammerschlag (2013) add that these
studies were extracted from the relevant databases, appraised to determine their effectiveness and
then the data synthesized to determine trends and themes that formed the findings of the review.
The common medical and nursing databases that were used in the study were MEDLINE
(PubMed) and CINAHL for published articles and New York Academy of Medicine Library
Gray Literature Report, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), National Institute