Patients’ experience of identifying and managing exacerbations in COPD: a qualitative study

Running header: ARTICLE ANALYSIS
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Article analysis
Student’s Name
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ARTICLE ANALYSIS
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Article analysis
1. Define the health problem of the learning’s focus?
The health problem of the study is the experience of identifying and managing exacerbations in
patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The study focusses on self-management
approaches used to reduce hospital admission and improve patient outcomes.
1.2 What is the significance of the study?
Williams, Hardinge, Ryan, & Farmer (2014) study is driven by the need to reduce hospital
admissions and improve patient outcomes through early detection of the problem and treating
exacerbations that affect them. This study identifies how this problem can be improved to lead to
better patient outcomes. Through learning to identify the problem, patients can seek early
interventions and reduce hospital admissions or chronic complications associated with the
condition.
2. Overview of the research design
The main purpose of the study is to understand assessment methods used by patients to
understand the condition that they were facing. The study used a qualitative interview-based
approach on patient’s homes. The approach was based on audio interviews that were recorded
and transcribed then analysed through the ground theory approach (Creswell, 2012). The ground
theory approach is a qualitative that allows researcher to conceptualise social patterns and
structures through constant comparison (Ralph, Birks, & Chapman, 2015). Through collecting
data on a research question, analysing the data which leads to new elements or patterns that are
reported for the research (Huff, 2008). For example in analysing the assessment methods used by

ARTICLE ANALYSIS
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patients, Williams, Hardinge, Ryan, & Farmer (2014) gathered relevant information about the
study.
3.1 who were the study participants?
The participants of the study were patients drawn from hospital admission records, pulmonary
rehabilitation programs and general practice by a respiratory research nurse.
3.2 What are the inclusion and exclusion criterion of the sample? Why it is important to
have these criterion identified before recruitment?
The role of inclusion exclusion criteria is to get the right participants from a large population
segment for the study. The researcher generates a purposive criteria for screening respondents so
that the ones that will not yield the expected outcomes are left out. The first inclusion and
exclusion criterion was based on patients who had the experience of managing COPD or
understood the nature of the condition. These patient’s consent was requested through a consent
form that they signed to allow the researchers collect information from them and the
commitment to cooperate with the researcher. Bhakar & Nathani (2015) suggests that informed
consent puts the consent in perspective of the research thus increasing the reliability of the
response that they will give. Is also an ethical requirement for any research study that requires
the participants in the study to be made clear of research study.
The exclusion criterion was based on inviting patients from all backgrounds like age, gender,
COPD severity or lenght and frequency of admission. Through sampling, the researchers
narrowed down the data until a saturation point was reached.
3.3 What sample method was employed in this study? Was it appropriate for the
exploration design? Why/why not?