Exploring Male Students’ Educational Experiences in an Associate Degree Nursing Program

This article explores the educational experiences of male students in an associate degree nursing program and the implications for the nursing profession. It discusses the research problem, purpose, methodology, and findings of the study.

Running head: EVIDENCE BASED NURSING RESEARCH
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Evidence based nursing research
Student’s Name
FRANU

Running head: EVIDENCE BASED NURSING RESEARCH
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Exploring Male Students’ Educational Experiences in an Associate
Degree Nursing Program
1. Is the problem
clearly stated and
is significant to
nursing or health
care?
The article by Ierardi, Fitzgerald and Holland (2010) gives a clear statement of
the research problem which is the nursing shortage and lack of men within
nursing workforce. The problem is significant as male nurse are more likely to
be stigmatized in the nursing profession and this may not resolve nursing
shortage issue.
2. Is the purpose
clearly stated?
Yes, the purpose of the study is clearly stated which is to explore men’s
perception of their educational experiences in an associate degree nursing
program.
3. Is the research
question stated
broadly enough for
a qualitative study?
The research question is appropriate for a qualitative study because the
question aims to explore participation perception related to the phenomenon of
educational experience. This is relevant with qualitative method of inquiry as
the qualitative research is done to explore attitude, perception and experience
of a person or group related to the phenomenon of interest (Silverman, 2016).
Hence, qualitative method favours getting detailed idea regarding individual
opinion or experience related to a topic.
4. Are the subjects
obtained using a
method consistent
with the qualitative
methodology?
The sample for the study included 7 male students enrolled in an associate
degree nursing program in Massachusetts college program. Although the
sample size is accurate for qualitative inquiry, however the article does not give
any details regarding the method of selecting these samples. However, as only
male students have been selected, it seems purposive sampling technique has
been adapted. This method helps to select sample based on pre-selected
criteria related to the research question (Etikan, Musa & Alkassim, 2016).
5. Is the setting
appropriate for the
study?
The setting selected for the program includes Massachusetts hospital and this
is appropriate because the setting included an associate degree nursing
program for research. By conducting research in a hospital with nursing degree
program, the study could give useful evidence on participant’s experience of
education experiences in the program.
6. Are the data
collection methods
consistent with the
purpose of the
qualitative
approach?
Interview based questionnaire was mainly used as a data collection method.
The interviewer mainly asked questions on the topic of reasons for choosing
nursing as a career, positive and negative experience in the classroom and
feelings related to being a man in the nursing profession. This data collection
method is consistent with qualitative approach as the questionnaires used are
effective in getting answers to the research question. Interviews are the
common method of data collection in a qualitative paper and it favors getting
descriptive detail about the research problem (Fusch & Ness, 2015).
7. Are the rights of
human subjects
protected?
Human rights in research are protected by taking informed consent from
subjects,’ maintaining confidentiality of subject’s personal information and
informing them about risk and benefits associated with the research process.
Ierardi, Fitzgerald and Holland (2010) protected the rights of human subjects
by assuring confidentiality and voluntary participation and obtaining written
consent from each participant.
8. Is there evidence of
data saturation
provided?
Yes, the article gave evidence for data saturation as the interview data were
transcribed verbatim and it was reviewed several times to identify redundant
idea and achieve saturation.
9. Are the data
analysis procedures
The transcribed data was analyzed several times to develop themes and sub-
themes related to research question. Thematic analysis is appropriate as it
would help to categorize data as per research objective and identify common

Running head: EVIDENCE BASED NURSING RESEARCH
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appropriate for the
type of data
collected and the
qualitative
method?
patterns that could be grouped together. Thematic analysis is relevant for
qualitative method as the patterns in the data help to provide description about
the phenomenon (Braun et al., 2019).
10. Is there sufficient
evidence of
scientific rigor?
Scientific rigor is not seen as the method taken to develop themes has not
been described and the research did not considered about possible biases
during sample selection.
11. Are the conclusions
and implications
appropriate and
clearly stated?
The study concluded men reported more about their feeling related to working
in the nursing professional and there was lack of information regarding
educational experience. Hence, the main research question is not answered.
However, the implication is clearly states that as positive feelings would lead to
recruitment of more men and resolution of the nursing shortage problem.
12. Are suggestions for
future research
included?
Yes, suggestions for future research was given by discussing on limitations of
the study and taking large sample size with diverse background in future
research.
Essay on application of qualitative research in evidence based practice
Nursing shortage is one challenging situation in clinical setting as nurses are required to work for
longer hours and they are often overburdened with work. Apart from mental exhaustion and poor
quality care, another possible negative outcome of extended working hour is that it may lead to job
satisfaction. As most nurse work for more than 12 hours, the research question that can be framed
includes ‘Is there an association between 12 hour shift and job satisfaction of nurses?’ This essay
provides an insight into the purpose and findings of a qualitative paper that answers the research
question.
The article by Ball et al. (2017) is found appropriate to give answer to the research question as it
focused on evaluating the association between 12 hour shift and job satisfaction. By using survey
method to question nurse in English hospitals, the study revealed that quality of care was higher among
those nurse working for less than 8 hours and those working for more than 12 hours had odds of poor
quality care. Another significant finding from the study was that job dissatisfaction level was higher for
those nurses working for more than 12 hours as those nurse reported less satisfaction with their job.
Hence, the research question is answered with the use of this research article.
To conclude, by using the above research problem as an example, it can be said that qualitative
research papers can be applied to engage in evidence based practice. By engaging in the process of
critical evaluation of research methods and techniques applied to analyzed data, nurse can engage in
application of the qualitative papers in evidence based practice.
References

Running head: EVIDENCE BASED NURSING RESEARCH
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Ball, J., Day, T., Murrells, T., Dall’Ora, C., Rafferty, A. M., Griffiths, P., & Maben, J. (2017). Cross-sectional
examination of the association between shift length and hospital nurses job satisfaction and
nurse reported quality measures. BMC nursing, 16(1), 26.
Braun, V., Clarke, V., Hayfield, N., & Terry, G. (2019). Thematic analysis. Handbook of Research Methods
in Health Social Sciences, 843-860.
Etikan, I., Musa, S. A., & Alkassim, R. S. (2016). Comparison of convenience sampling and purposive
sampling. American journal of theoretical and applied statistics, 5(1), 1-4.
Fusch, P. I., & Ness, L. R. (2015). Are we there yet? Data saturation in qualitative research. The
qualitative report, 20(9), 1408-1416.
Ierardi, J. A., Fitzgerald, D. A., & Holland, D. T. (2010). Exploring male students’ educational experiences
in an associate degree nursing program. Journal of Nursing Education, 49(4), 215-218.
Silverman, D. (Ed.). (2016). Qualitative research. Sage.