Critical Appraisal of Health Practice Articles

Critical appraisal of health practice articles 1
CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF HEALTH PRACTICE ARTICLES
Name
Course
Professors name
Institution
Location of institution
Date

Critical appraisal of health practice articles 2
Health practice articles critical appraisal
In health practice, health service managers make critical decisions on the services offered
to patients with particular diseases or conditions basing on researches conducted on the diseases
or conditions. In the running of the hospital process they also use evidence informed decision
making strategy from relevant researches. Therefore, it is vital to determine the relevance of
research for the applicationof its findings in the medical field. This assignment will assess the
reliability of the two articles. It will focus on critical appraisal of quantitative and qualitative
research articles by Liang, Howard and Wollersheim (2017), and Savic, Chur-Hansen, Mahmood
and Moore (2013). The appraisal will include appraisal tool selection, analysis of the strength
and weaknesses, ethical issues of the studies and a summary on the strength and weaknesses with
implications for practice.
Tools selection
In the appraisal of the quantitative research, the Critical Appraisal Checklist for a case
study (2014) will evaluate the reliability of the article. It was developed by the Center
forEvidence-Based Management to aid in appraising study. It is a checklist that consists of ten
questions that evaluate the trustworthiness and applicability of the findings in daily health
practices. The tool enables the health practitioners in making informed decisions on whether to
apply the results of research in their methods.
In the appraisal of the qualitative research,the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CAPS)
(2018) qualitative checklist analyses this paper. It is composed of a series of ten questions that
enables the appraiser to do report of the study and conclude on the reliability of an article. It
focuses on three issue; the validity of the study, the results and whether the result can be helpful.
Critical appraisal of article 1
Liang, Z., Howard, P. and Wollersheim, D., 2017. assessing the Competence of Evidence-
Informed Decision-Making amongst health Service Managers. Asia Pacific Journal of
Health Management, 12(3), p.16.
The study extensively explored the competence of the health service managers in
applying the evidence-informed decision making in their daily health practices (p.16). As the

Critical appraisal of health practice articles 3
authors noted,utilization of evidence informed decision making by health service managers
enhances management and effective means of offering their services. The cross-sectional study
objective assessment design used in this study was appropriate since it enables the researchers to
focus on the set objective and not to focus on other related issues. As stated by Palinkas et al.
(2015), the study implementation varies based on the set priorities for the study.The study
involved two public hospitals and one hundred and thirty participants. Both the setting and the
subjects are representative of the target group. As affirmed by Gentles, Charles, Ploeg and
McKibbon (2015), in quantitative studies a larger sample size is fundamental for significant
statistical analysis and proper representation of the population (p.1773).In the study, the
researcher perspective was well described and considered. His central aspect was to determine
whether the health service managers and other health workers utilize the evidence-informed
decision making in their daily activity. The study focused on this and the information collected
was in line with the researcher perspective. Data wereobtained by the participants filling an
online questionnaire on the website that had been purposely designed by the researcher for data
collection and analysis.The data was analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Science
(SPSS). The SPSS helps to analyze complex data (Bryman 2016). it reduces the researchers’
biasness and helps to draw the comparison of the data. The authors effectively described the data
analysis process, and this makes their data to be valid and reliable.However, the article does not
indicate whether the research was repeated by more than one researcher to enhance
reliability.The result obtained from the SPSS analysis is credible due to less or no investigator
biasness. It makes the results believable. The findings that indicated that the utilization of the
evidence-informed decision making promotes management is relevant to the health service
managers to do their duties without using alternative methods like experience to enhance
production.The findings of this study are well transferable to other settings for easy management
of their institutions and appropriately improving service delivery in health institutions.
Strength and weaknesses of the study
In this quantitative analysis, the study had several advantages that increased the
credibility and reliability. The research method was useful in gathering information that
enhances quantitative predictions. This will indicate the magnitude of the relevance of the
study.This research method was effective in study large sample size as compared to qualitative

Critical appraisal of health practice articles 4
methods. As according to Lejongvist, Eriksson and Maretoja (2016), the sample size in the
quantitative research is critical in result validation (p. 143). In quantitative study the data
collection process is fast. For instance, in this study, it took 15 minutes for the participants to fill
out the questionnaire on the website. It is significant since the participant much time won’t be
consumed. In the data collection, the researcher is far from the participants, and this,
therefore,reduces the investigator effect on the participant that may affect the quality of
information gathered.Thus, indicate that the data collected was genuine and hence the findings
are trustworthy. The data analysis was done using the statistical software (SPSS). The software
reduces the risk of researcher biasness since he is not in a position to manipulate data or involve
his views in the analysis. Lack of data manipulation by the investigator promote results
reliability and credibility. The inclusion of SPSS software in the data analysis process is helpful
in the estimation of significance (Bolin 2014, p. 331).
However, the study had some weaknesses. The information gatheredduring the research
is abstract and may not give full details of the phenomena. For instance, in the study, the
researchers did not determine the reason as to why in one of the hospitals do not implement the
evidence-informed decision- making strategy in their routine practices. It is a suitable
mechanism for identifying the approach to be put in place to ensure execution of the decision-
making mechanism by the relevant persons. The designed questionnaire and the absence of the
researcher in the vicinity during the session of the questions may lead to the inappropriate
answering of the problem. That is, the participant may fail to understand the issue, and the
response may not be relevant to the study. There was no samplerandomization. This may lead to
biasness caused by the sample. As stated by Anglemeyer, Horvath and Bero (2014), a better
understanding of how factors such as randomization affect study effectiveness. The sample size
used was small to represent the more significant population of health workers.
Critical appraisal of article 2
Savic, M., Chur‐Hansen, A., Mahmood, M.A. and Moore, V., 2013. Separation from family and
its impact on the mental health of Sudanese refugees in Australia: a qualitative
study. Australian and New Zealand journal of public health, 37(4), pp.383-388.
The article is well structured and gives a clear statement of the aim.The study focused on
gathering rich information from the participant.The qualitative method is appropriate since it