Critical Appraisal of a Qualitative Research Article on the Experience of Hospital after a Suicide Attempt

This critical appraisal examines a qualitative research article on the experience of hospital after a suicide attempt. It analyzes the aims of the research, appropriateness of the methodology, research design, recruitment strategy, data collection, ethical considerations, data analysis, statement of findings, and the value of the research. Recommendations for practice are also provided.

HEALTH INQUIRY
CRITIQUE

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE...............................................................................................1
SELECTION OF CRITIQUE TOOL..............................................................................................2
CRITICAL ANALYSIS..................................................................................................................2
Was there a clear statement of the aims of the research?............................................................2
Is a qualitative methodology appropriate?...................................................................................2
Was the research design appropriate to address the aims of the research?..................................2
Was the recruitment strategy appropriate to the aims of the research?.......................................3
Was the data collected in a way that addressed the research issue?............................................3
Has the relationship between researcher and participants been adequately considered?............3
Have ethical issues been taken into consideration?.....................................................................3
Was the data analysis sufficiently rigorous?...............................................................................3
Is there a clear statement of findings?.........................................................................................4
How valuable is the research?.....................................................................................................4
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PRACTISE....................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REREFENCES................................................................................................................................5
Online..........................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Critical Appraisal is a kind of process that helps in assessing outcome of a research in a
systematic manner so that its trustworthiness can be judged (Wilson, V., & et. al., 2020). The
main aim of this paper is to critically appraise an article using an appropriate critique tool. From
this assignment two main objectives will be fulfilled: first is to gain understanding of appropriate
critique tool that can be used for different kinds of research papers and second is provision of
recommendations for practise from article. The research article that has been focused upon in
this assignment for critiquing is ‘Kerri Patricia Jackson, Anthony Welch & Shane Hopkinson
(2020) Back from the Brink: The Experience of Hospital after a Suicide Attempt, and What
Happens When You Go Home, Issues in Mental Health Nursing’. As it is qualitative paper, so
critique tool used for critiquing this article is CASP qualitative checklist critical tool (Long,
French & Brooks, 2020).
STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
Mental illness is one of the most important and serious issue which is increasing
continuously. This article helps in explaining experience of people who survived suicide attempt
as it is often neglected by society. It is an important topic which is required to be focused upon in
mental illness. Anxiety and depression are two main factors that are majorly ignored when
mental illness comes into picture (Jackson, Welch & Hopkinson, 2020). If these issues are
diagnosed in a timely manner then these issues can result in development of suicidal tendency.
Suicidal tendency is a kind of mental illness which majorly developed within an individual
majorly because of ignorance of anxiety and depressions symptom within them by others. It has
been observed that Suicide cases year by year are increasing continuously. It is a kind of mental
illness which is often ignored by people. Many times, when an individual is saved after suicide
attempt, their experience or critical mental state is also ignored (Shand & et. al., 2018). This
topic can help in understanding flaws within current legislation, changes within current polices
that are required to be brought. It is important to understand experience of suicide attempt
survivors so that their struggle with their mental condition and with society can be understood in
a better manner. Suicide attempt is a serious mental illness which is required to be laid emphasis
upon. Government has developed a mental health act in which treatment and care of people who
have attempted suicide has been included (McKay & Shand, 2018). This act has also included a
procedure for reporting any kind of suicide attempt or deaths due to suicide. Government has
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also developed different kinds of suicide prevention framework so that suicide risk among
people can be reduced (Hom & et. al., 2019). This study will help in bringing development or
improvement within current legislations, framework and policies.
SELECTION OF CRITIQUE TOOL
There are different kinds of tools that can be used for critiquing of research papers or
articles. For different kinds of papers different critique tools are used (CASP critical analysis
tools, 2020). As it is qualitative research article so for critiquing this article CASP checklist tool
for qualitative studies will be used (Kim & et. al., 2019). This CASP checklist tool consists of 10
questions that can be used for critical analysis of qualitative research (CASP checklist tool for
qualitative studies, 2020). This tool can also help in analysing three important parts of a paper
that are: are the study results valid, what are the main results of the study and lastly will help in
understand whether the results are helpful locally or not.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Critical analysis of selected qualitative research paper using CASP checklist tool for qualitative
studies:
Was there a clear statement of the aims of the research?
In this question goal of the research, its importance and its relevance are focused upon
(Asare-Doku, Osafo & Akotia, 2017). Main goal of this study is to explore living experience of
being suicidal and having made a suicide attempt, so that health care implications for
professional can be identified. Yes, aim of this research paper is quite clear. It is related to the
topic and is important because this paper helps in understand experience, thinking and daily
struggle of people who have survived suicide attempt.
Is a qualitative methodology appropriate?
Yes, qualitative methodology was quite appropriate for this research because in this paper
subjective experience of participants has been explained clearly. This methodology clearly
helped in gaining understanding of people who had survived suicide attempt like what are the
main factors that works as a trigger in their recovery, it has also helped in understand reasons or
factors that reduces impact of treatment provided to such patients.
Was the research design appropriate to address the aims of the research?
It helps in understanding whether the research is worth continuing or not (Shamsaei,
Yaghmaei & Haghighi, 2020). The article has an appropriate research design as in this researcher
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has explained reason behind conducing, face-to-face interviews and how it has helped researcher
in understating ways in which suicide prevention practice can be linked to personal experiences
of suicide survivors.
Was the recruitment strategy appropriate to the aims of the research?
Recruitment strategy chosen by researcher is appropriate and has also explained reasons
behind selecting those respondents. Researcher has selected only those people who have
attempted suicide and had access to proper support after their suicide attempt. Another selection
only those people who had attempted suicide at 2 or more years before. But researcher has
explained participants were selected for face to face interview. Researcher has selected 5 men
and 5 women who survived suicide attempt of age group 16 to 64 years.
Was the data collected in a way that addressed the research issue?
Yes, data was collected in an appropriate manner and has successfully addressed the
issue. Researcher has used face to face interview method for data collection. Interview method
has helped the researcher in reaching achieving desired aim and objectives of the researcher.
Researcher has also taped data collected from interview so that it is in clear format.
Has the relationship between researcher and participants been adequately considered?
From this research it cannot be explained whether relationship between researcher and
participants been adequately considered or not because this can only be explained if there is any
kind of influence during question formation or during data collection as it has not been explained
in this.
Have ethical issues been taken into consideration?
Yes, most of the ethical issues were taken into considerations. During this research
approval from Central Queensland University Human Research Ethics Committee was taken for
involving people with certain distress level. Each participant was given a contact detail of an
experienced mental health telephone counsellor prior to the interview. In order to protect identity
of participants researcher had also used pseudonyms so that anonymity can be ensured.
Was the data analysis sufficiently rigorous?
Yes, data analysis was sufficiently rigorous as in this thematic analysis has been used in
which all the themes are quite clear and ways in which these themes are divided is also clear.
Researcher has presented sufficient data that can be used to support the findings of the research.
But research did not explain and examine their own role within the study.
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Is there a clear statement of findings?
Yes, in this clear statement of findings have been explained in a detailed manner. In this
paper experience of all the participants who had survived suicide attempt in different stages have
been explained like their experience of being hospitalized, dealing with other people, dealing
with depression, taking medication etc.
How valuable is the research?
Yes, the research is valuable as it has helped in explaining ways in which findings of this
research can be transferred to other clinical settings. This result can be used to provide proper
and effective treatment to people with other kind of mental illness.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PRACTISE
Information of this article can be used to bring changes within clinical settings that can be
used for bringing changes within clinical settings. Findings of this article can be used for
providing appropriate treatment and care to suicide attempt survivors. Some of the main
recommendations for practise are: Follow-up services can be developed in which suicide attempt
survivors will be provided with a service where they can express their suicidal thoughts or their
feeling, daily struggles with professional so that healthcare professionals can develop an
appropriate and effective care plan (Berglund, Aström & Lindgren, 2016). All the mental
healthcare professionals should be provided with additional training so that they can understand
feeling, though process and struggle of people with suicidal tendency. This will also help them in
development of an effective care plan for such patients. This will help them to prevent such
people from attempting suicide (Long, French & Brooks, 2020). This professional development
training in suicide prevention, crisis counselling and referral processes will not only help
professionals in bringing improvement within behaviour of individual with suicidal tendency but
will also help in development of positivity so that their recovery time period can be enhanced. It
has been observed that majority of time patients with suicidal tendency people or people who
have survived suicide attempt face difficulty in their recovery and treatment is because of less
care and attention. Many times, they feel depressed as well due to their hospital experience.
professional development training will help the professionals in enhancing their experience so
that their recovery is also boosted up. A care department can be developed in which care services
can be provided to suicide attempt survivors will be provided. Development of care department
will help in ensuring that proper treatment is provided to suicide survivors, their needs are been
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taken care off in an appropriate manner. They can also ensure that service delivery of such
patients is also enhanced.
CONCLUSION
From above critical review of article it has been analysed that there are various factors
that are required to be considered by a researcher for conducing a research in an appropriate
manner. This critical review has also helped in explaining importance of usage of appropriate
critical analysis tool as only an appropriate critical analysis tool can help in providing an
understanding of a research paper and can help in understanding whether chosen paper is
important and provided appropriate results or not.
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REREFENCES
Books and Journals
Asare-Doku, W., Osafo, J., & Akotia, C. S. (2017). The experiences of attempt survivor families
and how they cope after a suicide attempt in Ghana: a qualitative study. BMC
psychiatry. 17(1). 1-10.
Berglund, S., Åström, S., & Lindgren, B. M. (2016). Patients’ experiences after attempted
suicide: A literature review. Issues in Mental Health Nursing. 37(10). 715-726.
Dietrich, R. (2019). Critical path analysis tool for heterogeneous applications (CASITA).
Hom, M. A., Albury, E. A., Gomez, M. M., Christensen, K., Stanley, I. H., Stage, D. R. L., &
Joiner, T. E. (2019). Suicide attempt survivors’ experiences with mental health care
services: A mixed methods study. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice.
Jackson, K. P., Welch, A., & Hopkinson, S. (2020). Back from the brink: the experience of
hospital after a suicide attempt, and what happens when you go home. Issues in mental
health nursing, 1-8.
Kim, H. J., Jeon, C. H., Roh, M. Y., Han, Y. J., Kim, H. H., Cheong, M. J., & Leem, J. T. (2019).
Systematic Review of Short Stature and Growth Related Qualitative Researches. The
Journal of Pediatrics of Korean Medicine. 33(4). 74-88.
Long, H. A., French, D. P., & Brooks, J. M. (2020). Optimising the value of the critical appraisal
skills programme (CASP) tool for quality appraisal in qualitative evidence
synthesis. Research Methods in Medicine & Health Sciences, 2632084320947559.
McKay, K., & Shand, F. (2018). Advocacy and luck: Australian healthcare experiences
following a suicide attempt. Death studies. 42(6). 392-399.
Sapthiang, S., Van Gordon, W., & Shonin, E. (2019). Health School-based Mindfulness
Interventions for Improving Mental Health: A Systematic Review and Thematic
Synthesis of Qualitative Studies. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 1-9.
Shamsaei, F., Yaghmaei, S., & Haghighi, M. (2020). Exploring the lived experiences of the
suicide attempt survivors: a phenomenological approach. International journal of
qualitative studies on health and well-being. 15(1). 1745478.
Shand, F. L., Batterham, P. J., Chan, J. K., Pirkis, J., Spittal, M. J., Woodward, A., &
Christensen, H. (2018). Experience of health care services after a suicide attempt:
results from an online survey. Suicide and Life
‐Threatening Behavior. 48(6). 779-787.
Williams, V., Boylan, A. M., & Nunan, D. (2020). Critical appraisal of qualitative research:
necessity, partialities and the issue of bias. BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine. 25(1). 9-11.
Wilson, V., Dewing, J., Cardiff, S., Mekki, T. E., Øye, C., & McCance, T. (2020). A person-
centred observational tool: devising the Workplace Culture Critical Analysis
Tool®. International Practice Development Journal.
Online
CASP checklist tool for qualitative studies, 2020. [Online]. Available through:< https://casp-
uk.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/CASP-Qualitative-Checklist-2018.pdf >
CASP critical analysis tools. 2020. [Online]. Available through:< https://casp-uk.net/casp-tools-
checklists/>
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