Appraisal of a Qualitative Research Paper on Nursing Students' Reflections on Mental Health Clinical Placement

Running head: NURSING ASSIGNMENT
NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Introduction:
According to Garside and Nhemachena(2013), transition to nursing practice is characterized
by a number of challenges which include, lack of confidence and lack of appropriate clinical
experience. As stated by Kaihlanen et al.(2013), it should be noted that nurses upon entering practice
are placed at a novice level and it is extremely important to devise appropriate exposure methods so as
to ensure a smooth and effective professional experience. Further, in the words of Naylor et al.(2013),
the professional readiness among the nurses is developed on the basis of experience acquired within
the clinical placement. Research studies mention that that a substantial lack of appropriate mental
health clinical placements exist which could ideally address the pre-requisite professional skills of the
nurses so as to ensure a smooth transition to practicum (Naylor et al. 2013; Garside and Nhemachena
2013). It should be noted in this context that clinical placement provides a practical experience to the
nursing professionals and at the same also encourages them to make use of the evidence based
practices in order to provide quality in terms of care delivery. According toKaihlanen et al. (2013),
evidence based practice forms a vital aspect of the nursing profession and helps in improving the
quality of critical care offered by the nurses and which ultimately helps in improving patient care
outcome. As suggested by research studies, adapting evidence based practices within the scope of
practice helps in promoting positive outcome both for the patient as well as the family members of the
patient (Rush et al. 2013; Spector et al. 2015). In addition to this, adaption of evidence based practice
also elevated the satisfaction level of the service providers and positively contributes to the reduction
of medical costs as well as the risk of harm that could affect the patients (Parker et al. 2014). Further,
the integration of the evidence based practice into practicum is done after conducting a rigorous
review of the scholarly literatures available within the electronic databases. Nursing professionals
must ideally identify the best evidence based practices published in the scholarly papers and then
critique it so as to recognize the strength and the weakness of the research papers. Critique of research
papers is broadly referred to as critical appraisal and it helps in clearly judging the content of the
paper.
Clear statement of intent:

2NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Therefore, on the basis of the background information discussed, it should be mentioned that
this paper intends to appraise a qualitative research paper that analyses the experience of the mental
health nursing professionals who enter into an innovative mental health clinical placement. The
innovative mental health clinical placement has been referred to as the ‘Recovery group’ in the paper
(Patterson et al. 2016). This paper intends to critically evaluate the content of the paper on the grounds
of a number of factors such as research study design, research framework, the methodology adapted
by the professionals and the findings summed up by the researchers. As stated byMedical.coe.uh.edu
(2019), appraising a research paper is important in order to differentiate research papers on the basis
of quality and at the same time identify limitations of research studies so as to take note of the set of
considerations and accordingly adapt strategies not to miss out on the identified lacunae while
conducting a primary research.
Relevance of the topic in the field of nursing:
Transition to nursing practice plays a key role in determining a positive scope of practice. As
per Lea and Cruickshank (2015), the issue with ineffective training leads to a hike in the rate of
turnover within the nursing profession. A number of researchers have suggested that the inability of
the new nurses to transition effectively into practice leads to negative consequences (Teoh, Pua and
Chan 2013). As stated by Parker et al. (2014), graduate nurses upon entering into the profession need
to care for patients with complex illness. On account of lack of professional expertise nursing
professionals tend to commit medical errors which ultimately leads to lowering of the self-esteem
(Spector et al. 2015). Further, new nurses have also been reported to experience increased stress levels
which in turn leads to a compromise on safety measures and promotes practice errors (Naylor et al.
2013). Further, it is predicted that on an average almost 25% of the graduate nurses quit the profession
within the first year of practice. As a result of increased turnover patient safety measures are not
maintained and this leads to poor patient outcome. As stated by Rush et al. (2013), health
organizations that host transition programs have typically observed a significant reduction in the rate
of attrition and at the same time has also witnessed improved patient outcome. The primary area of
focus of the transition program is to impart education and disseminate awareness in relation to the

3NURSING ASSIGNMENT
best evidence based practices so as to foster a culture of continuous improvement in terms of the
quality of care imparted to the patients (Patterson et al. 2016). The central idea is to promote a smooth
transition to practice so as to improve patient outcome.
Appraisal of evidence based practice:
A number of research papers have talked about the effectiveness of transition programs on the
quality of patient outcome. However, the programs have majorly focused on areas of physical illness
(Naylor et al. 2013; Spector et al. 2015). It should be noted here that research papers talking about the
effectiveness of transition programs in the area of mental health nursing is significantly less.
Therefore, the research paper, titled, “Nursing students’ reflections on the learning experience of a
unique mental health clinical placement” was chosen (Patterson et al. 2016). The rationale for the
same can be explained as the research paper shedding light on the need to include transition programs
in the field of mental health nursing. The paper was thoroughly read and re-read and was then
appraised using the CASP critical appraisal tool.
Definition of key terms relevant to essay:
The essay comprises a number of key terms which are defined as under so as to help the
reader relate better to the paper.
Appraisal:Appraisal refers to the process of critiquing a research paper in order to assess the strengths
and weaknesses of the research paper
Recovery camp:Transition program devised to equip care professionals to care for patients with the
experience of living with mental health issues in an effective manner
Six phases of thematic analysis:The data analysis procedure that is utilized to analyse qualitative data
in terms of qualitative response.
Appraisal of the selected research paper:
The selected research paper was critically appraised on the basis of the CASP critical
appraisal tool (CASP - Critical Appraisal Skills Programme 2019). The research study would be