Research Critique: Hand Hygiene and Infection Prevention Behaviours

Running head; RESEARCH CRITIQUE 1
Research Critique
Student’s Name
University

RESEARCH CRITIQUE 2
Research Critique
A research critique is a systematic review of a research article to highlight the
strengths and weaknesses of the study and also determining how it is applicable to its field of
practice. Every research is supposed to have a grand challenge where it follows previously
done studies and develops new results that are applicable in the field. This means that a good
research should draw on the works of other researchers by focusing on the limitations of the
studies they undertook, the recommendations they made for further study or gaps in the
literature that were left out. From this, the researcher should adhere to a certain line of
research by observing the current practices in the field and the same time evaluation of
current literature in the field to understand the directions for future research.
Kingstona, O’Connell, & Dunne (2018) study sought to study hand hygiene and
alcohol-based hand rub use in Irish medical and nursing students. The study was informed by
a 5.2% prevalence of acute care infections through hand hygiene. The researchers used a
cross-sectional self-reported observation study while the data was collected through an
electronic questionnaire. The results indicated that most nurses used my five moments of
hang hygiene model. Further, it was found that hand hygiene compliance was high after body
fluid exposure. From the study, most nurses used hand rubbing while medical students used
an alcohol-based hand.
Jackson, Lowton, & Griffiths (2014) study focused on infection prevention through
preventive behaviours by nurses. This study is informed by the fact that despite control and
prevention strategies being put in place there are minimal effects in the reduced rate of
infections around the globe. Previous studies have only focussed on predicting infection and
prevention behaviours but failed to understand and explain the behaviours that occur daily in
the process of infection prevention by nurses. This means that there is a need to focus on
rationalizing dirt-related behaviour to improve response to preventive approaches. The study

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used a qualitative interpretive study to explore how registered nurse reported infection
prevention behaviours. The nurses were picked from acute healthcare settings and were
initially recruited before they graduated from college. Interviews were used to collect data
which was later transcribed and analyzed. The findings indicated that nurses rationalize their
own behaviour and justified any deviation from the normal policy process. The participants
also showed the desire to protect themselves and satisfy scrutiny from patients.
Kingstona, L. M., O’Connell, N. H., & Dunne, C. P. (2018). A comparative study of
hand hygiene and alcohol-based hand rub use among Irish nursing and medical
students. Nurse Education Today, 63, 112–118.
General
credibility of the
research process
and conclusions
The findings of the study are credible since they identified challenges and
gaps in the areas of patient safety education that need to be addressed.
This calls for the need to address the issue of infection prevention in
medical and nursing students by streamlining their syllabus to cover the
issues raised in the research. According to Bhakar & Nathani (2005), a
good research article needs to have a grand challenge approach where the
findings of the study can be applied in the field or form the direction of
new research. This study offers directions for new research on how
training medical and nursing students can be used to reduce infections
while at the same time how the field can be improved through reducing
infections.
Introduction The introduction gives the background of the study by focussing on
previous studies from reputable organizations like the WHO to give a
general perspective on the topic. According to Elliott & Timula (2005)
the introduction part presents the research problem and the main focus of
the study. The introduction for this research is good since it illustrates the

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nature of the research problem and how it relates to previous studies.
Background/
Literature
Review
The background of the study focusses on the research topic by discussing
hand hygiene from a global context as advocated by the gold standard
approach. The literature study reviews the amount of literature available
for the study which shows that there are limited studies that have
discussed the topic. This review focusses on the global context to
highlight the work of other researchers and showing how they inform the
direction of the study. According to Caldwell, Bennett, & Mellis (2012),
a literature review is a scholarly approach to analyzing relevant literature
on a research topic and identifying the gaps that exist in the research.
These gaps are what forms the basis of new research and the research
question that needs to be answered. The gaps in the literature indicate that
no Irish study has explored the hygiene practices of hand rubbing among
medical and nursing students.
Research Design The study used a cross-sectional, self-reported observation study due to
the nature of the research topic and settings. The observation process is
the preferred method of study in epidemiology and medical studies since
it allows the drawing of inferences from the sampled population without
the use of sample controls (Weathington, Cunningham & Pittenger,
2015)). Since the sample population was not controlled cross-sectional
self-reported observation worked well since it allows the study of many
subjects within the research study. Since the researcher was having two
groups: nurses and medical students, the cross-sectional self-reported
method worked well where the observed finding is documented and
analyzed for the study.