Research Analysis and Summary: Sepsis Prevention in Geriatric Patients

This assignment provides a research analysis on sepsis prevention in geriatric acute care patients. The student conducted research on the topic, focusing on identifying peer-reviewed articles and analyzing their strengths, limitations, and relevance. The analysis includes a summary of the research approach, strategies used to find effective peer-reviewed research, and identification of resources for future research. The student's analysis focused on a study that examined the outcomes of older adults with sepsis admitted to the ICU and identified the use of vasopressors and antimicrobials within 48 hours of admission as effective strategies to prevent sepsis and reduce mortality in geriatric patients. The student also discusses the limitations of the study, such as the retrospective nature of the sepsis diagnosis and the lack of information on specific antimicrobial or vasopressor agents used. The student recommends the application of the research to inform professional practice, highlighting the correlation of sepsis with increased mortality in older adults and the potential for early intervention strategies. The student used databases like Google Scholar and NCBI to find articles, and also used publication time period options for peer-reviewed journals. The student also suggests using library databases for future research.

Running head: SEPSIS PREVENTION
SEPSIS PREVENTION IN GERIATRIC PATIENTS
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1SEPSIS PREVENTION
Step 1: Research Analysis
Topic of Interest: Sepsis prevention in geriatric acute care patients.
Research Article:
Include full citation
in APA format, as
well as link or search
details (such as DOI)
Rowe, T., Araujo, K. L., Van Ness, P. H., Pisani, M. A., & Juthani-
Mehta, M. (2016, January). Outcomes of older adults with sepsis at
admission to an intensive care unit. In Open forum infectious
diseases (Vol. 3, No. 1). Oxford University Press.
https://dx.doi.org/10.1093%2Fofid%2Fofw010
Professional
Practice Use:
One or more
professional practice
uses of the
theories/concepts
presented in the
article
The study was based on the standard practice of broad spectrum
antibiotic use and the vasopressor use in the hospital setting, especially
in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
Research Analysis
Matrix
Add more rows if
necessary
Strengths of the
Research
Limitations of the
Research
Relevancy to
Topic of Interest
Notes
The study
provided a clear
background of the
existing problem
with relevant
references.
However, there
was no detailed
discussion on the
relevant prevention
strategies of sepsis
in the target
population.
The study was
focused on the
population of
older adult
patients who are
admitted to ICU
(Rowe, et al.,
2016).
The older adult
patients were
>=60 years old
and thus can
also be
described as
geriatric
patients.
The study
involved a sample
However, the study
considered a
Along with
attempting to find
Those two
prevention

2SEPSIS PREVENTION
size of 309
patients, which
can be considered
as decent for
conducting a
research study.
specific hospital
setting. Thus the
relevance of the
data can be
considered to be
limited.
the association
between sepsis
and mortality in
the target
population, the
study also focused
on finding the
efficacy of two
prevention
approaches to
lower the adverse
outcome in the
target population
(Rowe, et al.,
2016).
approaches are
the vasopressor
use and the
antimicrobials
use within 48
hours of
admission in
the ICU.
During the data
analysis the study
clearly defined all
the variables that
are being used in
the study. There
was also an
appropriate
statistical analysis
of the data by
using appropriate
statistical
methods.
The diagnosis of
the sepsis was not
carried out
properly by
following a proper
definition of
sepsis; instead, it
was determined
retrospectively by
just following the
chart (Rowe, et al.,
2016).
The study found
that both of the
prevention
approaches was
effective in
reducing the
mortality in the
target population
(Rowe, et al.,
2016).
The study
identified the
application of
vasopressors
and broad
spectrum
antibiotic
within 48
hours of
admission as
effective
strategies to
prevent the
sepsis and thus
to reduce the

3SEPSIS PREVENTION
sepsis
associated
mortality in the
geriatric
patients
(Rowe, et al.,
2016).
The results were
described in the
tabular format and
there was also a
detailed
discussion of the
results.
The study was
unable to confirm
whether or not any
specific
antimicrobial agent
and/ or vasopressor
agents were used.
The researchers
only identified the
use of those drugs
in the older adult
patients within 48
hours of ICU
admission (Rowe,
et al., 2016).
The article, which
described the
research study,
was published in a
peer-reviewed
journal, named
Open forum
infectious disease,
The study used
data from 2002 to
2004 (Rowe, et al.,
2016). Thus the
data can be
considered to be
old and have a

4SEPSIS PREVENTION
thus can be
considered to
provide reliable
data.
lower relevance.
The study did not
found whether or
not the application
of vasopressor
drugs followed the
surviving sepsis
protocol.
Step 2: Summary of Analysis
Approached used to identify and analyse peer reviewed research:
There was a search conducted on various scholarly databases for selecting the above
mentioned research paper, such as google scholar and ncbi databases. The keywords like
“sepsis prevention”, “geriatric patients”, “older adult patients”, and “acute care patients” were
used for conducting the search in the above mentioned databases. In addition to trying to
identify the link between sepsis and mortality in the target community, the research further

5SEPSIS PREVENTION
concentrated on identifying the efficacy of two approaches to treatment to reduce the harmful
impact in the target population. For finding a valid study, a time range of 2015 to 2020 was
selected. The final article was selected by reviewing the search results manually.
Strategies observed to find effective peer reviewed research:
The searches conducted on popular databases such as google scholar, ncbi, pubmed
and various others display the peer reviewed journals as their priority. The search strategy is
also easier, since there is an option of choosing the publication time period, which helps for
finding the peer reviewed and valid journals with a lesser difficulty.
There are many articles that can be found from the search result, which can be
manually reviewed for the publication source. The articles that are published in the journals
that are regulated by some popular scientific organisations or the government of some
countries are most likely to be peer reviewed. Those journals only accept scholarly works,
which are properly peer reviewed before publishing those (McGowan et al., 2016).
Identification of One resource to find peer reviewed research:
Another strategy to find the peer reviewed journal easily can be conducting a search
on the library databases, which can be applied for future research. Those databases allow the
search to be limited within the peer-reviewed journals only. This can be rechecked by
scanning through the article information that is found from the search. However, the use of
proper keywords and Boolean methodologies are always important to conduct fast research
on a specific topic (Ragin, 2014).
Recommendation of the use of article to inform professional practice:
Sepsis is one of the significant reason of morbidity and mortality in older individuals.
The key objectives of this research were to determine the role of sepsis in admission to
fatalities at the intensive care unit (ICU) and to classify determinants correlated with

6SEPSIS PREVENTION
morbidity and mortality in older adults. Since the research was done (Rowe, et al., 2016), it
was observed that sepsis diagnosis of older adults after admission to ICU was correlated with
an rise of mortality relative to those admitted without sepsis. Thereby the correlation of sepsis
with mortality was shown to be decreased after accounting for early usage of antimicrobials
and vasopressors during diagnosis. Implementation of the present research can assist in
assessing sepsis, which acts as a indicator of mortality in the Cox proportional hazards model
as stated in the report (Rowe, et al., 2016), and may further assist in deriving findings from
such trials to help diagnosis, suggest sepsis intensity, and provide a benchmark for
subsequent therapeutic reaction.

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References:
Costanza, D. P., Darrow, J. B., Yost, A. B., & Severt, J. B. (2017). A review of analytical
methods used to study generational differences: Strengths and limitations. Work,
Aging and Retirement, 3(2), 149-165. Doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/workar/wax002
McGowan, J., Sampson, M., Salzwedel, D. M., Cogo, E., Foerster, V., & Lefebvre, C.
(2016). PRESS peer review of electronic search strategies: 2015 guideline
statement. Journal of clinical epidemiology, 75, 40-46.Doi:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2016.01.021
Ragin, C. C. (2014). The comparative method: Moving beyond qualitative and quantitative
strategies. Univ of California Press. Retrieved from:https://books.google.co.in/books?
hl=en&lr=&id=zLinAwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=finding+peer+reviewed+jou
rnals+strategies+boolean+method+use&ots=_GjzuWo2d8&sig=HkBsWbkD91AVJ9
1eMjkfRhGtzK8#v=onepage&q&f=false
Rowe, T., Araujo, K. L., Van Ness, P. H., Pisani, M. A., & Juthani-Mehta, M. (2016,
January). Outcomes of older adults with sepsis at admission to an intensive care unit.
In Open forum infectious diseases (Vol. 3, No. 1). Oxford University Press.
DOI:https://dx.doi.org/10.1093%2Fofid%2Fofw010