Critical Appraisal of Qualitative Research Article on Moral Resilience

This report critically appraises a qualitative research article titled "Interprofessionals’ definitions of moral resilience" using the CASP checklist. The appraisal evaluates the study's aims, methodology, recruitment strategy, data collection, ethical considerations, data analysis, and findings. The report hig...Read More

Running head: A QUALITATIVE RESEARCH ARTICLE
Critically Appraising a Qualitative Research Article (Interprofessional' Definitions of Moral
Resilience) using the CASP Checklist Provided
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

1A QUALITATIVE RESEARCH ARTICLE
Table of Contents
Section A: Are the results valid?.....................................................................................................2
1. Was there a clear statement of the aims of the research?........................................................2
2. Is a qualitative methodology appropriate?...............................................................................2
3. Was the research design appropriate to address the aims of the research?..............................3
4. Was the recruitment strategy appropriate to the aims of the research?...................................3
5. Was the data collected in a way that addressed the research issue?........................................4
6. Has the relationship between the researcher and participants been adequately considered?. .4
Section B: What are the results?......................................................................................................5
7. Have ethical issues been taken into consideration?.................................................................5
8. Was the data analysis sufficiently rigorous?...........................................................................5
9. Is there a clear statement of findings?.....................................................................................6
Section C: Will the results help locally?..........................................................................................6
10. How valuable is the research?...............................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................8

2A QUALITATIVE RESEARCH ARTICLE
Section A: Are the results valid?
1. Was there a clear statement of the aims of the research?
The aim of the research was correctly identified as it shows the actual focus of the
research, which is on themes and common characteristics of the moral resilience of
Interprofessional clinicians. A discussion on related themes and characteristics will always be
helpful for the readers to understand what moral resilience is all about concerning the healthcare
professionals. Besides, the classification of the topic into such useful parts will also help
researchers do justice to their research of the subject area (Van den Hoonaard and Van den
Hoonaard 2016).
2. Is a qualitative methodology appropriate?
The qualitative methodology involves not dealing with the numeric data. Instead, it is
about dealing with the definitions, characteristics, symbols, metaphors, description of things, etc.
Such pieces of information can be obtained in numerous ways. One of the ways is one that
researchers, Holtz, Heinze and Rushton (2018) have adopted to conduct the study. The samples
had clinicians and professionals from different job background. The data was collected and
studied for analyzing what these clinicians and professionals think of the moral resilience in the
healthcare sector. However, researchers could have also used many other methods to add more
depth to their research and findings. Interviews for example with the individuals or groups could
have produced more descriptive details of the topic. The data obtained from the interviews could
have been compared those with the existing data. Hence, study as such this could have produced
more valuable information than the researchers could identify.

3A QUALITATIVE RESEARCH ARTICLE
3. Was the research design appropriate to address the aims of the research?
In the methodology section, qualitative descriptive methods were done to analyze the
samples received from 184 Interprofessional clinicians. The purpose of the method was to know
about these participants for their view towards and understanding of moral resilience. Indeed, it
was a good move considering it to help access the diverse views of clinicians on moral
resilience. However, researchers could have also gone for interviews with the managers in
different healthcare organizations. There are high chances that the viewpoints of the managers
could be distinctively different from those of clinicians. A doctor, for example, may be okay with
an abortion case; however, nurses part of the same case project may not feel the same way.
Being the women nurses would find it an unethical act (Glesne 2016).
4. Was the recruitment strategy appropriate to the aims of the research?
The recruitment strategy may reflect some degree of bias; thus limiting the scope of the
study. The study, therefore, fails to capture definitions outside the study population. The
demographic information of the samples was not collected. The samples collected for the study
do not reveal whether these had diversity in terms of age groups, job roles and so forth. Indeed,
by having people of diverse age groups, the job to identify the impact of unethical work culture
becomes easier. The aim of the research thus cannot be considered justified with this piece of
work (Silverman 2016).

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5. Was the data collected in a way that addressed the research issue?
The data collection procedure does not address the research issue properly. Participants
were asked to give a descriptive definition of moral resilience. The emphasis was on to get a
descriptive definition; however, not on why people find moral resilience an issue. Instead, the
study could have focused more on identifying the different issues faced by healthcare clinicians
and professionals concerning moral resilience (Queirós, Faria and Almeida 2017).
6. Has the relationship between the researcher and participants been adequately
considered?
In qualitative research, there are high chances that a close relationship is being developed
between the researcher and the participants. When researchers talk about something to a group of
people or individuals they also try to develop a personal relationship with the participants to use
their reflexive elements in concluding the research works. Such a relationship is essentially
required to think more about the research topic and conclude things that matter the most. The
current research as conducted by Holtz, Heinze and Rushton (2018) shows no such signs of a
relationship between the researcher and the participants. Participants were just required to give
their descriptive view of moral resilience. Instead, interviews could have been used to talk in
more detail with the participants.

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Section B: What are the results?
7. Have ethical issues been taken into consideration?
Ethical issues have been taken into consideration in this study. The ethical issues
discussed in this study talk about their impact on the various types of moral suffering including
also the moral distress faced by healthcare practitioners. It identifies moral distress as becoming
an essential part of healthcare organizations. Moral distress has been the focus of this research.
The research claims that the root of all moral distress is in the complexity of the work nature in
the contemporary healthcare sector. The study could identify that when healthcare practitioners
experience moral distress and if it continues in them longer than expected they affect their work.
It lets others suffer as well. Patients, families and the entire healthcare system are impacted when
clinicians or other healthcare practitioners are not into good moral shapes (Thomas et al. 2017).
8. Was the data analysis sufficiently rigorous?
The data analysis section was a bit lengthier; however, not very vigorous. The purpose
was to get as much data as is possible and then analyze these to identify different themes and
characteristics. In the data analysis part, the authors also considered to include a clinical ethics
expert and two postdoctoral fellows in the field of bioethics. The purpose was to develop a good
overall understanding of the definitions responded by participants. The authors coded each text
with a definite phrase. The different codes gathered this way were studied repeatedly by different
authors until they reach a common consensus on codes. The continued discussion on the codes
helped authors group these codes into similar categories. As a result, six different categories
were identified. All of these categories had different characteristics (Assarroudi et al. 2018).

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Hence, it can be said that the analysis section was bit intensive; however, it was managed well
with a team of authors, experts in the bioethics field and a clinical ethics expert.
9. Is there a clear statement of findings?
The study advances prior studies in few regards. The study could identify key
characteristics, skills and qualities required to preserve as well as build moral resilience.
Buoyancy, for example, is one of the characteristics identified in the study. Buoyancy can be
used to cultivate a sense of moral resilience in healthcare practitioners. The findings are not
consistent with other research works in regards to the ability to bounce back. Rather, the works
of Holtz, Heinze and Rushton (2018) reveal that rebounding from a distressing situation would
be sufficient alone. Instead, it is one’s moral efficacy, learning capacity and the aptitude to grow
that help to bring the concerned person out of a distressed situation or kinds of moral suffering
(O'Hara, Canfield and Aase 2019).
Section C: Will the results help locally?
10. How valuable is the research?
Though the study helped explain moral resilience more elaborately, it has its limitations.
The study had very limited participants responding to a question like how they define moral
resilience. The research work did not have an interview with the individual or a group of people.
This could have been used to get diverse views on moral resilience (Patten and Newhart 2017).
The findings of the study show significant advancement from prior works on moral resilience.

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However, it could have done more with the research topic, had it considered conducting
interviews with the right audience.

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References
Assarroudi, A., Heshmati Nabavi, F., Armat, M.R., Ebadi, A. and Vaismoradi, M., 2018.
Directed qualitative content analysis: the description and elaboration of its underpinning methods
and data analysis process. Journal of Research in Nursing, 23(1), pp.42-55.
Glesne, C., 2016. Becoming qualitative researchers: An introduction. Pearson. One Lake Street,
Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458.
Holtz, H., Heinze, K. and Rushton, C., 2018. Interprofessionals’ definitions of moral resilience.
Journal of clinical nursing, 27(3-4), pp.e488-e494.
O'Hara, J.K., Canfield, C. and Aase, K., 2019. Patient and family perspectives in resilient
healthcare studies: A question of morality or logic?. Safety Science, 120, pp.99-106.
Patten, M.L. and Newhart, M., 2017. Understanding research methods: An overview of the
essentials. Routledge.
Queirós, A., Faria, D. and Almeida, F., 2017. Strengths and limitations of qualitative and
quantitative research methods. European Journal of Education Studies.
Silverman, D. ed., 2016. Qualitative research. Sage.
Thomas, D.R., Pastrana, S., Hutchings, A., Clayton, R. and Beresford, A.R., 2017, November.
Ethical issues in research using datasets of illicit origin. In Proceedings of the 2017 Internet
Measurement Conference (pp. 445-462).
Van den Hoonaard, W.C. and Van den Hoonaard, D.K., 2016. Essentials of thinking ethically in
qualitative research. Routledge.