Critique: The goal is a balanced constructive review including strengths and weaknesses as well as providing suggestions for how the study might be improved. Keep in mind that you are critiquing the article to determine if it can or should be used in your practice as a nurse.

Instructions: attached is the study selected to critique answering the following questions:

1. Research Problem

a) Is the problem identified clearly?

b) Is the problem significant, and do(es) the researcher(s) provide a good

argument for significance?

c) Is the problem relevant to nursing/health care?

2. Literature Review

a) Is it convincing that the author(s) reviewed a sufficient amount of

literature? Is the review comprised only of primary sources? Are

references current, or a combination of current and classic?

b) Is the review balanced, presenting literature that supports and that

differs from the researcher(s) position?

c) Is the review written critically, presenting both strengths and weaknesses of

previous work?

3. Theoretical Framework

a) Is a theoretical framework specified?

b) If so, does the framework “fit” the problem? Does it include all

relevant variables? Are the concepts (variables) clearly defined?

Are the results interpreted in reference to the theoretical framework?

c) If not, should there be one? Is it difficult to understand the

relationships among the variables in the study without a framework to

tie the pieces together? (Note: qualitative research, descriptive

studies, and physiologic studies typically will not specify a

theoretical framework.)

4. Variables/Hypotheses

a) Are the variables in the study appropriate to the problem? Are they

relevant to nursing practice? Are the means to measure the

variables appropriate?

b) Are hypotheses stated? If so, what are they? Are they clear,

specific and testable?

c) If not, do(es) the researcher(s) provide sufficient information to

determine what the hypotheses were?