Article Critique

Article Critique

            Stavrianopoulos’ 2016 article “Impact of a nurse-led telephone intervention program on the quality of life in patients with heart failure in a district hospital of Greece” evaluates the use of the telephone for the remote monitoring and management of patients with chronic heart failure (HF). The purpose of the study was to determine whether a nurse-led telephone intervention implemented consistently could help to improve the quality of life of patients with chronic heart failure. A critique of the article will reveal the quality of the study and the applicability of findings to the nursing practice.

The Study Design and Data Collection and Analysis Techniques

            The research design involved the evaluation and comparison of the MLHFQ scores for the experimental and control groups. The participants in both groups filled the study questionnaire at the beginning and end of the study. The HF management strategies for the experimental group included a nurse-led telephone intervention program, which lasted for 16 weeks. The nurses performed the telephone intervention once every week with each intervention lasting about 20 minutes. The study sample comprised of 50 patients diagnosed with chronic heart failure. The sample constituted both male and female patients aged 18 years and above with different marital statuses and ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. Stavrianopoulos (2016) used questionnaires to collect the demographic, social and health data of study participants. The researcher recorded the changes in the patients’ quality of life based on the MLHFQ scale. The analysis of the collected data involved the transformation of the questionnaire questions into variables and the calculation of the descriptive statistics for the experimental and control groups. The researcher used the mean, standard deviation and t-test to analyze the continuous variables. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and Levene’s test revealed the normality and homogeneity of the data respectively. The researcher used the Pearson chi-square test to evaluate the association between the telephone intervention and demographic variables.

Summary of the Findings

            The author concludes that the nurse-led intervention program contributes to improved quality of life for patients with chronic heart failure. The patients who benefited from the telephone intervention enjoyed reduced incidences of swelling in the legs and ankles, improved ability to perform the activities of daily living, improved sleep, reduced anxiety, worry and depression and reduced visits to hospital among other benefits. These outcomes were achievable through the communication of the patient’s vitals and the nurse’s recommendations of the relevant preventive measures considering the identified risk factors.

Limitations of the Study

            One limitation of the study is the likelihood of dishonesty by the participants in responding to the questionnaire administering at the end of the study before they knew that they belonged to the control or experimental group. The dishonest answers may have led to flawed conclusions about the impacts of the telephone intervention. The research can avoid this limitation in the future by integrating a science-based procedure to confirm the participants’ responses to the questionnaire questions (Gerrish & Lathlean, 2015). The other limitation of the study is the small sample size, which was not sufficient to allow the objective analysis of the numerous variables generated through the MLHFQ scale. The sample size hampered the generalization of the study findings. The researcher can avoid this limitation in the future by increasing the sample size to a substantial number of participants such as 600 patients.

Significance of the Study to the Nursing Practice

            The study provides important information regarding the application of telemedicine concepts to connect patients and healthcare providers remotely and facilitate the delivery of healthcare services and information to patients in remote locations. Telemedicine contributes to the reduced cost of healthcare, timely responses to patients’ needs and declined complications and morality by providing the means for healthcare providers to deliver critical medical services anywhere at any time (Smith, Armfield, & Eikelboom, 2012).

The study prompts nursing researchers to investigate the application of advanced telemedicine concepts such as consumer health mobile applications and web-based health portals to eliminate the geographical barriers to effective healthcare services.

GET QUALITY ESSAY HELP AT: https://www.approvedscholars.com/

ORDER A PAPER WRITTEN FROM SCRATCH AND TO YOUR EXACT INSTRUCTIONS (APPROVEDSCHOLARS.COM – For 100% Original Content)