Earplugs

Critical Appraisal of “The Effect of Earplugs During the Night on the Onset of Delirium and Sleep Perception: a Randomized Controlled Trial in Intensive Care Patients”
John Little
Alcorn State University Critical Appraisal of “The Effect of Earplugs During the Night on the Onset of Delirium and Sleep Perception: a Randomized Controlled Trial in Intensive Care Patients”
Introduction
The title of this scholarly work is strong in that it includes the target population of the study, intensive care patients, and the variable in question, the implementation of earplug use during the night. The authors also specified in the title that their methodology for conducting the research was use of a randomized controlled trial, indicative that the research was quantitative in nature. The abstract was clear and concise in less than 300 words, and objectively and completely summarized the background of the research, the methodology, and conclusive results. The only weakness I found was that it did not include the problem statement in the introduction portion of the abstract.
In regards to credentials and qualifications of the authors, they are all faculty at the University of Antwerp where the study was conducted. Two authors were indicated to be faculty in the department of nursing sciences, three authors were faculty in the department of medicine and
To explain, informed consent was obtained from all participants of the study and they were individually informed by a researcher. The authors claimed that all data collected was made anonymous. They also note that they received approval for the study from Antwerp University Hospital’s board of ethics before beginning in November and additionally registered the trial in the Current Controlled Trials database. The authors provided reference numbers for both the ethics board approval and the trial