Nu310 Week 4 Research Paper

Week 4 Research Paper Critique
Ashley N. Scott
Kaplan University
NU310: Nursing Research
Robin Lockhart, MSN, RN, CN

Week 4 Research Paper Critique
When critiquing a research paper, you are evaluating the research and the argument made by the author. To evaluate a research article, one will need to look at what the author is claiming, their research methods, and any problems there might be with the claims made. Are the references in the article reliable? What process did the researchers use? Do the researchers show bias with their findings? There are many questions to ask and many elements to look at when critiquing a research paper. This paper will critique two different research articles; one qualitative and one quantitative.
The study states that they would like to determine if there is a relationship because prior research was inconsistent about keeping feet flat during blood pressure measurement, but there are no actual questions worded in the study. The independent variable in this study is a participants legs being crossed at the knee. The dependent variable in this study is blood pressure readings. Researchers without a hypothesis are prepared to accept any results, but one can almost always explain superficial findings, no matter what they are. “Hypotheses guard against superficiality and minimize the risk that spurious results will be misconstrued” (Polit & Beck, 2012, p.
“Literature review in the introduction to a report provides readers with an overview of existing evidence, and contribute to the argument for the new study” (Polit & Beck, 2012, p. 95). With a thorough literature review, researchers can determine how best to make a contribution to evidence already found. This could include finding gaps in current research, or if performing a study again on a new population would be the next step. The literature review for the qualitative study includes two sources. The sources were from 1988 and 2005, while this article came out in 2008. The 2005 source is recent. The 1988 source is not so recent, but was relevant to the study because it helped to address the fact that there is a lack of exploration for the patient’s feeling surrounding an awake craniotomy. The quantitative study uses mostly primary sources in the literature review. This study was published in 1998 with the literature review sources ranging from 1984-1998. Sources used in this review are studies about the proper technique for measuring blood pressure, things that affect blood pressure readings, and suggestions to help prevent symptomatic orthostatic hypotension. The literature review provides a basis for the study because it supports the claims that there is inconsistency about whether feet should be kept flat on the floor while measuring blood pressure, and whether it would skew