Critiquing a Quantitative Study on Nurses and IPV Care

Introduction

The health and wellbeing of women is often negatively impacted by intimate partner violence (IPV). In the past, various research studies have attempted to assess both the impact of IPV on the health and wellbeing of women and the strategies that ought to be implemented when caring for IPV victims. In their study titled Nurses' Preparedness to Care for Women Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence: A Quantitative Study in Primary Health Care, Sundborg, Saleh-Stattin, Wändell, and Törnkvist attempt to evaluate how well nurses are prepared to identify and provide appropriate nursing care to IPV victims seeking primary health care. In critiquing this article, this paper will focus on the study's problem statement and purpose, literature review, theoretical framework, hypotheses and research question, and research design.

Problem Statement and Purpose

Sundborg, Saleh-Stattin, Wändell, and Törnkvist state the purpose of this article as "to assess nurses' preparedness to identify and provide nursing care to women exposed to IPV who attend primary health care." This is a descriptive research study; as such, it may not be possible to establish cause and effect or to correlate variables. In contrast to experimental research, descriptive research seeks to assess or highlight specific features of the phenomenon or population being studied. In this case, the study sought to assess the preparedness of nurses to care for women who are victims of IPV.

The purpose of this research does imply empirical testability. Testability is a tenet that ought to be central to the design of all studies. In this case, testability is promoted by the clear definition of the population under consideration and the specific distinguishing features of interest. The authors specify the population in the problem statement as nurses working with IPV victims in primary health care. The issue the authors set out to investigate is of great relevance to nursing, given that IPV has been widely identified as one of the public health concerns having the greatest impact on the health and wellbeing of women. Any undertaking that is keen on promoting nurses' competencies in providing quality nursing care to women exposed to IPV is, therefore, directly relevant to the profession.

Review of the Literature

A review of literature has the overall purpose of presenting "a strong knowledge base for the conduct of the study" (Lo-Biondo-Wood and Haber, 2014, p. 51). To successfully incorporate useful information on the concern under inquiry, the review of literature ought to be comprehensive, diverse, and well organized. The authors of this study conduct a meaningful and comprehensive review of literature from a variety of sources. The majority of the sources used are current and relevant to the concern being queried. The authors also draw on some materials that, at first glance, appear outdated — that is, sources more than ten years old. According to Gray, Ferris, and White (2018), there is a need to discriminate among sources to ensure that the validity of the study is not compromised. In their words, "validity is ascertained by ensuring the information is current, relevant, reliable and feasible" (Gray, Ferris, and White, 2018, p. 50). It should be noted, however, that the validity of this study may not have been substantially compromised, as more than 90 percent of the materials the authors rely on are current within the context of this particular research undertaking.

The review of literature is inclusive of conceptual literature, and relevance to both the issues at hand and the specific theoretical constructs is sustained throughout. Most of the sources are drawn from reputable journals and related nursing texts, which further advances reliability. Additionally, only a few secondary sources are used, meaning that most of the sources are primary. Thanks to the authors' efforts to critically analyze sources, the literature review section is not merely a collection of annotations. Although the literature review does not include the strengths and weaknesses of each individual study, it does comprehensively compare and contrast the various studies cited.

As noted, this being a descriptive research study, the dependent and independent variables were not necessarily correlated, as no cause or effect was presumed. In aggregate, most studies cited appear to suggest that further enhancing the preparedness of health professionals in their engagement with those exposed to IPV is critical to improving nursing care outcomes for women. In essence, improving preparedness refers to proper training and the advancement of relevant support structures. The authors conclude with a brief assessment of the presented literature and evaluate its implications for the issue at hand from a theoretical rationale. No inconsistencies or gaps were identified in the review.

Conclusion

Sundborg, Saleh-Stattin, Wändell, and Törnkvist found a majority of nurses to be largely incompetent in the provision of nursing care to victims of IPV. The authors note that treatment options were largely founded on the symptoms presented, effectively meaning that unidentified abuse went unaddressed. As a result, the authors call for improvements to be made "on both the level of organization and individual." Overall, the study is well grounded in an established theoretical framework, supported by a comprehensive and largely current literature review, and employs a research design appropriate to its descriptive aims. Its primary limitation lies in the absence of explicitly stated research questions or hypotheses, though this is partially mitigated by the nature of the descriptive approach itself.