Discharge Planning

1578 Words7 Pages
Due to numerous factors affecting length of hospital stay and compensation, discharge planning has been negatively impacted. Patients are being readmitted or seen in the emergency room for things that could have been prevented had they received adequate discharge planning prior. Due to this increasing issue, a team of nurse researchers in Tokyo conducted a study that experimented with the affects of discharge planning educational programs and their influence on discharge outcomes. They published their research article to the Japan Journal of Nursing Science, and because of my interests in improving discharge planning I have chosen to critique their research process. Title, Abstract and Introduction The title of the article, “Effects of a…show more content…
Randomization is the hallmark of a true experiment. Quasi-experiments can even exclude a control group, but not in this case (Polit & Beck, 2014, p. 157). 256 nurses agreed to participate in the study, with 102 of them joining the educational group (independent variable) and the other 154 nurses joining the non-educational group (control group), randomization was not an option (Murashima et al., 2012). I believe this to be incorrect. Randomization can be conducted by flipping a coin, pulling from a hat or using a computer to randomly select participants for an assignment (Polit & Beck, 2014, p. 154). Considering the intervention being performed on the control group was education, there could have been a bias in which nurses felt they needed education vs. those who felt they did not need discharge education. In addition, experience with discharges could have influenced the choices of who was selected for the control group. I don’t feel they went with the most rigorous design possible and randomization should have been performed. This study utilized the “KAP Model”, knowledge, attitude, practice. I consider this to be an excellent approach as I think it is important to improve discharge planning from all angles, not just the educational (knowledge) aspect of it. They evaluated the improvements made in nurse’s attitude and practice as well. In order to conclude what they would educate the nurses on, they conducted interviews to gauge their educational needs. Once that was concluded, they implemented the program. During the intervention, participants were given lectures, information from websites and textbooks, and encouraged discussion amongst the participants to ensure they were teaching the most up-to-date information. Moreover, physicians and social workers attended the conference as a means of additional help. After the education was
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