Dealing with end of life—New graduated nurse experiences

Article Critique
Student’s Name
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Article Critique
To understand the purpose and implications of the findings from a research article, it is important to critique the research article. Below is an article critique of the research conducted by Croxon, Deravin, and Anderson (2017), titled Dealing with end of life—New graduated nurse experiences.
Substantive and Theoretical Dimension
Relevance of the Research Problem
           The article by Croxon, Deravin, and Anderson (2017) assesses how newly graduated nurses perceived their preparedness to deal with the end of life in their place of work. This research article is of great relevance to the topic of death and dying because it examines nurses’ readiness to deal with the end of life. This exploration then points out to the need for providing nurses with quality education on end of life care. 
Significance
           In nursing practice, death and dying are common and while other healthcare professionals provide care to people with a terminal illness, nurses usually provide end of life care the most (Croxon, Deravin, & Anderson, 2017). It is not an easy task and nurses need to be prepared. The article clearly indicates the significance of the research by stating that it is important to examine how well-prepared graduate nurses are so that they can be provided with assistance, such as skills and competences, in how to provide quality, end of life care.
Conceptual Framework  
           A conceptual framework shows the foundation of the study (Boswell & Cannon, 2020). It shows how the study variables are related. The article by Croxon, Deravin, and Anderson (2017) lacks a well-discussed or illustrated conceptual framework to determine the relationship between the variables. However, the key concepts in the article are readiness for practice, new graduate nurses, and death and dying. 
Research Question and Methods Used
           In the article by Croxon, Deravin, and Anderson (2017), the research questions are not clearly stated. It is, however, possible to deduce the research questions from the purpose statement in the article. As posited by Boswell and Cannon (2020), research questions in a study are basically who, where, what, how, when, and why. The “who”, in the case of the article by Croxon, Deravin, and Anderson (2017), is new graduate nurses, the “where” in this case is the workplace (especially in rural community nursing and hospital settings), and the “what” is nurses readiness. The “how” involves collecting the perception of nurses based on their experiences while the “why” is to identify gaps in the end of life care education in the nursing curriculum. The “when” is nurses dealing with patients with terminal illnesses. However, the article lacks a clear theoretical or conceptual framework, which, according to Boswell and Cannon (2020), is important in forming a relationship between the variables used in the research. 
Literature review
           The literature review conducted by Croxon, Deravin, and Anderson (2017) lacks a clear structure and organization. As Boswell and Cannon (2020) indicate, a good literature review should have an introduction and a summary. The literature review in the article is also not very current. Some of the sources used in the article were more than five years old at the time the study was conducted. However, the literature review identifies the gaps found in past studies on the topic of death and dying. For instance, through the literature review, Croxon, Deravin, and Anderson (2017) establish that past studies have not explored the effectiveness of the end of life education provided to new nurses, in spite of the emphasis to provide such education. The literature review also establishes which findings have been consistent in past studies on the topic, such as the need to provide adequate end of life care to nurses, among other major themes.
Methodological Dimension
Research Design
The study by Croxon, Deravin, and Anderson (2017) is a qualitative interpretative study. The article reveals that data was obtained using semi-structured interviews which were presented to new graduate nurses with a Bachelor of Nursing. A qualitative interpretative study design is effective in such a case because first, the data collected is in terms of the experiences and perception of nurses, and second, the researchers have to expound the qualitative data to find meaning it.
Population and Sample
The target population in the study was the newly graduated nurses who possessed a bachelor’s degree in nursing. Invitations were sent to recently graduated nurses (those who graduated within the last two years) from one specific university. The authors adopted a purposive sampling technique and a sample of seven (7) graduates was used in the study. Of the seven graduates, two were in the second year of practice while the remaining five were in their first year. Only female nurses were included in the sample because male nurses did not accept invitations to participate in the study. Nurses were from all age gr...