Research Paper. QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH CRITIQUE. Health, Medicine, Nursing

QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH CRITIQUE
1. Research Problem and Purpose
What are the problem and purpose of the referenced study? (Sometimes ONLY the purpose is stated clearly and the problem must be inferred from the introductory discussion of the purpose.) 
• The main research question of this study is about the effects of using antibacterial prophylaxis prior cardiac surgeries, and how this technique affects the risks of surgical site infection (SSIs), which is a common type of nosocomial infection. 
2. Hypotheses and Research Questions
What are the hypotheses (or research questions/objectives) of the study? (Sometimes the hypotheses or study questions are listed in the Results section, rather than preceding the report of the methodology used. Occasionally, there will be no mention of hypotheses, but anytime there are inferential statistics used, the reader can recognize what the hypotheses are from looking at the results of statistical analysis.)
     
3. Literature Review
What is the quality of the literature review? Is the literature review current? Relevant? Is there evidence that the author critiqued the literature or merely reported it without critique? Is there an integrated summary of the current knowledge base regarding the research problem, or does the literature review contain opinion or anecdotal articles without any synthesis or summary of the whole? (Sometimes the literature review is incorporated into the introductory section without being explicitly identified.) 
• The authors were able to synthesize data from different publications and sources. Aside from this, most of the articles were taken recently within the past five years. This increases the accuracy and relevance of their research to the state of nosocomial infection these days. 
4. Theoretical or Conceptual Framework
Is a theoretical or conceptual framework identified? If so, what is it? Is it a nursing framework or one drawn from another discipline? (Sometimes there is no explicitly identified theoretical or conceptual framework; in addition, many “nursing” research studies draw on a “borrowed” framework, e.g., stress, medical pathology, etc.)
• Although the conceptual framework is not explicitly identified, the study has most likely used regression analysis, which is commonly used in most research studies across different disciplines. 
5. Population
What population was sampled? How was the population sampled? Describe the method and criteria. How many subjects were in the sample?
• The participants included in the research were “consecutive cardiac surgery patients undergoing median sternotomy at a McGill University teaching hospital between April 1, 2011 and October 31, 2013” (Eton, et al., 2016). Since this cohort was composed of 1,077 patients chosen through purposive sampling, the study’s representativeness is increased. However, this could have been made better if random sampling was utilized. 
6. Protection of Human Research Participants
What steps were taken to protect human research subjects? 
• In order to protect the participants, the researchers only obtained information pertinent to the study. Other than that, anonymity and confidentiality were maintained. 
7. Research Design
What was the design of the study? If the design was modeled from previous research or pilot studies, please describe.• The study mainly used regression analysis, which is commonly used in many quantitative research studies. Particularly, they used “Univariate and multivariate logistic regression (adjusted odds ratio [AOR])” (Eton, et al., 2016).
8. Instruments and Strategies for Measurement
What instruments and/or other measurement strategies were used in data collection? Was inf...