Answer

Measuring, Collecting, and Analyzing Data

This paper presents a critical appraisal of the article titled, “The relationship of nursing students’ spiritual care perspectives to their expressions of spiritual empathy,” by Chism & Magnan (2009). The paper accomplishes this goal by identifying the statistical procedures employed, judging whether these procedures were relevant for the research objectives of the study, and for the level of variables’ measurement. The paper also explains the employment of a posthoc analysis in the study, and judges whether the authors’ interpretation of the research findings is appropriate. The paper then concludes by evaluating the clinical significant of the study results.

Bernard & Benard (2012) define statistical procedure as method employed by a researcher to analyze or represent statistical data.  Chism & Magnan (2009) employed Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) analysis to determine the variance associated with the dependent variable (nursing learners’ demonstration of spiritual empathy) and independent variable (nursing learners’ demonstration of spiritual care perspectives). In their research, Chism & Magnan (2009) employed appropriate procedures for addressing the aim of their study. The authors’ procedures were governed by the Chism’s Middle-Range Theory that focuses on spiritual empathy. One of the areas where the authors’ effectiveness in employing a suitable procedure for the research is evident is in their selection of the descriptive, correlation study design for the research. Munhall (2012) asserts that any scientific process commences with description that is founded on events or an event from which theories can be established. The accomplishment of the study’s objective called for the determination of the relationship between two variables including nursing students’ spiritual care views and their demonstration of spiritual empathy. As such, the employment of descriptive, correlation study method provided a suitable platform on which the authors could observe the nursing learners’ demonstration of spiritual care perspectives and spiritual empathy. Bernard & Benard (2012) add that correlation is a statistical measure of the association between two or even more variables. Thus, the aspect of correlation in the study design employed by authors enabled them to generate an indication of how nursing students’ expression of spiritual perspectives predicts their expression of spiritual empathy.

According to Munhall (2012) post hoc analysis is a stepwise or systematic multiple comparison method employed to establish means of samples that are notably different from one another. The authors’ employment of the post hoc analysis in the study was appropriate. This suitability of the use of this test in the study lies in the fact that the authors used it after the findings of the ANOVA analysis revealed a significance variance between the study variables.

Bernard & Benard (2012) assert that interpretation of research outcomes serves to accomplish three goals. The first objective is to put the information collected into perspective by comparing the findings to what was expected from the study or the promised results. The second goal is to consider recommendations to assist or provide direction for future research, while the third objective is to make deductions or conclusions from the study’s outcomes (Munhall, 2012). In relation to these objectives, it can also be argued that the authors’ interpretation of the research findings was appropriate. The findings of this study revealed that spiritual care views accounted for 8.6% of the variance within nursing learners’ (N = 223) demonstrations of spiritual sympathy after controlling for appropriate spirituality and demographic variables. This contextualization of the outcomes of the ANOVA analysis was relevant, as it provided the relationship between the variables that the author investigated.  The authors’ conclusion and recommendation are also in line with the goals of research interpretation. For instance, the researchers argue that the study findings imply that the provision of spiritual support and care within healthcare settings or in nursing practice relies partly on the ability of nurses to clarify their spiritual care perspectives. Such a recommendation provides a suitable guideline for the execution of present and future nursing practice.

The clinical significance concept, also known as clinical importance, is defined as the difference or discrepancy between two therapy outcomes that is substantial enough to validate the varying standard of care (Bernard & Benard, 2012). The outcomes of the ANOVA analysis performed in the study revealed a variance of 8.6%. This finding reveals that the variables under investigation bear some relationship with or influence on each other. Thus, it can be argued that the nursing students’ demonstration of spiritual views results into them expressing spiritual empathy to some extent. As such, the authors have succeeded in establishing the association between their variables of interest.

In conclusion, it can be noted that the article by Chism & Magnan (2009), which focuses on the establishment of the relationship between nursing learners’ expressions of spiritual empathy, and their demonstration of spiritual care views, employs appropriate procedures in accomplishing the objective of the study. This research also employs a suitable statistical analysis in evaluating the research findings, as noted in the ANOVA analysis. The posthoc assessment conducted after the ANOVA evaluation has also been done appropriately. Moreover, the authors’ interpretation of the study findings is also done in an excellent manner. In general, the study by Chism & Magnan (2009) has been done in a scientifically valid and reliable manner.