A Process of Decision Making by Caregivers of Family Members with Heart Failure - Article Example

The essay aims to address the following questions to wit:

1. What is the purpose of this research?
2. What is the research question? This may be implicit or explicit.
3. What theories, frameworks, models or concepts may have influenced the researchers' choice of a research design? If this is not stated specifically, List any that are implied.
4. How do the authors describe the design of this study?
5. Determine the classification of this study. Is it quantitative, qualitative or mixed?
6. Is there evidence of any conflict of interest that might introduce bias into the way the study is designed or the way the result is viewed? Do the authors have any potential financial gain from the results of the study?
7. What is the evidence that this journal is peer reviewed? Does the journal have an editorial board?

A Process of Decision Making by Caregivers of Family Members with Heart Failure

1. What is the purpose of this research?

The purpose of the research is to describe decision making by caregivers of patients with heart failure (HF).

2. What is the research question? This may be implicit or explicit.

The research question is explicitly stated. The specific research question is: How do caregivers of family members with HF make decisions?

3. What theories, frameworks, models or concepts may have influenced the researchers' choice of a research design?

HF knowledge is a potential determinant of outcomes based on the caregiver’s ability to make decision; the three-stage theory which emerged from the grounded theory study of Crist, Garcia-Smith, and Phillips (2006) and examined the process how the 23 Mexican American elders with their caregivers decided to use formal home care service, identified taking care of our own, acknowledging options, and becoming empowered as the decision process involved, and supported the idea that Mexican American family stick to their cultural norms while making difficult treatment decisions; the five-step decision process which emerged from a phenomenological study of nine  mothers in Taiwan who shared experience of family interactions and relationships while making decisions about child’s heart surgery  indicated that the family experienced psychological distress, role reorganization, and a remodeling of family functioning; and the used grounded theory by Hall et al. (2008) which examined the moral decision making of the wives of patients with life-threatening cardiovascular disease and described the five step process of decision making to include searching, seeking, reflecting, accepting, and decision making (Sanford, Rocchicciolli, Horigan & Hall, 2011, 58).

4. How do the authors describe the design of this study?

The authors describe the design of the study as a qualitative design that uses grounded theory methods.

5. Determine the classification of this study. Is it quantitative, qualitative or mixed?

As stated on the article, the study is classified as a qualitative study.

6. Is there evidence of any conflict of interest that might introduce bias into the way the study is designed or the way the result is viewed? Do the authors have any potential financial gain from the results of the study? Yes, introduction of biases in the study could be possible because of the sampling methodology and data analysis section. The methodology implied that purposive sampling was used in the study as samples were selected based on the relevance to the investigation; for instance, the caregiver had to be related to the patient with HF, provide one activity of daily living, and/or assist the care recipient with two instrumental activities of daily living and not be paid for services. This could introduce biases as purposive sampling does not generate representativeness of the population (Stommel & Wills, 2004, 303). In addition, the data analysis section might also introduce biases because the personal judgments of the encoder were integrated in the analysis as evident in writing impressions and thoughts during analysis. With regards to potential financial gain, the journal is unbiased and has nothing to gain by publishing the results as authors are not related to the publishing company.
7. What is the evidence that this journal is peer reviewed? Does the journal have an editorial board?

An editorial review board, which is the Springer Publishing Company, was included but the actual reviewers were blinded in the review.