Critical Appraisal of Research Quality in Medical Field - Essay Sample

Introduction

Critical appraisal is prudently and systematically exploring research articles to critic their reliability, utility, and relevance in a specific context (Williams, 2020). Its application in the medical field is profoundly relevant to separate the useful inventions from the harmful ones. Research quality entails the reflection of good composure or format and free from bias or internal validity (Williams, 2020). Consequently, the research reviewing must be done, especially in selecting performance, discovery, and attrition, where biasedness usually befalls. Therefor data processing and analysis must be carried out from data collection, collation, down to interpretation (Williams, 2020).

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The studies on the preventive measures to curb the spread of this global pandemic were selected because they pose a great demand for the current healthcare system and the economy. According to the World Health Organization (2020) report on August 18, 2020, over 21 million confirmed cases of the pandemic and 771,635 succumbed to the virus. Consequently, scholars and scientists have been challenged to determine and recommend better ways and techniques to minimize its spread. One of the recommended ways to curb the spread of the coronavirus was handwashing, therefore investigating its efficiency would ultimately provide an insight to the healthcare practitioners (Ma et al., 2020).

In this paper, two research articles have been critically appraised on the Effectiveness of handwashing compared to sanitizers in controlling the spread of COVID-19. The first is entitled Hand Hygiene During COVID-19: Recommendations from the American Contact Dermatitis Society (Rundle et al., 2020) while the other is Potential Utilities of Maskwearing and Instant Hand Hygiene for Fighting SARSCoV2 (Ma et al., 2020). Both articles are in pursuit of controlling the spread of COVID-19 in the world population through handwashing and mask-wearing.

The first article presents handwashing as a preventative measure of COVID-19 pandemic, and the other was a case study that involved hand hygiene and the masks-wearing for fighting SARS-CoV-2 (Ma et al., 2020; Rundle et al., 2020). Therefore, the reviewed studies pose probable answer to PICOT question that; In the world population, how effective is handwashing compared to the use of sanitizers in controlling the spread of COVID-19 by having handwashing as the Interventions in both cases.

The Methodology of Study Used in the Appraised Articles

Although the two studies utilized qualitative research design and experimental methods, the critiques would be separately presented due to a slight difference in methodological approach and research questions. The research by Rundle et al. (2020) was an experimental method that investigated different soap performances and effects on human skin. The study used synthetic detergents such as soaps, alcohol-based hand sanitizers, and moisturizers. On the other hand, the study by Ma et al. (2020), combined literature reviewed from previous studies, control experiences and conducted the efficacy experiment of different types of masks with the avian influenza virus (AIV) to mock coronavirus, and evaluation of instant hand wiping. The virus concentration was varied using a chain reaction of real-time reverse transcription-polymerase. At the same time, wet towels soaked in water containing soap powder, sodium hypochlorite, and active chlorine solutions were used to wipe hands during the experiment.

Advantages and Limitations of the Methodology

Both studies applied experimental methodology will slight variations on how they were conducted. The major outstanding benefit is the intuitive practice shaped by the research, thereby gaining the insights of instructions and the researcher's full control of the variables. For instance, in the case of the efficacy experiment of different types of masks with AIV, after performing some trials to obtain the initial values, the researcher would have understood and extrapolated the results. Nevertheless, it is prone to human error due to the personal biasedness of the experimenter.

Results of the Study

According to Rundle et al. (2020), proper handle hygiene is an accepted practice that is likely to decrease the transmission of infectious diseases by 24-31 percent. The research ascertains that there are several hand hygiene products with varied efficacy and safety. Generally, the use of water and soap, followed by moisturizers, is recommended to be the best hand hygiene practice. Still, in their unavailability, 60 percent of alcohol-based hand sanitizers can be used. Ma et al. (2020), resolved that prompt wiping of hands using a wet towel immersed in water containing one percent solution of soap powder removed 98.36 percent of the virus from the hand. Also, 0.25 percent of sodium hypochlorite and 0.05 percent of active chlorine cleaned 99.98 percent or 96.62 percent of infections. Besides, medical masks, homemade masks, and N95 masks could block 97.14 percent, 95.15 percent, and 99.98 percent of the aerosols' viruses. Other studies had opposed medical maskswearing, which was supported by several studies, perhaps due to erroneous conclusions from the previous randomized block studies (Ma et al., 2020). The experimental outcomes from this study purport that proper hand hygiene maintenance and maskwearing would significantly lower the coronavirus' rapid spread.

These research results would imply that observing proper hand hygiene through instant and thorough washing of hands with water and soap would significantly reduce the spread of COVID-19. As health practitioners, it is necessary to encourage the patients and sensitize the general public to follow these guidelines to curb the spread of infectious diseases.

Ethical Considerations

Ethics in a research study is an integral aspect of research that needs to be adhered to. Although there are several codes of conduct guiding the research work, some of the ethical considerations in this paper include minimizing the risk of harm to participants and anonymity protection (Minaya, 2016).

Minimizing the Risk of Harm to Participants

The participants' safety should be a top priority of the research work. Therefore, all researchers should uphold and follow the code of conduct by minimizing any anticipated harm to participants. However, if there are possibilities that participants could be harmed, then strong reason must be provided (Minaya, 2016).

Protecting anonymity and confidentiality

The privacy of the data provided by the participants and the anonymity of respondents must be kept confidential (Minaya, 2016). However, sometimes privacy could be limited. For instance, at-risk participants of harm need to be helped by releasing classified information to the right staff.

Ethics Considered by the Researchers of the Appraise Articles

The researchers of the appraised articles adhered to anonymity and confidentiality protection rules and minimized the risk of harm to participants. These researchers did not use any personally identifiable information (PII) in the entire articles; instead, they generalized the research outcomes. Similarly, they ensured that both the experiments which were being conducted were harmless to the participants. For instance, using the AIV instead of using the active form of coronavirus when investigating how the spread of virus can be minimized through wearing masks was a safety measure, thus upholding the participants' safety rule.

Conclusion

The critical assessment of research papers on healthcare technology and research improvements enabling health practitioners to secure safer and better healthcare for everyone to experience life with optimum well-being. To accomplish this necessity, scientists pursue research to render reliable evidence on various facets of healthcare to establish evidence-based constraints on the safety of inventions. Finally, from the articles assessed, it can be regarded that observing proper hand hygiene through instant and thorough handwashing with water and soap would significantly reduce the spread of coronavirus.

References

Ma, Q. X., Shan, H., Zhang, H. L., Li, G. M., Yang, R. M., & Chen, J. M. (2020). Potential utilities of maskwearing and instant hand hygiene for fighting SARSCoV2. Journal of medical virology. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jmv.25805

Minaya, G. (2016). Relevant ethical consideration in research with indigenous people in Peru. Journal of community genetics, 7(2), 175. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4796047/

Rundle, C. W., Presley, C. L., Militello, M., Barber, C., Powell, D. L., Jacob, S. E., ... & Dunnick, C. A. (2020). Hand Hygiene During COVID-19: Recommendations from the American Contact Dermatitis Society. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7373692/

Williams, V., Boylan, A. M., & Nunan, D. (2020). Critical appraisal of qualitative research: necessity, partialities and the issue of bias. BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine, 25(1), 9-11. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30862711/

World Health Organization. (2020). Coronavirus disease 2019 (‎ COVID-19)‎: situation report, 88. https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/situation-reports