Experimental Research
The article by Shackelford, Weyhenmeyer, and Mabus (2014) is based on the study of 586 participants of different ages and ethnicity from nine counties of Illinois. The research confirms the fact that women, belonging to different racial and ethnic groups can have a diverse risk of developing certain types of cancer, yet African American women and women, living in rural areas have potentially higher risks. At this point, it was suggested that the role of faith community nurses is especially important. Considering this article, it is possible to note that it is experimental and conducted in a correlation manner according to the qualitative research design. The researchers did not change the existing environment, yet they introduced a new detail to improve the current situation. The sampling methods focus on random sampling while the survey involves the following questions: what breast care do you do? what is your plan for breast care after attending the education session? was the information presented helpful? Among the variables being measured, there is awareness of the at-risk population, survival rates, and educational efforts.
The study intervention answers the following question: is it possible to prevent a dangerous disease? It seems essential to stress the fact that a set of measures aimed at improving the quality of cancer care, the largest part of the human resources in the health system – the role of nurses is given great importance. A nurse is a crucial element in providing comprehensive and effective care to the patients. Taking into account the specificity of cancer patients and the social significance of care about them, the need for specialization of nurses in this field is extremely increasing and requiring strong knowledge and skills in cases of chemo- and radiotherapy, palliative treatment in terms of rehabilitation, and provision of psychological support to the patients and their families (Marks & Sterngold, 2014). The authors claim that “faith community nurses were determined to be valuable resources that could affect the quality of care across the continuum for at-risk populations” (Shackelford et al., 2014, p. 116). To educate regular nurses as faith community nurses, a grant through the National Vulnerable Populations Community Grants Program to St. John’s Hospital in Springfield, IL was initiated. The effective educational strategy comprised videos and DVDs that featured the aforementioned educational content and life-size breast models. As a result, it was stated that faith community nurses played a key role in providing breast care education to at-risk populations.
Descriptive Study
The presented scenario may be regarded as descriptive due to a range of factors. In particular, it is based on descriptive and observational methods of research that is conducted in the context of the qualitative design. Most importantly, information regarding the topic was collected in the natural environment without changing it. Therefore, this research refers to not truly experimental one, thus describing natural health issues of Community A and Community B. The core idea of the scenario is to identify any relations between cancer rates and environmental conditions. The researcher uses the existing information, namely, business types and medical records, to provide the study and does not interact with the participants. In other words, the descriptive study aims at the explanation of the current relationships between the issues. From the scenario, it is evident that the researcher does not introduce or eliminate any of the given details.
As it was mentioned above, the researcher collected the mentioned information to establish relationships between the level of cancer occurrence in the two communities. According to Bennett, Mar, and Hoffmann (2013), evidence-based analysis promotes an in-depth understanding of issues associated with health. For example, it is considered that environmental pollution negatively affects human health, leading to an increased level of morbidity. At the same time, medical records help to specify such factors as the impact of previous diseases, the existence of allergies, genetic predisposition, and so on. Thus, the researcher selected this information to accurately identify the causes of the higher rate of a rare form of cancer in the Community A.
However, it seems necessary to point out that both communities delayed or even skipped annual medical examinations. At this point, the researcher may conclude that the chemical plant and cigarette smoking are the main causes of higher cancer rate in the Community A. The research shows that smoking, as well as environmental pollution, is regarded as the key factors that worsen the health outcomes associated with cancer, especially when it concerns lung cancer. However, it is of great importance that there may be some other factors, leading to the situation that is illustrated on the example of the Community A. For example, genetics, gender, ethnicity, etc. Accordingly, the lower rates of the same disease can be explained by the absence of the chemical plant and smoking among the population. All in all, it should be emphasized that the mentioned conclusions can be made due to the identical data collection methods and medical examination frequency while only the two factors under consideration are different.
References
Bennett, S., Mar, C. D., & Hoffmann, T. (2013). Evidence-based practice across the health professions (2nd ed.). Chatswood, Australia: Elsevier.
Marks, P., & Sterngold, J. (2014). On the cancer frontier: One man, one disease, and a medical revolution. New York, NY: Public Affairs.
Shackelford, J., Weyhenmeyer, D., & Mabus, L. (2014). Fostering early breast cancer detection: Faith community nurses reaching at-risk populations. Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing, 18(6), 113-117.