Introduction
The COVID-19 epidemic has fundamentally disrupted key global economic, sociological, and healthcare infrastructures, which may only exacerbate clinical nurses’ decision fatigue. The article under discussion, Decision Fatigue among Clinical Nurses During the COVID-19 Pandemic, is the first instance in which the decision fatigue scale has been psychometrically validated among a group of clinical staff. Consequently, the goal of this study was to establish and evaluate the instrument that assesses responder decision fatigue in a clinical setting.
Type of Research & the Design
The secondary analysis of cross-sectional, descriptive research investigating the mental implications of being a nurse during the COVID-19 outbreak served as the foundation for this research. In descriptive cross-sectional research, the proliferation of a disease or condition is examined at a particular time or point in a specified population.
Sample
Non-probability sampling was used in this study since the participants had to meet specific requirements. 160 staff nurses were included in the total sample (Pignatiello et al., 2021). The study’s four inclusion criteria were Adulthood, reading English, having a degree in nursing, and working 20 hours a week in a clinical setting. The majority of respondents were White women, 36 years old on average. The majority of the sample worked in urban settings at university medical centers or community teaching hospitals, and more than 50% of them were practicing in the Mid-Atlantic or Midwestern areas of the country (Pignatiello et al., 2021). And about half of the respondents worked in a critical care area of practice, were bachelor’s degree nurses, had a minimum of 36 hours per week, classified largely as nursing staff.
Data Collection
Participants were asked to fill out a demographic survey and anonymous questionnaires about decision fatigue, the nursing practice atmosphere scale, and anxiety. The decision fatigue scale (DFS), The Practice Environment Scale of Nursing Work Index (PESNWI), and The Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) were the specific measures utilized in the research for data collection.
Data Analysis
The statistical tool IBM SPSS was used to analyze the dataset. A descriptive analysis was used to assess and systematize information on the participants and DFS items. The features of the samples were evaluated using descriptive statistics, such as frequencies, means, and standard deviations. According to Pignatiello et al. (2021), the nine DFS items were further evaluated using other univariate statistics, including skewness and kurtosis, to carry out additional psychometric evaluations. To assess the internal consistency reliability of the DFS, the authors produced a Cronbach’s value (Pignatiello et al., 2021). The main aspect I have learned is that Cronbach’s alpha coefficient is used to measure reliability.
Limitations
Due to the severe psychological effects the COVID-19 epidemic has had on the world healthcare system, the results are probably amplified. As a result, the study’s limitation is that the decision fatigue nurses experienced could not entirely be due to their workplace but rather the difficulties of the epidemic (Pignatiello et al., 2021). As a result, the limitations of the epidemic and the obscurity of the ideas studied restrict the findings of this study.
Findings
According to the study’s findings, participant total scores on the IES-R, which measures traumatic stress, were positively correlated with DFS scores (Pignatiello et al., 2021). The discovery provided further evidence for the validity of the scale that the association between the DFS and affect-related components remained constant across groups. I find it particularly interesting that being exposed to severe stress is negatively correlated with the ability to do the cognitive tasks necessary for making informed decisions (Pignatiello et al., 2021). The findings of this study demonstrate the need for a robust and accurate decision fatigue evaluation system that can be employed to gauge the load of decision-making on healthcare professionals.
Conclusion
I think it is crucial to read and study primary research literature since it enhances scientific literacy, critical thinking skills, and awareness of scientific findings. Scholars have shown a link between decision fatigue, increased traumatic stress symptoms, and unfavorable working conditions for nurses (Pignatiello et al., 2021). Therefore, following the completion of this assignment, I have learned useful approaches for evaluating the validity and reliability of a scale and received pertinent, evidence-based knowledge on decision fatigue in a healthcare setting.
References
Pignatiello, G. A., Tsivitse, E., O’Brien, J., Kraus, N., & Hickman, R. L. (2021). Decision fatigue among clinical nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 31(7–8), 869–877.