Randomized control trial (RCT) is considered “the gold standard” in the assessment of healthcare situations (Block, 2006, p. 102). RCTs have several major advantages such as attention to the probable sources of mistakes, decreased bias, and decline of confounding (Block, 2006; Loiselle, 2007). However, even with their abundant benefits, RCTs are not frequently used in nursing research (Bench, Day, & Metcalfe, 2013).
The principal limitation of RCTs is connected with their core feature: the randomness of the resolution referring to a person’s medical care plan (Solomon, Cavanaugh, & Draine, 2009). Thus, some specialists consider it unethical to establish such a crucial issue on the sheer opportunity (Solomon et al., 2009). Another disadvantage of RTCs is the need for equipoise – the state when researchers agree about the necessity to prove the prevalence of one way of treatment over the other (Gerrish & Lacey, 2010). If they have some preferences, there is no use in conducting the RCT as they will try to convince clinicians to choose their preferred method.
One more drawback of RCTs is that they are often complicated and expensive to perform (Gerrish & Lacey, 2010). Finally, RCTs have high requirements for informed consent (Block, 2006). Researchers need to obtain the agreement of all the participants to conduct their study. However, sometimes patients refuse to give their consent after getting acquainted with the possible risks to their health. In such cases, the research gets more complicated as new participants need to be found, which requires additional costs and time (Block, 2006).
Therefore, while RCTs are called the gold standard in healthcare evaluation and present a lot of advantages, their application in nursing research is not frequent due to some limitations. When these disadvantages are taken care of, the use of RCTs in nursing research will become more common.
References
Bench, S., Day, T., & Metcalfe, A. (2013). Randomised controlled trials: An introduction for nurse researchers. Nurse Researcher, 20(5), 38-44.
Block, D. J. (2006). Healthcare outcomes management: Strategies for planning and evaluation. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
Gerrish, K., & Lacey, N. (Eds.). (2010). The research process in nursing (6th ed.). Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.
Loiselle, C. G. (2007). Canadian essentials of nursing research (1st ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Solomon, P., Cavanaugh, M. M., & Draine, J. (2009). Randomized controlled trials: Design and implementation for community-based psychosocial interventions. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.