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Running head: A CRITIQUE OF SCHOOL-LOCATED INFLUENZA
A CRITIQUE OF SCHOOL-LOCATED INFLUENZA
A Critique of School-Located Influenza Vaccination
Meghan Inman
Patty Hanks Shelton School of Nursing
A Critique of School-Located Influenza Vaccination
Research Significance, Research Question/ Hypothesis, and Literature Review
The purpose of this research study is to expand the knowledge related to the effect of vaccination school programs and school absenteeism. The researchers wanted to see whether vaccination status predicted absenteeism in children. The importance of the problem to practice is that many outbreaks of the influenza begin with school children. The article states, “The increasing recognition of the severity of influenza in children spurred action to broaden influenza vaccination recommendations” (Keck, Ynalvez, Gonzales, and Castillo, 2013). The researchers discuss how previous studies have focused on a population group with a low percentage of Hispanics. Their research specifically focuses on a population of 95.6% Hispanics. The article can be easily read and understood by readers. The researchers explain the research well. The article divides the article into subsections that assist the reader in finding necessary data. In addition to this, the article also includes graphs and charts that assist the reader in interpreting the results of the study. The framework used is not stated within the article. The framework assumed fits the hypothesis.
Methods: Research Design, Internal and External Validity, and Ethical Issues
The research design used is called an existing statistics analysis. In this approach they searched through two sets of records: attendance records from the school and vaccination records from the school district and the health department. The reason they used these two sets of records is to correlate the attendance with vaccination status. The study did not state any use of instruments. Rather they used different systems of analysis to get data and results. The sample was a good representation of the targeted group. The researchers used an inner city school with a large Hispanic population then compared their results to previous research used in a different community using the same vaccination program. The controls used in this study were school and student’s age and gender. In the article, the researchers state, “we are not implying that these statistical controls are exhaustive; however, these are the only pieces of information we could use…” (Keck, Ynalvez, Gonzales, and Castillo, 2013). They recognize this as a weakness in the study. This study was approved by the school district’s board of trustees and the institutional review board of Texas A&M International University. These two boards granted them ethical permission. Along with approval from these boards, the board of trustees also protected the identity of the children. Based on these two things there are no ethical concerns in this article.
Data Collection and Data Analysis
The study does not state any use of instruments. The descriptive and inferential statistics support the data gathered. The results support the hypothesis.
Conclusion and Application to Practice
The results are presented without bias. The study discusses two weaknesses. One I stated previously and the other stated by the researchers is, “…we wanted to use data on absences due to influenza-like illnesses as other studies did. We were unable to do so because of the unavailability of this information in our databases.” (Keck, Ynalvez, Gonzales, and Castillo, 2013). To supplement this weakness, the researchers used two randomly selected weeks of influenza-free absenteeism. The study recommends further research of more diverse population groups within the United States. The study is relevant to clinical practice because vaccination is very important to keeping certain diseases eradicated. The strength of this study is that it evaluates a specific population group and then compares it to other regions. The quality and consistency is of high quality. The study is feasible. However, I do not believe it is generalizable because it studied one specific population group.
Keck, P. C., Ynalvez, M. A., Gonzalez, H. F., & Castillo, K. D. (2013). School-Located Influenza Vaccination and Absenteeism Among Elementary School Students in a Hispanic Community. Journal of School Nursing, 29(4), 271–283. https://doi- org.ezproxy.hsutx.edu:4443/10.1177/1059840513486008