Running head: ARTICLE CRITIQUE 1
Research Article Critique
Regina C. Gibbs
Liberty University
ARTICLE CRITIQUE 2
Comprehension
Recent studies show that the turnover rate of new nurses is very high. In the article “The
Influence of Work-Related Fatigue, Work Conditions, and Personal Characteristics on Intent to
Leave Among New Nurses,” Yi Liu, PhD, RN, Li-Min Wu, PhD, RN, Pi-Ling Chou, PhD, RN,
Mei-Hsin Chen, MSN, RN, Li-Chien, Yang, MSN, RN, & Hsin-Tien Hsu, PhD, RN (2015) tests
whether or not personal characteristics, work conditions, and work related fatigue predict intent
to leave (ITL) among new nurses. While this article showed that work related fatigue was a
major determinant of new nurses’ ITL there are still some limitations with the study.
The article began with an in-depth abstract. The abstract clearly states the purpose and
aim of the study, design and methods used, findings, conclusion and clinical relevance of the
study. It gives a great overview of what the reader is to expect during the course of the article.
The authors also gave good background information of the problem stating that the turnover rate
of new nurses is 30% within the first year and increases to 57% by the second year.
Of the 33 sources used, 15 are sources older than 10 years, 14 are less than 10 years, and
4 are from the last 5 years. In this article, there is not a specific section labeled Literature
Review. However, it is clear that literature was reviewed in the introduction of the article. The
authors do point out some limitations of the literature. They state that most studies focus on
effect of burnout on nurses’ ITL, but there are few studies that have examined the effect of work-
related fatigue on ITL. They also point out the inconsistences of excessive workload leading to
physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion which leads to ITL. It is also noted that there are
inconsistent findings on the relationship between education and ITL. The authors did a great job
of summarizing the literature to identify what is already known and what needs more research.
ARTICLE CRITIQUE 3
Unfortunately, the framework was not explicitly expressed in the introduction or the
literature review. There was however, a diagram of the framework. There was never a clear
hypotheses that stated what the author’s opinion of the outcome would be. A nursing theory that
could fit the focus of this study would be, “Personal characteristics, work conditions, and work
related fatigue greatly affect the intent to leave among new nurses”.
There are three independent variables in this study. They are personal characteristics,
work conditions and work- related fatigue. The dependent variable is the new nurse. Personal
characteristics included age, education level, work experience, and overall health status. A 5
point Likert scale from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent) was used to determine validity. Work conditions
included average working hours per day in the last week and overall workload. This was rated on
a 1-10 scale with 10 being a higher workload. Work-related fatigue was also measured.
Demographics of the sample were included on the article. There was also a table included of a
complete breakdown of the demographics. Out of all of the participants, 96.3% were female and
99.4% were unmarried.
To conduct this study, the authors used a cross-sectional design. They used questionnaire
surveys to help with the process. The inclusion criteria was very extensive. They used new
nurses that had worked for more than one month but not for more than 12 months. The nurses
were also required to have graduated within the last year. They also needed to be clinical
frontline nurses. Participants were obtained from two medical centers and three regional
hospitals in Taiwan. Through convenience sampling, 200 nurses contacted, but overtime there
was only 162 that participated in the actual study. Informed consent was used throughout this
study according to the authors.
ARTICLE CRITIQUE 4
The authors developed instruments for measurement. Figure 1 is a model for the
conceptual framework. The authors used scales and equations to determine the validity of the
instruments. Data was collected by going to hospitals and giving questionnaires to the nurses
selected through the convenience sampling method. A consent was signed, and the nurses were
given an envelope to seal their questionnaire. It was then placed into a larger envelope with the
other nurses’ forms. Research personnel retrieved the questionnaires 1-2 weeks after giving them
to the nurses. . The participants were given a small gift of appreciation.
Implications of nursing were identified. They found that work conditions and work-
related fatigue affect new nurses ITL. Limitations of this study were also identified. The authors
state that it was difficult and even impossible to determine how fatigue levels changed and what
the causes might be because they were only measures at one point during the study. It would
have been extremely beneficial to test them on multiple occasions during the study. This way the
authors could have had a clear understanding of fatigue levels. Since random sampling of was
not utilized during this study it is possible that the generalizability was compromised. For future
studies, the authors suggest increasing the sample size to improve power. They also suggest
choosing another health status instrument for healthy people. A limitation that I noticed was
whether or not the nurse had factors outside of work that contributed to their job. Nurses could
possibly have child care issues forcing them to look for a job with different hours. In future this
could have been a contributing factor to nurses ITL.
Throughout this article, correct APA formatting was used. Spelling and grammatical
errors were few and far between. It was a very easy and organized read. The sentence structure
was easy to follow. The article was very clear and concise.
Comprehension and Analysis
ARTICLE CRITIQUE 5
This study used a cross-sectional design. However, they did state that in retrospect they
should have used a longitudinal study. The data analysis procedures were appropriate for the data
collected. They were analyzed using SPSS version 19.0. The procedure was clearly stated under
the data analysis section. The independent variables were described using statistics.
I believe that this study was incredibly beneficial to nursing care. The steps of the
research process was clearly stated and easy to follow. The quality of this study was superb. They
really went in depth with data collection and data analysis. This study is important to nurses and
especially to nurse managers. It is imperative that each facility has an adequate amount of nurses.
If turnover of nurses is very high it can lead to low staffing which can lead to nurse burnout. If
we can identify reasons that nurses intend to leave, we can combat that with the opposite. In
future, it would be beneficial to see a study that discusses other reasons that nurses may leave
such as leadership issues and inconvenient hours.
ARTICLE CRITIQUE 6
References
Liu, Y., Wu, L., Chou, P., Chen, M., Yang, L., & Hsu, H. (2015). The Influence of Work-Related
Fatigue, Work Conditions, and Personal Characteristics on Intent to Leave Among New
Nurses. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 48(1), 66-73. doi:10.1111/jnu.12181
ARTICLE CRITIQUE 7
