Introduction
The research design of both studies enables researchers to answer the research question. In particular, the implementation of a 16-week pressure ulcer prevention protocol and the comparison of the outcomes of the experimental group with the outcomes of the control group allowed for measuring the effectiveness of the protocol (Kwong, Lee, & Yeung, 2016). Providing participants with standard practices and optimal turning practices made it possible to determine the correlation between the occurrence of hospital-acquired pressure ulcers and repositioning practices.
Main text
The representativeness of the study 1 participants is considerable as 1088 residents of 8 nursing homes aged 60 or above, as well as members of care staff, participated in the randomized control trial. Such a sample size was attributable to the significance level of 0.05, the drop-out rate of 20%, and the intra-cluster correlation of 0.1, which researchers aimed to achieve (Kwong et al., 2016, p. 26). The participants of study 2 can be considered representative since 1312 patients from two intensive care units who were prone to the development of hospital-acquired pressure ulcers were enrolled. The chosen sample size allowed for reaching 80% power to detect a 50% difference in hospital-acquired pressure ulcers between the two groups (Pickham et al., 2018, p. 14). In addition, it is worth mentioning that in both groups, proportions of race and ethnicity represented the served population.
Limitations of study 1 include the possibility of care staff being non-compliant with the pressure ulcer prevention protocol due to the high workload. It can be said that study 2 also has this weakness as nurses’ compliance with optimal turning procedures could be affected by the large sample size. In contrast to study 2, study 1 did not objectively record patient repositioning practices due to the absence of appropriate technologies. The utilization of wearable patient sensors in study 2 allowed for determining the optimal turning time for participants (Pickham et al., 2018). However, one particular limitation of study 2 is associated with incomplete clinical data regarding support surfaces.
Conclusion
Based on the evidence summary, both of the analyzed quantitative research studies may be further used to provide support for the practice problem of pressure ulcers. These two studies have the highest level of evidence and high quality. Results obtained from them are consistent and generalizable, and the sample size is sufficient for the study design. Moreover, the high representativeness of research participants enables the application of research findings to various settings.
References
- Kwong, E. W., Lee, P. H., & Yeung, K. (2016). Study protocol of a cluster randomized controlled trial evaluating the efficacy of a comprehensive pressure ulcer prevention programme for private for-profit nursing homes. BMC Geriatrics, 16(1), 20-27.
- Pickham, D., Berte, N., Pihulic, M., Valdez, A., Mayer, B., & Desai, M. (2018). Effect of a wearable patient sensor on care delivery for preventing pressure injuries in acutely ill adults: A pragmatic randomized clinical trial (LS-HAPI study). International Journal of Nursing Studies, 80, 12-19.