Reply To Peers: Begin Reviewing And Replying Early In The We ✓ Solved
Reply to peers: begin reviewing and replying early in week!!
Read the process for data collection employed in the study. Identify the method used in the study. Provide a list of the tasks performed as part of data collection in the study, add comments as needed. Draw conclusions about the data collection process.
Read the process for data collection employed in the study. Identify the method used in the study. Provide a list of the tasks performed as part of data collection in the study, add comments as needed. Draw conclusions about the data collection process.
Paper For Above Instructions
Introduction
The user-provided peer postings describe an empirical examination of course content related to chronic wounds within nursing degree programs in Spain. The study, labeled as Study 1 in the peers’ text, is identified as a quantitative cross-sectional investigation that analyzes publicly available course descriptions to determine how much content on chronic wounds is actually taught. This examination is valuable for understanding whether nursing curricula align with best practices in wound prevention and management, particularly given the clinical importance of chronic wounds in morbidity, mortality, and healthcare costs (Romero-Collado, Raurell-Torreda, Zabaleta-del-Olmo, Homs-Romero, & Bertran-Noguer, 2015).
Method Used
The core method described is a quantitative cross-sectional design. The study involves surveying the online course descriptions of nursing degree programs offered across 114 centers in Spain, with data collection occurring in a defined window (June–July 2012). Among the 114 centers, 95 posted content online that could be analyzed, encompassing a total of 2,258 courses. This methodological approach is appropriate for establishing a snapshot of curricular emphasis on chronic wounds at a given time and for identifying gaps between theoretical instruction and clinical needs (Romero-Collado, Raurell-Torreda, Zabaleta-del-Olmo, Homs-Romero, & Bertran-Noguer, 2015). The study highlights a theory-to-practice gap in wound care education, such as the absence of pain management discussion and the emphasis on treatment over prevention of pressure ulcers.
Data Collection Tasks and Procedures
- Step 1: Define the purpose of collecting data — to analyze content related to chronic wounds in nursing degree programs in Spain (as reported in the peers’ description, with the primary article providing the formal framing).
- Step 2: Identify a feasible data collection approach — a publicly available, online data source consisting of course descriptions across centers that award nursing degrees.
- Step 3: Select a delivery method appropriate for the study design — online data collection by accessing center websites to capture program and course descriptions (no in-person data collection, given the study’s scope).
- Step 4: Document data collection data — collect course descriptions from June to July 2012 for the 114 centers offering nursing degrees.
- Step 5: Develop data collection instruments — an ad hoc data collection form was designed to record variables such as years of the undergraduate program, total number of required and elective courses, and the presence of content explicitly mentioning chronic wounds or related topics (e.g., pain management, prevention of pressure ulcers).
- Step 6: Train data collectors — two researchers independently analyzed each course description, with a plan for consensus and a third reviewer to adjudicate discrepancies (as indicated in the peers’ account of the method).
- Step 7: Manage and transfer data for analysis — univariate descriptive analysis was conducted, with IBM SPSS Statistics (version 19) used to summarize the data.
Comments on these data collection steps reveal several strengths. The use of publicly available course descriptions affords transparency and replicability to the extent that other researchers can verify the same set of program descriptions. The independent review by two researchers, with a reconciliation process and a third reviewer for disagreements, enhances reliability by mitigating single-observer bias. The explicit creation of a data collection form promotes consistency across coders and facilitates structured data capture, which supports subsequent descriptive statistics (Romero-Collado et al., 2015). The use of SPSS for univariate analyses is conventional for this type of educational content analysis and aligns with standard practice in health education research (Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2018; Portney & Watkins, 2015). The analysis focuses on the presence or absence of chronic wound content, pain management, and prevention versus treatment emphasis, which directly informs the study’s conclusion about theory-practice gaps in wound care education (von Elm et al., 2007).
Findings and Conclusions About the Data Collection
The data collection efforts yielded findings indicating a limited representation of chronic wound content across nursing curricula in Spain. Of the 114 centers, 95 posted course descriptions online, enabling analysis of 2,258 courses. Notably, 60 centers posted no content related to pressure ulcer prevention, and 36 centers did not mention treatment for these wounds. Moreover, none of the course descriptions offered information related to pain management for chronic wounds. Among 728 elective courses, only one addressed chronic wounds. These results underpin the authors’ conclusion that there exists a significant theory-practice gap in nursing education in Spain, particularly in the domain of wound care and pain management, and that prevention is less often addressed than treatment (Romero-Collado et al., 2015).
From a methodological standpoint, the cross-sectional online-content approach provides a broad view of curricular emphasis at a single point in time, which is suitable for identifying gaps and informing curricular reform discussions. However, several limitations are evident. The reliance on publicly available descriptions may omit relevant content that is taught but not explicitly described online; thus, findings may underestimate the true extent of chronic wound education. The 2012 data collection window also raises concerns about the current applicability of results to present curricula. Additionally, the analysis captures only what centers choose to publish online, not necessarily what is taught in practice or how curricula are implemented across clinical rotations. The authors’ emphasis on descriptive statistics limits causal inferences about curricular design or educational outcomes, though such analysis may be appropriate for exploratory evaluation (Rothman, Greenland, & Lash, 2008).
Critical Appraisal: Strengths, Limitations, and Implications for Future Research
Strengths of the data collection approach include a clearly defined sampling frame (centers offering nursing degrees in Spain), a transparent data extraction process, and a reliability mechanism through independent coding and adjudication (Romero-Collado et al., 2015). The use of a standardized data collection form helps ensure consistency and facilitates replication. The cross-sectional design provides a snapshot that is useful for policy and curricular reform discussions, particularly in highlighting deficiencies in pain management and prevention content (von Elm et al., 2007).
Limitations warrant careful consideration. The study’s reliance on online course descriptions likely underestimates the actual curricular content, since some materials may be available only in syllabi, faculty documents, or within clinical rotations not captured on the public site. The 2012 time frame further constrains generalizability, as curricula may have evolved since then. Finally, there is potential misclassification if program descriptions are vague or old, leading to undercounting of chronic wound-related content (Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2018). To strengthen future work, triangulating online descriptions with syllabi, faculty interviews, and observational data from clinical placements would provide a richer, more valid view of wound care education. Implementing STROBE guidelines for reporting observational studies could further improve transparency and reproducibility of such analyses (von Elm et al., 2007).
Implications for Nursing Education and Practice
The absence of content related to pain management and prevention of pressure ulcers in many course descriptions raises concerns about whether nursing graduates are adequately prepared to prevent and manage chronic wounds in clinical settings. This has direct implications for patient outcomes, healthcare costs, and the overall quality of care. Nursing educators should consider embedding explicit chronic wound content across core courses, incorporating standardized pain management strategies, and aligning didactic content with clinical competencies. The study’s findings advocate for a systematic review of curricula with ongoing update cycles to reflect current best practices in wound care, as well as clearer articulation of wound-related content in course descriptions and programmatic documents (Portney & Watkins, 2015; Burns & Grove, 2009).
Conclusion
In sum, the data collection approach described by Romero-Collado et al. (2015) used a robust, transparent, and replicable method to quantify the presence of chronic wound content in online nursing curricula in Spain. The independent coding by two researchers with adjudication by a third supports reliability, and the use of a predefined data collection form enhances validity. Nevertheless, the approach is limited by reliance on online descriptions, potential content gaps between public materials and actual instruction, and the age of the data. Future research should adopt triangulated methods, broaden data sources, and consider longitudinal designs to monitor curricular changes over time, thereby providing a more precise map of how nursing education aligns with chronic wound prevention and management best practices.
References
- Romero-Collado, A., Raurell-Torreda, M., Zabaleta-del-Olmo, E., Homs-Romero, E., & Bertran-Noguer, C. (2015). Course content related to chronic wounds in nursing degree programs in Spain. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 47(1), 51–61.
- von Elm, E., Altman, D. G., Egger, M., et al. (2007). The STROBE statement: Guidelines for reporting observational studies. PLoS Medicine, 4(10), e296.
- Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
- Creswell, J. W., & Plano Clark, V. L. (2018). Designing and Conducting Mixed Methods Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
- Portney, L. G., & Watkins, M. P. (2015). Foundations of Clinical Research: Applications to Evidence-Based Practice (3rd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis.
- Burns, N., & Grove, S. K. (2009). The Practice of Nursing Research: Appraisal, Synthesis, and Generation of Evidence. St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Saunders.
- Polit, D. F., & Beck, C. T. (2017). Nursing Research: Generating and Assessing Evidence for Nursing Practice (10th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer.
- Rothman, K. J., Greenland, S., & Lash, T. L. (2008). Modern Epidemiology (3rd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
- Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2018). Research Methods in Education. New York, NY: Routledge.
- Bryman, A. (2012). Social Research Methods (4th ed.). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.