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Critical Appraisal Essay

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The purpose of this report is to conduct a critical appraisal of a published article.

Carnwell (1997) describes a critical appraisal as an unbiased and balanced

scrutiny of the research paper so that both its strengths and weaknesses are

highlighted. The focus of the appraisal with be on “Promoting the health of

people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; patients and their carer’s

views” (Caress et al, 2010). The format of the appraisal will be formed around a

set of criteria (see appendix 1).

The journal looks at the views of patients and their carer’s experiences with living

the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), its causes, how they manage

with the symptoms, its progression and what role …show more content…

Caress et al (2010) have included literature from as far

back as 1968. The literature does offer some epidemiology in relation to cause,

distribution and control of the disease with the population but there has been no

research literature put forward for discussion. There is also one journal included

titles “A descriptive study of meaning of illness in chronic renal disease” it could

be argued that this wasn’t really relevant to the research being carried out.

There has also been no mention of family systems theory as this would have

been quite beneficial as it looks at the broader picture and takes into

consideration the impact that the disease has on other family members. This

could have supported the decision for including family members within the study.

Caress et al (2010) successfully obtained ethical approval; they state that

“Relevant ethical and institutional/governance was obtained” however there was

no mention of who the professional body was that approved them. Beauchamp

and Childress (2001) identify four fundamental principles in achieving ethical

approval, autonomy, non-maleficence, benefince and justice. Autonomy refers to

the individual’s right to freely decide if they wish to participate without fear of

coercion, Greaney et al (2012) advise that it is also important to give potential

participants adequate time to freely decide if they

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