APA reference

García, J. F., Abad, J. F., López, & Fernández. (2024). Diabetic foot ulcers: Evaluating the role of the specialist advanced practice nurse in complex chronic wounds. British Journal of Nursing, 33(15), S4–S15. https://doi.org/10.12968/bjon.2024.0006

Purpose

1. Determine the profile/characteristics of patients with neuropathic and neuro-ischaemic diabetic foot ulcers when referred to an advanced practice nurse (APN) in advanced chronic wounds.

2. Determine whether a specific intervention program on nurses working in primary-care and nursing homes affected professional performance (knowledge, referral behaviour, product use).

3. Follow-up, measuring, and outcome (healing, amputations, deaths) of the patients with neuropathic and neuro-ischaemic ulcers that were referred to the APN prior to the training and after the training.

Hypothesis or Research Question

The article has not described a formal null/alternative hypothesis. It rather defines particular study objectives/ research questions:

What are the specificities of the patients with neuropathic and neuro-ischaemic DFUs addressed to the specialist APN?

Do the nurse training sessions conducted by the APN have a positive impact on the professional performance (knowledge, referral to the right place, product use) and continuity of care?

Are there any changes in the outcomes (healing time, rates, amputations, mortality) with the intervention/ introduction of the role?

These are known as research questions/ objectives that will guide the study as opposed to hypothesis testing.

Theoretical Framework

The theoretical framework is not clearly defined or applied (e.g., behavioural, nursing-theory model) to organize the study. Instead, the study outlines itself as a retrospective descriptive / quality-improvement study of a service change in the integrated diabetic-foot pathway of Andalusia. The authors contextualize the work in terms of the clinical practice guidelines and health-service pathway logic (referrals to the Andalusia integrated diabetic foot pathway and IWGDF guidelines), and the rationale for the work is the service-delivery / care-coordination and quality-improvement concept as opposed to a formal mid-range nursing theory.

Research Design

Statistical Methods

Variables

A.    Dependent –

B.    Independent –

Setting / Population / Sample

Validity / Reliability

Generalizability

Findings

Implications of the research for

a.     nursing

b.     education

c.     policy making

Limitations

Bias

Recommendations

Synthesis of the article

Is this a valuable article for EBP? Why or why not?