Clinical Problem
In the study, the researchers investigated the impact of L14 acupressure on the labor pain during the first stage of labor and on the duration of the study. The primary focus of the research study was to assess the effectiveness of the L14 acupressure towards reducing labor pain during the active phase of the first labor pain (Hamidzadeh et al., 2012). The clinical problem of the study is clearly defined by the authors. Evidently, there is increasing use of the alternative and complementary medicines to help reduce the labor pain. Although there are several reports that some of these methods are effective towards reducing the labor pain, improving the maternal satisfaction and enhancing other obstetric outcomes, little or no research have been done in the United States to prove such medical intervention. As a result, the research study was based on a fundamental clinical problem that can help improve the maternal satisfaction as well as design appropriate health intervention strategies to reduce the labor pain.
Although the study has an appropriate clinical problem to address, it failed to develop precise research questions and hypothesis. However, the objective of the study was clearly evident since it was aimed at investigating the effects of acupressure on the labor pain and duration of the pain. The objective of the study was appropriate as it aimed at reducing the cost associated with labor pain. This is because acupressure is a simple and cost-effective method that can be used by many family members to relieve labor.
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An appropriate study should come up with both the dependent and independent variable. The researchers accurately provided both the independent and dependent variable in the study. The independent variable in the study included the doing the acupressure and touching the L14 point. The essence of including two independent variables was to enable the researchers to include the study experiment and control group. The controlled group enabled the research to compare the outcomes and determine if there is any significant difference between the two groups included in the research study. On the other hand, there were two main dependent variables and include the labor pain and duration of labor pain.
The Background and Literature Review
The research provided a detailed background and literature review to support the importance of the study. Considering the essence of the study, the background information of the article appropriately provides a good foundation for the research. It provided some of the previous studies that have been conducted in the failure to identify any potential gaps and areas that need improvement. Specifically, it identifies the current state of knowledge on the subjected by outlining the previous studies of different authors, their methods and findings. The information provided in the background section can help compare the studies of different authors and determine the best that best approach to handle the current study. The authors made a convincing case in the background section since they noted the existence of controversies with regards to the findings of the previous research studies on the use of acupressure towards reducing pain. In essence, some of the researchers supported that acupressure is effective towards reducing labor pain while other suggested that there is not evident to show that acupressure reduces labor pain (Hamidzadeh et al., 2012). As a result, there was a need to conduct this research study to help bridge the gap that exists based on the findings of the previous studies.
Theoretical and Conceptual Framework
The study failed to provide a clear theoretical framework to explain the key concepts and their relationship with each other. The researchers did not come clear on how the acupressure can reduce pain. However, they provided the background of the use of the acupressure as a traditional medication in China.
Although there was not a definite conceptual framework, the study attempted to explain how the acupressure can help reduce pain. The explanation was not simple and thus cannot be easily understood by the readers' without any background in medicine and nursing. This can limit the use of the article to other users.
Other aspects of the study that include methodology, findings and discussion were appropriately covered. A sample size of 100 participants was commendable and able to provide accurate and reliable results (Hamidzadeh et al., 2012). Besides, the methods that researchers used to select the participants of the study were not biased and thus helped improve the validity of the study.
Reference
Hamidzadeh, A., Shahpourian, F., Orak, R. J., Montazeri, A. S., & Khosravi, A. (2012). Effects of LI4 acupressure on labor pain in the first stage of labor. Journal of Midwifery and Women's Health , 57 (2), 133.
