The article reviewed for validity is “ Impact of nurse-driven mobility protocol on the functional decline on hospitalized older adults. " The research has a small sample size that comprises of only 50 participants. For the aim of the study, nurse-driven mobility protocol that was used is Geriatric Friendly Environment and Specific Interventions for Successful Healing abbreviated as GENESIS (Padula, Hughes, &Baumhover, 2009). Both nurses and staff were refreshed on the training prior to the study. The treatment group used the protocol and the control group, which was also a group of the nursing staff where the protocol had never been implemented .
The aim of internal validity is to consider whether or not a relationship should be deemed to be causal. Internal validity is somehow compromised due to the fact that the participants in the treatment group were at a reduced risk for falls compared to the control group. As such, this is the main concern for internal validity since if the participants were at lower risk for falls. The other main concern with internal validity is lack of a clear definition of the number of times that each participant is walked and the distance of the control group. The control group was on chairs more often compared to the treatment group, which also walked more often in the patient rooms ( Shenoy & Hargugeri, 2015) . Testing and instrumentation assists to maintain a positive internal validity. However, this is a concern to the internal validity since the treatment group has a better function before the commencement of the experiment. The patients in the control group and the number in the treatment group is a concern to the internal validity because the participants were not the same.
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Recommendations to Strengthen Internal Validity
Internal validity could be strengthened through ensuring that there is a clear and conscious set of guidelines for the control group. The control group was supposed to be what a normal nursing unit would do for the patients. The data could be confusing. Rather , the study could be stronger provided that it was first evaluated how the participants were ambulated, placed on a chair to eat, and how the participants were ambulated for toileting, particularly for this specific unit. The control group could have used the data for all patients, which could have been clear and conscious. The groups should be divided evenly and obtained from the same environments. The participants would have used the same assistive devices before admission and should be seen as similar to avoid the issues regarding internal validity.
Effects on the Changes with the other Three Types of Validity
Statistical conclusion validity is the relationship between the cause and effect with lack of interference. Construct validity refers to the intervention being regarded as a positive representation of what has been theorized coupled with what the independent variables represented in research. External validity mainly concerns with the inferences concerning the observed relationships that hold over variations in an individual's setting as well as measures of the outcomes. In this case, the study would have been performed all around to maintain all the types of validity ( Shenoy &Hargugeri, 2015) . Also, having a clear set of guidelines is important for the control group, which would also assist in maintaining the statistical conclusion validity through offering the best evidence over the relationship between the implementation of the tool and the outcomes of the improved function and decreased LOS, which is real.
The Danger of Failing to Consider Validity
It is vital that internal validity is maintained and the results should be accurate and not skewed. However, when this is not the case and the results are skewed from a validity concern, it is vital to implement a practice, which is not effective. As such, this can be detrimental to patients and indicates why validity is important.
References
Padula, C. A., Hughes, C., & Baumhover, L. (2009). Impact of a nurse-driven mobility protocol on functional decline in hospitalized older adults. Journal of Nursing Care Quality, 24(4), 325–331.
Polit, D. F., & Beck, C. T. (2017). Nursing research: Generating and assessing evidence for Nursing practice (10th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer.
Shenoy, P., &Hargugeri, A. (2015).Elderly patients’ participation in clinical trials. Perspectives in Clinical Research . doi: 10.4103/2229-3485.167099.
