1. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of community case management with
educational collaboration, as an intervention for satisfaction, learning, and performance among
public health nurses. The study method was a randomized controlled trial over a period of 5
months. Ten clusters were broke down into five control and five intervention groups; and
consisted of 163 public health nurses from Taiwan. Those nurses within the intervention group
received four half day workshops. At the conclusion of the study it was found that collaboration
between academic and clinical nurses was an effective way to prepare nurses for ever changing
roles.
2. Gaps and limitations of previous studies include:
-A majority of the studies reviewed consisted of programs that targeted hospital based
nursing staff and failed to examine the effects the programs had on public health nurses.
-Studies were of small sample size ranging between 5 and 150 participants.
-None of the studies were conducted in Taiwan.
-A majority of the studies had single group pre and posttests.
-Participants were not randomized into control and intervention groups
-The studies lacked conclusions due to few comparison groups
-There was weakness in measures that were used
3a. The clusters used in this study were the single health care centers in each of the 12
administration districts of Taipei City, Taiwan. There were initially 12 clusters available and 2
were used for the pilot test. Of the ten remaining health centers; 5 were placed in the
experimental group and the remaining 5 were used as the comparison group.
3b. The clusters were randomly assigned by having a third party randomly allocate cards to
either the experimental or comparison groups. The cards had the name of the health center on
them.
3c. In this study a pre and post-test was a four section questionnaire administered at the start and
end of the study. It was used to gather baseline data from both groups and outcome measures
after the education program was complete for both groups.
3d. There were 85 participants in the intervention group and 76 participants in the control group.
4. The “something done” to the experimental group was to send them through a case
management continuing education professional management program, which consisted of 4-half
day session every 2 weeks. It was 16 hours of workshops spread out over an 8 weeks period.
5.a Reliability means the amount of which the same results are produced in subsequent
trials. Validity means the extent to which results pertain to what is being studied.
5b. Reliability and validity are important as they judge the quality of the data that is being
analyzed. High quality data will lead to the same results in subsequent trials and will lead to
answers that pertain to the study question. Successful studies are both reliable and valid.
6a. Selection bias occurs when the sample selected does not represent the population being
studied. Often time’s selection bias occurs when a non-randomized selection method is used
while selecting a sample.
Recall bias occurs when the study participants are asked to self-reports data. Many times
participants either over-report or under-report because they are trying to remember something
that happened in the past, leading to bias data.
Estimation bias is the difference between the sample and population parameters. Estimation bias
happens because there are a wider range of values in the population versus that of the
sample. This is especially true when the population is very large.
Systematic bias is misrepresentation of information either purposefully, or by mistake. This
could occur if equipment is not calibrated or if the study design is not representative of the study
purpose.
Observer bias is when those involved in the study, other than participants, impact the study
results. Observers can change human behaviors and can add bias to results if they know which
group is receiving which intervention.
b. Bias from the study include recall bias, estimation bias, and observer bias.
7a. The purpose of table 2 and the hypothesis test is to test statistical significance between the 2
groups at baseline based on the 5 outcome variables.
b. Based on the given data there was not a statistically significant difference between the
experimental and comparison groups in terms of mean pre-test scores. All of the p-values were
greater than .05, so we cannot reject the null hypothesis that the means are equal.
Liu, W. I., Edwards, H., & Courtney, M. (2010). Case management educational intervention with
public health nurses: cluster randomized controlled trial. Journal Of Advanced Nursing,
66(10), 2234-2244. doi:10.1111/j.13652648.2010.05392.x
Michael, M. (n.d.). Reliability and validity. Retrieved from
https://engage.cune.edu/learn/pluginfile.php/24637/mod_assign/intro/Reliability_and_Va
lidity.pdf
Smith, M. (2014). Statistical analysis handbook. Retrieved from
http://www.statsref.com/HTML/index.html?bias.html