Systematic Research Review
Chamberlain College of Nursing
NR505: Advance Research Methods: Evidence-Based Practice
Summer, 2013
Introduction
The goals of music therapy can be to promote wellness, manage stress, alleviate pain, improve communication, and promote physical rehabilitation. Music therapy can be defined as the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to achieve goals within a beneficial connection. In this field, specialists use musical listening, singing, playing, improvisation and composition to aid in one’s mental and emotional well-being. Nurses are accountable in providing holistic, quality care to patients. In order to successfully provide this type of care Boswell and Cannon (2009, p. 2 & 7) states that nurses must base their provision of care on the most current, up-to-date health information available and sound nursing knowledge. This type of research is usually lead by nurses and other healthcare professionals. Therefore it is appropriate that research reports are analytically examined.
This paper is to critique a study of using music therapy as an intervention for postoperative pain. The purpose of the article by Engwall, & Duppils, (2009) was to review not only the effects of music on pain after operations, but to also the measure the methods and how the interventions were carried out.
Designs of the study
The choices for this review were for quantitative studies that had randomized control trials or RCT’s or a quasi-experimental design. The authors evaluated over 1,500 articles from various reputable online data bases and narrowed it down to 43 articles done between the time period of 1998 and 2007. Next the remaining articles were reviewed in depth to meet criteria for research aim, questions and method which left 24 studies. One last appraisal of the remaining studies were done for methods, characteristics of subjects, selection methods, process of randomizing, validity and reliability among...