The Nature of Fatigue in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Essay Example

The authors of this article include Karin Olson, Oksana Zimka, and Eleanor Stein. It was released in 2015 and is entitled “The Nature of Fatigue in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome”. It was published in volume 25, number 10 in the Qualitative Health Research journal. The question that the researchers explore is the definition of what fatigue is according to how the participants classify feelings of tiredness, fatigue, and exhaustion. This study is needed because professionals cannot currently distinguish from these three descriptors and it would be helpful for them to do so in order to offer more personalized treatments to their patients.

Fourteen patients were interviewed to determine their opinions about their states of tiredness, fatigue, and exhaustion. Researchers used a chart of qualities to determine whether the symptoms of the patient fell into one of these three categories. The results have decent internal validity, but this understanding can be confounded by the fact that there were 13 female participants and only one male. Furthermore, the small sample size of participants prevents the study from being externally valid. Since a very low number of participants were used, we cannot generalize information about this study population to the population as a whole. However, since the research was produced by professionals at the University of Alberta and the University of Calgary, the research can be considered credible. Last, the information is somewhat transferable for individual cases. It is reasonable for nurses to use this research as a guide to help determine whether their patients are experiencing tiredness, fatigue, or exhaustion and to make a more reliable diagnosis on this basis. However, it is important for these individuals to consider that additional knowledge should be used to make this decision effectively.

References

Olson, K., Zimka, O., Stein, E. (2015). The Nature of Fatigue in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Qualitative Health Research, 25(10): 1410-1422.