is the cornerstone of identity, and that adolescent sexual explorations are the means by which this aspect of identity develops and crystallizes. The implication of this statement is that if adolescent patients are not afforded the opportunity for sexual exploration during their hospital stay, then their emotional development will be irreparably stunted. Either the author of this article is a complete bubble headed idiot, or she desperately needed to get into print. The problem statement simply did not make a strong case for the research conducted and reported in this article.
Clarity of the Problem Statement, Research Question, and Hypotheses
The problem statement did not make clear exactly what the research reported in this article was intended to accomplish. By reading the entire article, one may deduce that the researcher's intention was to assess the attitudes toward patient sexuality adolescent and otherwise of nurses caring for adolescents in hospital settings, as these attitudes were reflected in responses to a survey questionnaire designed by the researcher specifically for this study. A perusal of the questionnaire reveals, however, that if a nurse possesses a modicum of common sense and would not look favorably upon a situation in which a patient's boyfriend or girlfriend was lying in bed with the patient (questionnaire item number 3), then the nurse would be adjudged by the researcher as being insensitive to the sexuality needs of adolescents.
With respect to a research questions, two were explicitly stated in the article. These research question were as follows:
1. In light of the current freedom to discuss and publicize sexual issues, are nurses who care for adolescent patients more liberal or conservative in their views toward adolescent sexuality?
...