1st Edition
Making Sense of Evidence-based Practice for Nursing An Introduction to Quantitative and Qualitative Research and Systematic Reviews
This straightforward guide to evidence-based practice helps you to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to challenge practice that is not underpinned by research and to increase your understanding of the processes involved in accessing, appraising, and synthesizing good quality research.
Providing a basic introduction to both quantitative and qualitative research, Debra Evans explores how to find out “what works best”, the impact of something, and what requires more research. Readers will also learn the basic rules used in study design and statistics presented in research articles and systematic reviews. Each simply written chapter includes relevant theory, diagrams and tables, case studies, exercises, boxed summaries, and further reading.
Packed with examples from practice across the nursing fields and at different levels, this book is essential for nurses – both student and qualified – who want to increase their confidence when it comes to research appraisal and evidence-based practice processes.
1.Introduction to Research and Evidence Based Practice. 2.How do you put together a good focused research question? 3.How do you search for evidence to answer that question? 4.When you’ve found some evidence how do you know if it’s any good? 5.Let’s talk about the characteristics of a Quantitative design – the Randomised controlled trial (RCT). 6.Some non-randomised Quantitative designs – Quasi Experiments, Cohort studies and Case-control studies. 7.What are effect measures for dichotomous data? 8.What are effect measures for continuous data? 9.How do you critically appraise Quantitative evidence such as RCTs? 10.Let’s talk about the characteristics of some Qualitative designs – Phenomenology, Ethnography and Grounded Theory. 11.How do you critically appraise Qualitative evidence such as Phenomenology? 12.Why we need Systematic reviews and initiatives like the Cochrane Library. 13.Clinical guidelines and implementation of EBP. 14.Your role in all of this?
Biography
Debra Evans is a senior lecturer at Birmingham City University, UK.
"I think Dr Evans has completed an extremely difficult task in producing a highly accessible textbook on evidence based practice that will have great impact on a wide range of students. It is a welcome addition to the literature, and I am sure would be an important addition to reading list on the majority of undergraduate and postgraduate nursing programs."
- Professor Mark Radford, PhD, RN- Chief Nurse, HEE & Deputy Chief Nursing Officer (England)
