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Evidence Based Practice for Nursing

Looking to know more about Evidence Based Practice? This is the libguide for you!

What is Evidence Appraisal

Evidence Appraisal is done after you have finalized your search and gathered all of the resources in one place, like a citation manager. From there you will need to look at each individual paper to determine: 

  1. What are the results?
  2. Are the results valid?
  3. Will the results help answer my clinical question?

Other things to keep in mind when evaluating a resource: 

  1. Quality of the work - does the study do it's best to avoid biases? Do they include proper reporting criteria? How transparent are the authors with their affiliations, funding, and protocols?
  2. Validity - Do the results make sense? Are other studies supporting their findings or is the paper an outlier? 
  3. Size of the sample - How many people or subjects were included in the study? Were the subjects representative of larger populations?

Evidence Appraisal Resources

Types of Evidence

 

This is a typical looking Pyramid of Evidence that can be used to help you conceptualize the level of evidence each study design falls under. Towards the top of the pyramid you have filtered information - meaning that researchers have collected and synthesized the data through multiple forms of standards, protocols, and other criteria. Unfiltered information usually tends to be from a single source and doesn't corroborate its findings against other studies. There is nothing wrong with unfiltered information if that is what your project calls for. Do your best to find the highest level of evidence that you can but don't get discouraged if only unfiltered information is out there on your topic. Sometimes a well written literature review is much better than a poorly written systematic review. 

Edmonds SW, Cullen L, DeBerg J. The Problem with the Pyramid for Grading Evidence: The Evidence Funnel Solution. J Perianesth Nurs. 2024 Jun;39(3):484-488. doi: 10.1016/j.jopan.2023.10.015. PMID: 38823963.

This Evidence Funnel is an updated take on the Evidence Pyramid. The funnel helps conceptualize EBP as you want to take the pyramid and flip it in order to better help your patients in a holistic way. Once you have evaluated the quality of the evidence you can then use that information to fit the needs of your individual patient.