Evidence Based Healthcare Assessment Guidelines.
Assessment: Essay – Summative and Formative
Essay title: “A critical assessment of the quality of a research study into – <>”. (You can also adapt this title and insert the specific study title as well if you wish).
This Essay is aligned to the following learning outcomes:
2. Demonstrate an understanding of factors affecting quality of evidence informing decision-making in healthcare practice.
Apply relevant evidence-base to nursing care across the lifespan.
You can select a topic from any of the nursing care and anatomy and physiology content of the core-syllabus (please see the module handbook for the complete list). So for example you could choose to write an essay on the topic of psychosis, the renal system, diabetes or suicide and risk assessment for example. Once you have selected a topic area you should search for a relatively current piece of primary research undertaken on the topic area. This should be a piece of primary research rather than a review or systematic review of the topic area – i.e. it should be a single research study on the topic you have chosen.
You will then undertake a critique of the research study you have selected. You should provide a clear and concise introduction to your assignment that reflects the learning outcomes above – i.e. that you will be critically assessing the quality of a research study into your topic area and discussing how the results and knowledge gained from the research are relevant to nursing care across the lifespan – i.e. what does the research say for our practice to adults, younger adults, children and older adults. You should briefly introduce the topic area and why it is significant to nursing care, and introduce the research study you have selected and what it specifically examines.
Once you have outlined the intentions of your essay and introduced the reader to the topic area and the research study you should start to critically explore the research study you have selected. Here you can make use of critical appraisal tools including but not limited to those available on the CASP website: https://casp-uk.net/casp-tools-checklists/. Make sure you select a tool that lines up with the kind of research study paper you are analysing – e.g. a relevant quantitative tool or qualitative tool that matches the study methodology –i.e. RCT (randomised control trial) or qualitative study. You can use other recognised, published analytical frameworks if you wish.
Make sure you cite the research study you are critiquing accurately and have the full reference amongst your reference list – you can then refer to ‘the study’ directly by the citation – i.e. Williams et al. (2020) conducted a randomised control trial into the effectiveness of teaching critical appraisal to undergraduate nursing students. Naturally you should make sure you are accurately citing all other forms of evidence, guidelines and written references in the Harvard format as well.
Use your appraisal tool checklist to help you evaluate the quality of the study – i.e. if a quantitative study then how was the sample of participants selected – did this impact on the representativeness of the participants?, how were participants blinded and allocated to the experimental and control groups? Was this done in a robust way or is there a risk of bias in allocation or the measurements becoming biased because of accidental unblinding or participants or assessors?
Apply the checklist to your research study and discuss the quality of the study/research in relation to this. Make sure you also present the results of the study and what this means for how nursing care should be delivered to the relevant client groups across the life-span. As you conclude your essay you can consider what you have learned from the study and how it applies to your nursing practice in the light of the quality of the research. So some questions to consider include: what adjustments or changes to nursing practice should be undertaken as informed by the research you have critically assessed? Are there any cautions to applying the knowledge to the various age-groups – does it apply to all or only to specific groups? Are there any caveats to applying the knowledge because of the quality of the evidence?
This essay is 2,500 words long and so you will need to be concise in your analysis. You will be able to submit a 500 word draft for formative feedback prior to the submission of your essay. You can use this to outline what it is you will be writing about, what study you have selected and what the areas of critique of the research methods used you will be applying.
You can include the completed CASP template as an appendix (which won’t be included in your word count) and make links to it if desired through an appropriate citations (e.g. see Appendix 1) , and you can also summarise the results of studies particularly if quantitative using tables/diagrams.
Be judicious with your use of tables etc – they do not affect your word-count but you must discuss what the results mean for nursing care and any limitations in applying them in the main body of the text. Make sure tables and figures are appropriately labelled – (e.g. Figure 1: Pie Chart of Participant Demographic Data). Tables shouldn’t become text-dumps – they are there to neatly package up information for the reader and save on valuable words for your surrounding discussion and critiquing!
Assessment: TBL Assessment.
You will be undertaking as the module progresses a series of online team-based learning sessions which are primarily focussed on the anatomy and physiology components of the course content. This will be conducted by the InteDashboard online TBL system. This will address learning outcome one as follws:
With reference to the body systems and conditions in the syllabus you will be able to describe the relevant anatomy and physiology and pathophysiology as supported by under-pinning research and evidence.
You will have an initial practice session whilst you are on placement before returning to the academic portion of your module so that you can practice logging in and getting used to the software. Look out for the announcement. Further introductory material on TBL and online TBL is being produced and will be linked to on the EBHC canvas site once it becomes available.
Team based learning is an approach whereby students in groups collaborate together to study a pre-prepared topic area and test their understanding of relevant concepts and facts as determined by the instructor. A brief introduction to TBL can be found here produced by colleagues at the University of Sussex : https://blogs.sussex.ac.uk/tel/2018/03/06/short-guide-team-based-learning/
You will see from the Learning Schedule published on the front-page of the EBHC Canvas Site that there are TBL sessions scheduled in Week’s 3 to Week 8.
In addition to the introductory session mentioned above the first TBL will be a formative exercise (or practice run and will not contribute to the summative assessment). The TBL’s for Week’s 4,5,6 and 7 will capture your answers and an average will be used from these TBL sessions to contribute the final 50% of the module assessment.
Week 3 Renal System TBL – Acute Kidney Injury and Chronic Kidney Disease
Week 4 Nervous System TBL – Dementia and Delirium
Week 5 Endocrine System TBL – Diabetes
Week 6 Pharmacology – TBL MH Medications and Side Effects
Week 7 Pharmacology – TBL Drugs (Illicit) and Alcohol
Week 8 Research – TBL Critical Appraisal Skills
Last Completed Projects
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