Description

EVIDENCE FOR NURSING

Assessment Item 3: Using evidence to inform clinical decision making

Task: You have been provided with 3 clinical scenarios, each indicates an area of clinical uncertainty. Select a scenario that interests you and answer the question that follows.

Scenario 1:

In the course of your clinical placement in a surgical ward, you noted inconsistency in wound care. While some nurses use a sterile technique others employ a clean dressing change technique.

Is clean wound dressing a safe option for dressing of surgical wounds?

Scenario 2:

You are working as an RN in an emergency department. A 10-year-old child has been admitted to the department with a diagnosis of exacerbation of asthma secondary to bronchitis. The patient has been prescribed salbutamol.

What is the more effective method of delivery- a nebuliser or a spacer?

Scenario 3:

Nurses take different approaches in dealing with family members during the resuscitation of a loved one.

Should family members be allowed to be present during the resuscitation of a loved one in the acute care setting? Why, or why not?

 

 

Instructions

The answer to this question should be presented in an essay format. Headings can be used if they help structure your work. To perform well in this assignment, you need to understand the levels of evidence, be able to effectively search for relevant research, select the highest level of evidence possible, and consider the quality of evidence that you use to answer your question. You should also demonstrate your ability to accurately interpret research findings, synthesise evidence and reach a conclusion about your question.

Part 1: Introduction (500 words)

Briefly describe the process you used to answer the question. i.e. how you formulated a searchable question and developed a search strategy. Justify the approach you took in accessing the evidence. Describe the rationale behind the selection of each paper (hint: level of the evidence, quality of the evidence, relevance). Both quantitative and/or qualitative articles can be used, as appropriate to the clinical scenario and question you have developed. It is not necessary to present all the evidence you found (and you have limited word count to do this). The key thing is quality not quantity – so four or five research based articles are better than a large number of low level papers.  Provide the print screens of the abstracts of the papers you have chosen.

Part 2: Main body of the paper (500 words)

Briefly present each paper and their main findings. What does the research show?

Part 3: Conclusion (200 words)

This is where you clearly state what you think the answer to your question is and why.