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NUR 322 - Research/Theoretical Basis for Nursing Practice.

NUR 322 Research/Theoretical Basis for Nursing Practice

NUR 322 focuses on examination and application of clinical scholarship through evidenced based practice. Emphasis is on skills for research applied to clinical practice.

It is desirable to learn 

  • the basics of evidence-based practice
  • what is PICO and how can it help you find information
  • what are the major nursing EBP databases that can be used to identify EBP
    • The Cochrane Library
    • CINAHL
    • JBI
    • MEDLINE via EBSCOhost
  • what are the characteristics of the major databases in order to search them efficiently and effectively
    • how to search for EBP
    • how to search for types of research studies 
    • how to critically appraise and evaluate information
  • how to obtain full-text of publications

Other Useful LibGuides

PICO

Use PICO to develop a clear idea what information you are seeking. PICO was developed by faculty at McMaster University.

P   Population/Patient/Problem  

What group will be acted upon? What group will experience the change in order to become better?

I    Intervention

What change is being done to the population?

C   Comparison

Changed from what? To what is the change being compared?

O   Outcome 

What is the desired effect or result of the change on the population?

T     Time

What is the time frame to see the effect? Short term or long term effects? (not always included in a PICO)

PICO is a tool to help you organize your thoughts and formulate a search strategy. Use the components to break your research question down into parts and enter them in an appropriate manner into a search of your database.

In summary you are trying to make a change (the Intervention) from some other old way (the Comparison) for someone (the Population) to make things better in some way (the Outcome).

Be flexible! Different databases may require different methods to limit to specific population groups. And realize that you may be interested in an intervention's effects on pregnant women, but little research may have been done on pregnant women due to ethical and safety reasons. (If so, look for the next best thing--research on the effects on women or whatever populations have been studied. Then extrapolate the known effects to propose what is likely to happen to pregnant women, the unknown. Remember to acknowledge the extrapolation.) 

EBP Databases

Below are quick tips useful for doing frequently-assigned assignments at ISU. Enter the database and find the special search Limiters and Options mentioned below.

Subject Guide

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