Literature Reviews and EBP – Nursing 800

Hi everyone, this is Erin McArthur, your course
librarian, and in this video, we’re talking about literature reviews and how they relate
to evidence based practice. This video will cover:
* Where a literature review belongs in evidence based practice
* Different types of literature reviews – those for quantitative research, qualitative research,
and systematic reviews * Identifying and searching relevant databases
* Documenting your searches for systematic reviews
and * Building a table and evaluating the evidence you find. To start, let’s briefly review the definition
of evidence based practice, or EBP, and its core principles. EBP is the linking of current research findings
with patients’ conditions, values and circumstances, and the explicit use of the current best evidence
for making decisions about the care of individuals. Our access to computers and the internet has
opened the door to tremendous amounts of both good and bad information, and so it’s critical
that you as DNP graduates will be able to find and evaluate that information and translate
it into practice. According to your text, the core principles
of EBP are 1) formulating the clinical question, 2) identifying the most relevant articles,
research, and other best evidence, 3) critically evaluating the evidence, 4) integrating and
applying the evidence, and 5) reevaluating the application of evidence and making necessary
changes. Two of those core principles directly refer
to the literature review process – identifying relevant articles and other evidence, and
critically evaluating it. So being able to successfully conduct a literature
review is an essential skill in evidence based practice. Now, let’s go over different types of literature
reviews. A literature review is an essential component
of both quantitative and qualitative research. In quantitative research, the literature review
is used to direct the planning and execution of the study, and is conducted before the
study is conducted, at the beginning of the research process. After the study is completed, a second, limited
review is conducted to identify any studies published since the original literature review. In qualitative research, on the other hand,
the literature review may be completed at various times in the process, according to
the type of study being conducted. In phenomenological research, for example,
the literature review is not conducted until after the data for the study has already been
collected, in order to avoid creating bias in the researchers. An ethnographic study, on the other hand,
would include a literature review conducted at the beginning of the research project,
much like with quantitative research. A systematic review is a specialized type
of literature review and is very common in nursing research. Systematic reviews are structured, comprehensive
syntheses of research studies in a particular healthcare area, used to determine the best
research evidence available for evidence based practice. Systematic reviews of randomized controlled
trials are considered the strongest level of evidence for practice. A systematic review requires a comprehensive,
exhaustive search strategy to identify relevant studies, which will be documented in the review,
as well as stated inclusion and exclusion criteria for studies reported. Systematic reviews include a methodology section,
where the names of databases you searched, search terms you used, and limiters or parameters
will all need to be reported. Regardless of which type of literature review
you’re conducting, they will all require you to identify and search relevant research
databases for relevant, current resources. Using the library is essential for a thorough
literature review. A good deal of academic research is locked
down behind publisher’s paywalls, and so is difficult, expensive or impossible to access
on the open web. Library databases can also make it easier
to discover related resources, since they use standardized terms and phrases. While you’re a student at UWO, you’ll
have access to all of Polk Library’s research databases, but you may also have access to
research databases through your employer. CINAHL is the most comprehensive and relevant
nursing database. MEDLINE is also commonly used by nurse researchers. These two databases should always be included
in your literature reviews, but you may choose to include others as well depending on how
comprehensive your literature review will be, and what topic or question you’re studying. Polk Library provides access to other databases
you might choose to include, like Science Direct, Cochrane Library and Nursing Full
Text Plus. After you graduate, even if your employer
doesn’t have access to databases, you can still use PubMed, which provides free access
to Medline through the National Library of Medicine, and your local public library will
also provide access to some research databases with your library card. If you need some review on how to search databases
to identify relevant, current resources for your literature reviews, I’ve included a
couple of videos in this playlist that can help – check out Searching for and Evaluating
Health Information, Interdisciplinary Literature Searching for Nursing, and Finding Articles
in Nursing Journals if you want a refresher. You can also always reach out to me for assistance
with your searches. While not every literature review you conduct
will be a systematic review, I always recommend doing some basic documentation of your searches
and search parameters, just in case you decide that you want to expand your literature review
into a systematic review for publication. The easiest way to do this is with a spreadsheet,
where you can track the date of your search, the database you searched, the search terms
you used, the limiters you assigned (such as peer-reviewed only, publication dates,
or article types), and the number of results you got. This will help you if you need to replicate
your searches later, and if you end up doing a systematic review, you’ll need these details
to include in the methodology section – it is extremely difficult to re-create this data
after the fact, so it’s smart to capture it as you go. Once you’ve completed your searches, you
need to synthesize and evaluate the evidence you’ve found for practice. Creating and populating a table is a simple
and clear way to compare and summarize the evidence. On page 99 in your textbook, Table 3-7, is
one example of such a table. Each piece of evidence gets its own row in
the table, and the interventions and outcomes are summarized for easy reference. The table also makes it easy to compare studies
to one another, which will help you evaluate your body of evidence for quality, quantity,
and consistency. Additionally, the table can simplify the process
of determining where each piece of evidence falls in the hierarchy of evidence for practice,
which can be found on page 72 of your text in Table 3-1. As you populate the table and describe the
design of each study, you can refer to the hierarchy and assign a level to each piece
of evidence. Looking at where your evidence falls in the
hierarchy will allow you to determine the overall strength of the body of evidence you’ve
assembled. If you have any questions about literature
reviews and evidence based practice, please contact me, Erin McArthur, at my email, [email protected],
or by phone at 920-424-1361. Thanks for watching!

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