Topic 1

• Evidence-based practice


  An ongoing process by which evidence, nursing theory and the practitioners' clinical expertise are critically evaluated and considered, in conjunction with patient involvement, to provide delivery of optimum nursing care for the individual
• Nursing research may be directed toward: Fundamental mechanisms affecting people's ability to maintain or enhance optimum function and minimise the negative effects of illness; Health promotion and illness prevention; Measuring and testing nursing interventions; The broader issues of health, illness, health services, workforce, models of care, policy formulation and Innovation
• Sources of nursing/midwifery research questions

  • Clinicians' experiences
  • Literature
  • Patients' experiences
  • Pregnant women and their partners
  • Relatives and carers
  • Theories
  • Context of practice
• Evidence-based practice


  • Accountability
  • Clinical competence and safety
  • Improved practice and service
  • Applying research to the real world of work
  • Professional standards
• MMR vaccination and autism: is there a link?

  • Cell phones and brain tumours: is there cause and effect?
• Nursing and midwifery research is a way to explore and discover new knowledge to refine and expand the body of knowledge that clinicians, managers and policymakers draw upon to advance practice
• Nursing and midwifery research aims to address problems or questions that are encountered in practice, to search for, develop, refine and expand a body of knowledge, to challenge practice based solely on tradition, to guide evidence-based practice, to produce knowledge, and to develop the discipline
• Undergraduate degree preparation teaches how to be a research consumer, understand research processes, critically appraise research literature, and evaluate one's own practice
• Research Masters degree contains coursework to learn to conduct research that usually reproduces or extends a little, someone else's work
• Florence Nightingale was an early proponent of evidence-based practice, promoted systematic collection and presentation of data, and used health statistics to advocate for reforms in health policy and practice
• The five steps of evidence-based practice are: Ask, Acquire, Appraise, Apply, and Assess
• The benefits of evidence-based practice are: for patients/consumers - best/safest practice based on the best evidence; for nurses - easier access to best practice interventions/knowledge; for healthcare organisations - provides quality healthcare and reduces litigation; for the community - efficient use of resources and current, effective care provided
• To use the best available research evidence, nurses must access and evaluate the best available evidence, and be able to understand the research to achieve this