Evidence Based Practice

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Evidence Based Practice

The idea of evidence based practice for nursing has grown out of the evidence based medicine movement. Evidence based practice can be thought of as "integrating individual clinical expertise with the best available external clinical evidence from systematic research."(Sackett, 1996) At its best, evidence based practice should give the clinician the tools to help her enhance clinical effectiveness and affect the delivery of healthcare based on the integration of research, clinical guidelines and outcomes assessments into clinical practice. (DeBourgh, 2001) On a practical level this Web site for evidence based practice seeks to give an overview of the topic, with lists of helpful articles, and covers:

forming a good clinical question

finding the evidence using effective search techniques

some resources for evidence based practice including databases, e-journals, e-textbooks and other Internet sites

Table of Contents
Overview
Asking the Clinical Question
Clinical Question Categories
Finding the Evidence: Search Strategies
Levels of Evidence and the Systematic Review
Resources

References

Ciliska, D. K., Pinelli, J., DiCenso, A., & Cullum, N. (2001). Resources to enhance evidence-based nursing practice. AACN Clin Issues, 12(4), 520-528.

DeBourgh, G. A. (2001). Champions for evidence-based practice: a critical role for advanced practice nurses. AACN Clinical Issues: Advanced Practice in Acute & Critical Care, 12(4), 491-508.

Higgs, J., Burn, A., & Jones, M. (2001). Integrating clinical reasoning and evidence-based practice. AACN Clinical Issues: Advanced Practice in Acute & Critical Care, 12(4), 482-490.

Sackett, D. L., Rosenberg, W. M. C., Gray, J. A. M., Haynes, R. B., & Richardson, W. S. (1996). Evidence based medicine: what it is and what it isn't. British Medical Journal, 312(7023), 71-72.