Basics
The process of critical appraisal that objectively and critically evaluates a research report's content for scientific merit and application to practice
What is a critique?
A short, comprehensive synopsis or summary of a study found at the beginning of the article
What is the abstract?
A well-defined set that has certain specified properties
What is the population?
Words used to define the relationships between words or groups of words in literature searches.
What are Boolean operators?
Examples of Boolean operators are words such as "AND," "OR," "NOT," and "NEAR."
Hypothesis that specifies the expected direction of the relationship between the independent and dependent variables
What is a directional hypothesis?
The conscious and judicious use of the current "best" evidence in the care of patients that also considers expert opinion and patient preference
What is evidence-based practice?
The first step in the development of an evidence-based practice project
What is the clinical question?
In experimental studies, the presumed effect of the independent or experimental variable on the outcome
What is a dependent variable?
Scholarly literature that is written by the person(s) who developed the theory or conducted the research
What is a primary source?
Primary sources include eyewitness accounts of historic events, provided by original documents, films, letters, diaries, records, artifacts, periodicals, or audio/video recordings
The highest level of evidence on most research leveling systems?
What are systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials?
Systematically developed practice statements designed to assist clinicians about healthcare decisions for specific conditions or situations
What are clinical guidelines?
That which encompasses the aims or objectives the investigator hopes to achieve with the research, not the question to be answered
What is the purpose?
The antecedent or the variable that has the presumed effect on the dependent variable.
What is an independent variable?
A scholarly journal that has a panel of external and internal reviewers or editors; the panel reviews submitted manuscripts for possible publication. The review panels use the same set of scholarly criteria to judge if the manuscripts are worthy of publication
What are refereed or peer-reviewed journals?
A system used to efficiently identify the highest level of evidence to facilitate a search on a clinical question consisting of studies, synopsis of studies, synthesis, synopsis of synthesis, summaries, and systems
What is the 6S hierarchy of pre-appraised evidence?
A rating system for judging the strength of a study's design
What are levels of evidence?
A systematic and critical appraisal of the most important literature on a topic
What is the literature review?
A statement about the expected relationship between the variables; also known as a scientific hypothesis
What is a research hypothesis?
Scholarly material written by a person(s) other than the individual who developed the theory or conducted the research. Most are usually published.
What are secondary sources?
Often a secondary source represents a response to or a summary and critique of a theorist's or researcher's work. Examples are documents, films, letters, diaries, records, artifacts, periodicals, or tapes that provide a view of the phenomenon from another's perspective
Ideas that are generated when staff read research, listen to scientific papers at research conferences, or encounter evidence-based practice guidelines published by government agencies or specialty organizations
What are knowledge-focused triggers?
The systematic, logical, and empirical inquiry into the possible relationships among particular phenomena to produce verifiable knowledge
What is research?
A prediction about the relationship between two or more variables
What is a hypothesis?
States that there is no relationship between the independent and dependent variables; also is known as the null hypothesis
What is a statistical hypothesis?
The terms that indexers have assigned to the articles in a database. When possible, it is helpful to match the words that you use in your search to those specifically used in the database
What are controlled vocabulary words?
Those issues that are identified by staff through quality improvement, risk surveillance, benchmarking data, financial data, or recurrent clinical problems.
What are problem-focused triggers?