EBP Foundations
What three elements make up Sackett’s EBP Triad framework?
Best research evidence, clinical expertise, and patient values/preferences/circumstances.
What type of clinical questions provide general knowledge and are best answered using traditional textbooks?
Background questions.
What type of evidence consists of local ward audit data, hospital fall rates, and unit infection metrics?
Internal evidence
What research design sits at the very top of the evidence hierarchy for treatment interventions?
Systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
Which Boolean operator is used to broaden a search by combining synonyms?
OR
What involves an ongoing curiosity to question routine practice?
A Spirit of Inquiry
What type of clinical questions are specific, compare treatments or outcomes, and guide research searches?
Foreground questions.
What type of evidence comes from published scientific studies, clinical guidelines, and external research?
External evidence.
What source sits at the bottom of the evidence hierarchy due to the highest risk of bias?
Expert opinion / consensus statements.
Which Boolean operator narrows a search by requiring all specified terms to appear in the results?
AND
What concept describes relying strictly on habit and routine, preventing nurses from critical thinking?
The Coma of Complacency
What component of the PICO framework represents the nursing action, treatment, or diagnostic test?
Intervention (I).
What type of sources are raw, unedited, and non-pre-appraised, such as databases like PubMed or CINAHL?
Unfiltered sources.
What primary single-study design is considered the gold standard and ranks directly below systematic reviews?
Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT).
What search technique is used when enclosing words in quotation marks (e.g., "patient safety")?
Phrase searching.
What term describes personal, professional, or institutional motivations that bias how evidence is used
Vested Interest
Which letter in the PICO acronym is optional when formulating a clinical question?
Comparison (C)
What type of sources are pre-appraised and summarized, such as systematic reviews or Cochrane guidelines?
Filtered soruces
Why is a study from a higher level of the evidence pyramid not automatically higher quality?
Because study design does not guarantee quality—a poorly conducted systematic review can be weaker than a well-conducted RCT (critical appraisal is needed).
What search technique uses a wildcard symbol (like nurs*) to find multiple word endings simultaneously?
Truncation
What type of workplace environment must exist for nurses to feel safe admitting uncertainty and asking questions?
A culture of inquiry (or open unit/ward culture where questioning practice is encouraged).
In the clinical question "Does 2-hourly repositioning reduce pressure injuries in elderly patients?", what is "reduced pressure injuries"?
Outcomes (O)
What term refers to non-commercially published material like government reports, theses, and conference papers?
Grey literature.
Which study design is best suited for exploring patient experiences and feelings rather than numerical outcomes?
Qualitative studies.
What is MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) an example of in database searching?
A controlled vocabulary.