The Evidence Based Practice Manual for Nurses

Drawing together all of the information about evidence-based practice initiatives and provision of resources, this text provides practical step-by-step advice and information for nurses attempting to find and apply the best available evidence to their clinical practice. Focusing on how evidence-based practice can be used to improve patient care, this book provides guidance on available resources and how they can be evaluated for applying in practice. It includes case studies and scenarios from a variety of clinical settings, and identifies how an evidence based approach can improve patient care. It also provides a practical and relevant guide to the personal skills required for such an approach and explains what systematic reviews are and how they can be used. There is discussion of qualitative research in the context of patient care and practical advice on applying evidence in practice to provide skills on appraising or developing guidelines, and a feature on recent government initiatives such as clinical governance.

Table of Contents:
Preface * How an Evidence Based Approach Can Improve the Nursing Care of Patients * How to Ask the Right Questions * Searching the Literature * Critical Appraisal * Systematic Reviews: What Are They? * Systematic Reviews: How Can They Be Used? * Qualitative Research * CATs; Critically Appraised Topics * Evidence-Based Guidelines * Applying Evidence in Clinical Practice * How Can We Implement Evidence Based Practice? * How Clinical Evidence Can Change Nursing Policies

About the Author :
Jean Craig is a research advisor with the Research Design Service of the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR RDS). This varied role entails working with nurses and other health care practitioners, methodologists, health care managers and members of the public to develop high quality, competitive research grant applications. She has worked as a pediatric nurse in a variety of acute hospitals and settings including the renowned Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital, South Africa's only dedicated child health institution, St Thomas' Hospital in London and Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool, one of Europe's largest children's hospitals. There, her role as the integrated care pathway coordinator for the cardiac intensive care and other cardiac units provided her with hands-on experience of the challenges of initiating organizational evidence-based practice changes that required buy-in from people from different professions. Her research career started in Liverpool where she worked as a research associate in the Evidence-Based Child Health Unit at the University of Liverpool, undertaking systematic reviews and contributing to the development of National clinical guidelines. She was a member of the Alder Hey Children's NHS Trust Research Review Committee and helped to establish and run a Research Clinic at the Trust for clinicians developing research proposals. She established and led the Evidence-Based Practice Child Health module for post-graduates at the University of Liverpool. As a regional research adviser, she has an informal educational role in supporting learning about research methods. She is an independent member of the data monitoring and ethics committees for a number of trials, and a member of the trials adoption group for the Norwich Clinical Trials Unit. Jean has published on a wide range of nursing topics. She is co-editor of the first three editions of The Evidence-Based Practice Manual for Nurses, and is a member of the editorial board for the journal Pilot and Feasibility Studies. Research from her PhD (obtained in Liverpool University, UK) about temperature measurement in infants and children was published in The Lancet and the British Medical Journal.

Review :
"Provides a solid introduction to the process of evidence-based practice." Nicola Andrew, Nursing Times July 30 2002 Vol 98 No 31 book is essential reading for nurses who are concerned with and think seriously about research evidence to help maintain or change healthcare practice. As such it will appeal to nurses working in all clinical settings." Vlachonikolis Ioannis, Nursing Standard Vol 17/ No 2