EVIDENCE FOR NURSING

Assessment Item: Using evidence to inform clinical decision making

Task: You have been provided with 3 clinical scenarios, each indicates an area of clinical uncertainty. Select a scenario that interests you and answer the question that follows.

Scenario 1:
In the course of your clinical placement in a surgical ward, you noted inconsistency in wound care. While some nurses use a sterile technique others employ a clean dressing change technique.
Is clean wound dressing a safe option for dressing of surgical wounds?

Scenario 2:
You are working as an RN in an emergency department. A 10-year-old child has been admitted to the department with a diagnosis of exacerbation of asthma secondary to bronchitis. The patient has been prescribed salbutamol.
What is the more effective method of delivery- a nebuliser or a spacer?

Scenario 3:
Nurses take different approaches in dealing with family members during the resuscitation of a loved one.
Should family members be allowed to be present during the resuscitation of a loved one in the acute care setting? Why, or why not?

Instructions

The answer to this question should be presented in an essay format. Headings can be used if it helps to structure your work.

It is very important that your answer to the question based on the highest possible levels of research evidence. To perform well in this assignment, you need to understand levels of evidence, be able to search for relevant research, select the highest level of research available, and consider the quality of the evidence to answer the question, and read and understand research findings, and use the information obtained from the research to answer a clinical question.

Part 1: Introduction (200 words)
Briefly describe how you approached answering the question. i.e. which databases and which search terms you used in the search. Justify the approach you took in accessing the evidence. Describe the rationale behind the selection of each article (hint: level of the evidence, quality of the evidence, relevance to nursing practice). Both quantitative and/or qualitative articles can be used as appropriate to the clinical scenario and question you have selected.

Part 2: Main body of the paper (800 words), this section should include:
Present the research findings. What does the research show? It is not necessary to present all research findings in your essay (and you have limited word count to do this). Just present the findings from the highest possible levels of evidenceand of relevance to the question you have selected. The key thing is quality not quantity - so four or five research based nursing articles are better than a large number of low level research studies.

Part 3: Conclusion (100 words)
This is where you clearly state what you think the answer to the question is, based on the research findings that you have provided.