Reference no: EM132330145

Evidence for Nursing Assignment - 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 they help structure your work. To perform well in this assignment, you need to understand the levels of evidence, be able to search for relevant research, select the highest level of evidence possible, and consider the quality of evidence that you use to answer the question. You should also demonstrate your ability to accurately interpret research findings, and finally consider if the evidence can be applied to clinical practice.

Part 1: Introduction (250 words)

Briefly describe the process you used to answer the question. i.e. how formulated a searchable question and developed a search strategy. Justify the approach you took in accessing the evidence. Describe the rationale behind the selection of each paper (hint: level of the evidence, quality of the evidence, relevance). Both quantitative and/or qualitative articles can be used as appropriate to the clinical scenario and question you have selected. Provide print screens of the abstracts of the papers you have chosen for your assignment.

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 evidence and of relevance to the question you have. The key thing is quality not quantity - so four or five research based articles are better than a large number of low level research papers.

Part 3: Conclusion (150 words)

This is where you clearly state what you think the answer to the question is, based on the evidence you have found.