Description: You will integrate your knowledge and understanding of concepts and principles related to evidence based practice and contextualise this to an inconsistent clinical practice or clinical issue.
Specifically, you will define a problem or issue and identify a need for change. You will demonstrate understanding of significance of the problem or issue to discipline knowledge and practice reality. You will create a testable hypothesis or answerable question; justify appropriate research design to answer the question; and develop an efficient search strategy to source best evidence to address the issue. [relates to learning outcome 1,2]
Task:
1. Identify and discuss an inconsistent or little known approach to clinical practice in your area of practice or a health policy you wish to investigate to determine whether it is based on evidence, tradition or misconception. Justify and support your rationale for selecting this problem/ issue to investigate.
2. Express this area of concern as a searchable question using the PICO format. Identify the domain in which your question fits.
3. Formulate a search strategy using relevant key search terms and search for the best available evidence to answer your searchable question. Attach a one page printout of your search history.
4. Identify five (5) – 10 (ten) research journal articles that address the inconsistent/little known practice or policy. For each article, identify its place on the NH&MRC hierarchy of evidence. Attach a reference list (QUT APA format).
5. Justify and support your rationale for choosing each article, addressing the PICO terms and question domain. Note: One of these articles MUST be a systematic review or evidence-based guideline that you will use in assessments for the remainder of the unit.
Note: References must be in QUT APA style. Words in the reference list are not included in the word count. Include an electronic link to each of your identified articles.
Note: Please check with your unit coordinator to ensure you have an appropriate practice/policy to avoid losing marks unnecessarily. Unfortunately, some students in the past did not check and lost marks because they did not select an appropriate topic or systematic review/guideline for this assessment.