EVIDENCE-BASED PROJECT, PART 3: CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF RESEARCH

Realtors rely on detailed property appraisals—conducted using appraisal tools—to assign market values to houses and other properties. These values are then presented to buyers and sellers to set prices and initiate offers.

Research appraisal is not that different. The critical appraisal process utilizes formal appraisal tools to assess the results of research to determine value to the context at hand. Evidence-based practitioners often present these findings to make the case for specific courses of action.

In this Assignment, you will use an appraisal tool to conduct a critical appraisal of published research. You will then present the results of your efforts.

The Assignment (Evidence-Based Project).

TOPIC OF INTEREST: Anxiety disorder in children

Part 3A: Critical Appraisal of Research

·  Choose Two peer- reviewed articles related to your clinical topic of interest 

· Choose Two systematic reviews articles related to your clinical topic interest. (just use two of the articles you did on the PowerPoint)

Conduct a critical appraisal of the four peer-reviewed articles you selected by completing the Evaluation Table within the Critical Appraisal Tool Worksheet Template. ( I will give you the template)

Part 3B: Critical Appraisal of Research

Based on your appraisal, in a 1-2-page critical appraisal, suggest a best practice that emerges from the research you reviewed. Briefly explain the best practice, justifying your proposal with APA citations of the research.

Notes from the professor. ( understanding the assignment)

As previously noted, you will study the topics of critical appraisal, evaluation/summary, and synthesis of evidence this week. This information is very important as the concepts allow you to determine if research is appropriate upon which to base practice. (Sometimes companies will try and convince you something is research and it is actually an ad. If research is not conducted correctly, the findings could do more harm than good. If the information is outdated, you could be held liable for not using best practices.) 

Remember that part A is the appraisal matrix completed with your four articles.

Part B is a 1-2 page paper in which you suggest the best practices (an intervention recommendation) that you base on the findings within the four articles you are using. (NOTE all articles not part of the course module need to be published in 2016 or later unless prior approval has been obtained.)

EXTRA material

Measurement, Validity and Reliability:

The measure in a research study is key to accurate results.  Imagine using a blood pressure cuff that was calibrated incorrectly to measure blood pressures!  Sometimes the readings were accurate, and at other times the findings were significantly incorrect. If the blood pressure cuff did not measure blood pressure consistently the same way, that refers to reliability. The findings are not reliable because one can not tell if the reading is going to be correct or not. You can’t depend upon accuracy with the results.

If the blood pressure cuff did not measure blood pressure very well at all, that refers to validity. What if the blood pressure cuff  was being used to measure a patient’s temperature. The readings might not be reliable for blood pressure, but they sure are not valid in any circumstance. Would you trust a blood pressure cuff to measure a patient’s temperature?

Therefore, reliability measures the ability of a measure to  consistently measure the same way, but validity measures the concept it is supposed to measure (Boswell & Cannon, 2020; Polit & Beck, 2022).   Based on the examples above, it is easy to see the need for both valid and reliable findings.

When measuring more abstract concepts, a valid tool or measure can be more complex.    Think about the difference between measuring blood pressure and measuring compassion.  The more abstract the concept is, the more important to define and complex to measure the concept.

This is a great introduction video to Validity:   Understanding Measurement Validity by Nikki Hozack:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkjjZtFV9ZE Links to an external site.

Another good resource for understanding both validity and reliability is:    Reliability & Validity  Links to an external site. at  https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/library/testsmeasures/reliability Links to an external site.

Look at your four research studies—are the measures reliable and valid?   Is a reliability coefficient reported or a process for accurate measures?  Do they mention the work they did for validity?   This can vary widely from one study to another!

Boswell, C. & Cannon, S. (2020).   Introduction to nursing research:  Incorporating evidence-based practice.  (5th ed.).  Burlington, MA:  Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Polit, D. F., & Beck, C. T. (2022).  Nursing research: Generating and assessing evidence for nursing practice (10th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer.

Types of Study Designs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzEyl-VrhKU

Levels of Evidence video:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqQ94s-3dCc Links to an external site.

Reliability and Validity video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvPz9MS_sdQ

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