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Nursing: Evidence-Based Practice Appraise Module

Evaluating Your Results & Appraising the Evidence

Even studies published in high impact journals can be poorly done. Authors can reach conclusions not supported by the data. Studies can be biased- did the authors do anything to mitigate this?

You need to assess whether the study is relevant to your patients and your context.

Critical appraisal is a systematic way of assessing the quality and relevance of a given research article.

  • Focus is on the methodology section instead of abstract/conclusion.
  • Is study well conducted/reported?
  • What are the limitations? i.e. small sample size, not randomized etc.
  • Is bias likely?
  • Are the results relevant to your patient(s)/practice/environment?
  • Different criteria are used for different study types.

 

Critical appraisal frameworks:

Additional critical appraisal tools can be found on the Knowledge synthesis guide.

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