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Bachelor of Science in Nursing

This guide will help you find journal articles, databases, eBooks and internet resources that will help you with research and writing.

What is Evidence-Based Practice (EBP)?

"Evidence based medicine is the conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients. The practice of evidence based medicine means integrating individual clinical expertise with the best available external clinical evidence from systematic research."

(Sackett, D. L., Rosenberg, W. M. C., Gray, J. A. M., Haynes, R. B., & Richardson, W. S. (1996) Evidence based medicine: What it is and what it isn't. British Medical Journal, 312(7023), 71. Retrieved from Nursing & Allied Health Source Database.)

 

Diagram of components of evidence-based practice. Three boxes, each representing a key concept, are arranged to form a square, with arrows from each box pointing toward the space in the center. Box 1: Best Research Evidence; Box 2: Clinical Expertise; Box 3: Patient Values and Preferences. The space in the center of the square formed by the boxes is labeled EBP (evidence-based practice) showing that EBP relies on these three components to produce high-quality patient care.

(original source unknown; retrieved from Nursing - Houston: Evidence-Based Practice, Libraries, Texas Woman's University, http://libguides.twu.edu/c.php?g=391469&p=2658135)

Evidence-Based Practice, Step by Step

EBP, Step by Step:  Article series from The American Journal of Nursing : "this collection of articles was authored by faculty from the Arizona State University College of Nursing and Health Innovation's Center for the Advancement of Evidence-Based Practice. The purpose of this series is to give nurses the knowledge and skills they need to implement EBP consistently, one step at a time."

EBP Tutorials

An Introduction to Evidence Based Practice: a tutorial developed by the Medical Center Library at Duke University and the Health Science Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

EBM Tutorials: interactive tutorials developed by the Lamar Soutter Library at UMass Medical School

University of Minnesota Libraries Tutorial on EBP:  a tutorial developed by the University of Minnesota Health Sciences Libraries.

Evidence-Based Practice: Improving Practice, Improving Outcomes (Part One) / by Anne Dabrow Woods, MSN, RN, CRNP, ANP-BC, Chief Nurse, Wolters Kluwer Health.

Evidence-Based Practice: Improving Practice, Improving Outcomes (Part Two) / by Anne Dabrow Woods, MSN, 

Useful Definitions

A Literature Review is a scholarly analysis of a body of research about a specific issue or topic. (See Literature Reviews tab for more info.)

A Meta-Analysis is a statistical technique for combining the findings from independent studies to assess the clinical effectiveness of healthcare interventions.

A Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) is an experiment that delivers an intervention or treatment; subjects are randomly assigned to control and experimental groups, so it is the strongest design to support cause and effect relationships.

A Systematic Review is a comprehensive, unbiased review of multiple research studies that tries to identify, appraise, select, and synthesize all high quality research evidence relevant to that research question.

Recommended Databases for Evidence-Based Research

Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Tutorial

CINAHL Complete - Advance Searching Tutorial

Evidence-Based Practice Resources

These are a few selected free EBP Nursing research resources for evidence-based summaries and guidelines available on the Internet:

Finding Evidence-Based Articles

CINAHL is a great choice for finding evidence-based articles.  Here are instructions on how to limit your results to evidence-based articles.

  1. Click this link to go to CINAHL.
  2. Select "Advanced Search"
  3. Scroll down to find the long list of limiters. 
  4. In the right column, find the one that says "Evidence-Based Practice."  Check this box.
  5. Go back up to the search boxes at the top and enter your search terms; all of the articles retrieved from your search are evidence-based.

The databases below also have evidence based articles, but the limiter option is not available. To access the evidence based articles ..:

  1. Search with your topic but add the term AND "evidence based" with quotes.
    Example search: "mental health" AND "evidence based"
  2. On the result list you will then have to select evidence based as a subject. What is under varies by database.

Evidence-Based Practice Resources ×