Evidence for Nursing 

Assessment Item 3: Using evidence to inform clinical decision-making  

Weight: 50% of total mark

Word limit: 1500

Intent

In this assessment, you demonstrate that you can provide an evidence-based conclusion to an uncertain clinical situation. It requires you to search for relevant research, understand levels of evidence, consider the quality of evidence, present the summary of each article, interpret their findings, and reach a conclusion based on your reviewed evidence. 

Task: You have been provided with three clinical scenarios. Each scenario indicates an area of clinical uncertainty. Select a scenario that interests you and using your evidenced based practice skills 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 on a hospital ward where you encounter stroke patients. You notice that some doctors order compression stockings for prevention of deep venous thrombosis while others not.

Should antithrombotic stockings be routinely used for patients with stroke or not? 

Scenario 3:

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?

Format

Written paper with well-structured paragraphs. Headings can be used if they help structure your work.

Introduction (500 words)

Briefly describe the process you used to answer the question. i.e. how you 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 developed. It is not necessary to present all the evidence you found (and you have limited word count to do this). The key thing is quality not quantity – so four or five research-based articles are better than a large number of low-level papers. Provide the print screens of the abstracts of the papers you have chosen.  

Main body of the paper (800 words)

Briefly present each paper and their main findings. What does the research show? 

Conclusion (200 words)

This is where you clearly state what you think the answer to your question is and why. 

 The marking rubric