Table Of ContentA Beginner’s Guide to Evidence-Based
Practice in Health and Social Care
second edition
A Beginner’s Guide to
“ The jargon-free accessible language and up-to-date examples in this book make
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it a valuable resource for a range of health professionals. The importance of B
evidence based practice means that this text will be as relevant for experienced e Evidence-Based Practice
practitioners as it will be for students embarking on a career in health and g
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social care.” n
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Sally Dowling, Senior Lecturer, University of the West of England, UK
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r in Health and Social Care
“ Even as a Third Year Nursing Degree student this book has been a lifesaver.” ’s
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Amazon reviewer
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Have you heard of ‘evidence-based practice’ but want to e
Second Edition
know how it works? Do you need help finding evidence for to
your practice? E
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This is the book for anyone who has ever wondered what evidence-based
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practice is and how to relate it to practice. Using everyday language this book n
provides a step by step guide to what we mean by evidence-based practice and c
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how to apply it. -
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The book: s
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Provides an easy to follow guide to searching for evidence d
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Explains how to work out if evidence is relevant or not
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Explores how evidence can be applied in the practice setting c
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Outlines how evidence can be incorporated into your academic writing i
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Updated and with lots of additional material this new edition includes: in
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Extra material on literature reviews and searching for literature e
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Even more examples from health and social care practice lt
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Expanded sections on hierarchies of evidence and qualitative methods a
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Expanded glossary and web resources d
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A Beginner’s Guide to Evidence-Based Practice in Health and Social Care is key c
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reading for everyone working in healthcare and those preparing to graduate. l
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Helen Aveyard is Senior Lecturer at Oxford Brookes University, Faculty of r
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Health and Life Sciences, UK and author of best selling book Doing a Literature
Review in Health & Social Care 2e.
Second
Pam Sharp is Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Oxford Edition
Brookes University, UK.
aH Helen Aveyard
Together with Mary Woolliams, Helen and Pam wrote A Beginner’s Guide ne
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to Critical Thinking and Writing in Health and Social Care which was highly Pen
commended for a BMA book award in 2012. am A and Pam Sharp
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Cover design by Mike Stones hy
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rprd B y t h e a u t h o r o f Doing a Literature
Review in Health and Social Care
A Beginner’s Guide to
Evidence-Based Practice in
Health and Social Care
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A Beginner’s Guide
to Evidence-Based
Practice in Health
and Social Care
Second Edition
Helen Aveyard and Pam Sharp
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Open University Press
McGraw-Hill Education
McGraw-Hill House
Shoppenhangers Road
Maidenhead
Berkshire
England
SL6 2QL
email: [email protected]
world wide web: www.openup.co.uk
and Two Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10121-2289, USA
First published 2009
Reprinted 2010, 2011 (twice), 2012
First published in this second edition 2013
Copyright © Helen Aveyard & Pam Sharp, 2013
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes
of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher or a licence from the Copyright Licensing Agency
Limited. Details of such licences (for reprographic reproduction) may be obtained
from the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd of Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street,
London, EC1N 8TS.
A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library
ISBN-13: 978-0-335-24672-4
ISBN-10: 0-335-24672-9
eISBN: 978-0-335-24673-1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
CIP data applied for
Typeset by Aptara, Inc.
Printed in Great Britain by Antony Rowe, Chippenham, Wiltshire
Fictitious names of companies, products, people, characters and/or data that may
be used herein (in case studies or in examples) are not intended to represent any
real individual, company, product or event.
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Praise for this book
“The jargon-free accessible language and up-to-date examples and links in
this book will make it a valuable resource for a range of health professionals
as well as for those teaching them. The importance of EBP means that this
text will be relevant for experienced practitioners as much as for students
embarking on a career in health and social care.”
Sally Dowling, Senior Lecturer, Adult Nursing, University of the West of England,
UK
“This is a book that I recommend without reservation, and one that despite
the title will be helpful to those who are not beginners. It is written clearly
without being patronizing. The activities help relate it to practice. Whether
it is for an assignment or to change practice, this book will help you obtain
the relevant evidence, appraise it and demonstrate that it is convincing and
useful in relation to your work place.”
Patric Devitt, Senior Lecturer, School of Nursing, Midwifery & Social Work, University
of Salford, UK
“Even as a Third Year Nursing Degree student this book has been a lifesaver.”
Amazon review
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Contents
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction 1
Aim of this book 2
Examples 2
How to get the most from this book 2
Use the symbols 3
1 What is evidence-based practice? 4
Have clear reasons for your practice decisions and your care 4
Defining evidence-based practice 7
Exploring the components of evidence-based practice 9
What are the consequences of not taking
an evidence-based approach? 14
What does evidence-based practice mean to me? 18
In summary 20
Key points 20
2 Where did evidence-based practice come from? 21
Moving from tradition and ritual towards an
evidence-based approach 22
The developing research culture 23
The on-going information revolution 25
Why is there so much information available? 26
So how does this ‘information revolution’ affect me? 28
In summary 29
Key points 29
3 Using evidence in your decision making and to answer
practical questions 30
Evidence and decision making 31
The consequences and implications of your decision 32
What types of evidence do we need to make different decisions? 34
What kind of evidence is available? 38
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viii Contents
Finding the right type of research evidence for your
decision or question 40
Research that is directly applicable or highly relevant 42
Research that has not been conducted in your particular
setting or with your patient or client group 43
What other ‘evidence’ is there out there? 46
In summary 47
Key points 48
4 What are the different types of research and
how do they help us answer different questions? 49
How do I recognize research? 50
Systematic reviews and good quality literature reviews 51
Quantitative research 57
Experimental and non-experimental quantitative research 59
Qualitative studies 72
Different approaches to qualitative research 74
Which type of research is best? 77
What does the term ‘hierarchy of evidence’ mean? 78
What about using secondary sources? 81
Use of policy and guidelines 82
Non-research-based evidence 84
In summary 84
Key points 85
5 How do I find relevant evidence to support my practice
and learning? 86
Focussing the topic and refining the question 87
Focussing and structuring your question using PICOT (or PICO) 88
Searching for relevant evidence 90
The importance of a comprehensive approach
to searching for literature 90
How to develop an effective search strategy 92
In summary 107
Key points 108
6 How do I know if the evidence is convincing and useful? 109
What is critical appraisal? 110
The importance of critical appraisal 111
Defining the terms used in judging the
quality of research 111
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Contents ix
Getting started with critical appraisal 112
Getting to know your literature 117
General critical appraisal tools 119
Specific critical appraisal tools 123
Key questions to ask when reviewing different types
of evidence 124
Key questions to ask of review articles and good quality
literature reviews 125
Key questions to ask of quantitative studies 126
Key questions to ask of qualitative studies 131
Key questions to ask of professional and clinical guidance
and policy 136
Key questions to ask of discussion or opinion articles
(anecdotal evidence) 137
Key questions to ask of websites 138
Incorporating critical appraisal into your academic writing or
when debating use of evidence in practice 139
In summary 140
Key points 141
7 How to implement evidence-based practice 142
Background and overview of ‘getting more evidence into practice’ 143
The motivation, knowledge and skills needed by
the individual 145
Organizational motivation, learning and infrastructure 148
Finding solutions to the problems of implementing EBP 152
Challenging the practice of ourselves and others 157
The future of evidence-based practice 159
In summary 159
Key points 160
Glossary 161
References 167
Appendix: Useful websites 174
Index 181
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