[cecipun]

Where can you locate established research critique criteria??

[BCgradnurse]

Try looking at the book "Nursing Research" by Denise Polit and Cheryl Beck. They devote a chapter to finding and critiqueing nursing research literature. This is the text we used for a research course I'm just finishing up. You can probably find it at your school's library. Let me know if you can't get the info, and I'll try and send you a quick summary of what they say.

[marachne]

Remember, the internets are your friend -- hey, it saved my backside when doing my comprehensive exams in my doctoral program. There is a formal critique structure that has been proposed and adopted by many journals. I have a copy somewhere but I'm not feeling well enough to go digging right now. Let me know if you really want it.

In the mean time, I googled "research critique" and one of the first things I came across was this: http://www.uwm.edu/~brodg/Handout/critique.htm

seems like a good template at first, cursory lookover

[hunnybaby24]

Do you have to do these when you are in graduate school for nurse practitioner? These are really boring! Are there schools where its more clinical focus instead of writing papers?

[marachne]

Um, excuse me, but this "boring" process of critiquing a research article is part of being able to practice evidence-based medicine. If you don't keep up with the literature and be able to distinguish between well conducted research and ****-poor research, you're ability to maintain an up-to-date practice is going to be severely limited.

Just b/c something is in a peer reviewed journal (do you even know which ones those are?) doesn't mean you need to take all the assumptions and conclusions at face value...but how are you going to do otherwise w/o knowing what makes good research?*

Oh, and like any skill, it becomes easier/more efficient with practice -- and hey, you might even learn something that can make a difference in a pt's life. What a concept!

*Reading the abstract and discussion only doesn't count

And we wonder why things take approximately 10 years to go from research to practice

[BCgradnurse]

I don't know if all schools make you do these, but I have to take 2 research courses as part of the MSN/NP program at Boston College. I personally think it should be an elective, or at least be an on-line course. We have some options for our second course, but this first basic nursing research class is a snooze........

[marachne]

Should've known someone here had already covered what I was vaguely referring to above -- it's the CONSORT statement, as linked to by VickiRN in the Nursing Information and Nursing Research -- Essential Sources thread. A caveat, it is only for quantitative studies (which is probably what you'll be focusing on at first). Just remember that:

1. RCT may be "gold standard" for research but it's not necessarily always the most appropriate, or possible appraoch
2. There is a difference between statistical and clinical significance
3. Most nursing research is not RCT
4. Qualitative research is as valued a form of research as quant, but there are still pockets of misunderstanding/resistance to the methodology (and no, it isn't "easier" or "sloppier" work)

[hunnybaby24]

Originally Posted by marachne

Um, excuse me, but this "boring" process of critiquing a research article is part of being able to practice evidence-based medicine. If you don't keep up with the literature and be able to distinguish between well conducted research and ****-poor research, you're ability to maintain an up-to-date practice is going to be severely limited.

Just b/c something is in a peer reviewed journal (do you even know which ones those are?) doesn't mean you need to take all the assumptions and conclusions at face value...but how are you going to do otherwise w/o knowing what makes good research?*

Oh, and like any skill, it becomes easier/more efficient with practice -- and hey, you might even learn something that can make a difference in a pt's life. What a concept!

*Reading the abstract and discussion only doesn't count

And we wonder why things take approximately 10 years to go from research to practice

I'm sorry if I offended the field of nursing research, for I am in a nursing research class now. All of my classmates do not like doing research critiques. And yes I do understand what peer reviewed articles are and I know you can't understand a whole article by reading an abstract and discussion alone. I am not stupid! I was merely stating an opinion that many of the nursing students have.

[marachne]

Originally Posted by hunnybaby24

I'm sorry if I offended the field of nursing research, for I am in a nursing research class now. All of my classmates do not like doing research critiques. And yes I do understand what peer reviewed articles are and I know you can't understand a whole article by reading an abstract and discussion alone. I am not stupid! I was merely stating an opinion that many of the nursing students have.

I'm not just talking about nursing research, and trust me, it doesn't hurt my feelings any what you think. And I'm sure that many research courses taught at the master's level are poorly taught. I'm just stating that in my opinion, you can't be a really top-notch practitioner if you don't have a certain level of comfort with not only understanding, but critiquing relevant research.

And the skills also carry over into the rest of your life, when your patients come in wanting to know more about the "research" that was described in the popular media.

[BBFRN]

Originally Posted by marachne

And the skills also carry over into the rest of your life, when your patients come in wanting to know more about the "research" that was described in the popular media.

This is true. I just spent 30 minutes explaining to a patient why he should continue to take his Zetia, despite what he had seen on 60 Minutes a few months ago regarding its ineffectiveness in preventing carotid artery stenosis in a specific population (a population he was not a member of). Had I not had the ability to critique the study (which was not an outcomes study, BTW), I wouldn't have been able to discuss the subject with him.

All he heard on 60 Minutes was that Zetia didn't work. It's obviously working for him, and his carotids are in good shape. He had not been taking the med based on that 1 episode, and did not tell his doctor. Marachne is correct: ya never know when you're going to need that skill.