Evidence Based Practice Research

[livelaughlove09]

I am having a terrible time. We were given a writing assignment on evidence based practice and evaluation of a nursing intervention. I need to find a journal article that is the evaluation of a nursing intervention that I have identified and implemented this semester, then read it, and write an abstract on the journal article. Sounds simple. I've done a million nursing interventions (okay not a million but it seems like it) and have done a lot of client teaching this semester, so I've got a broad range to work with here.

The article search is killing me! I've been searching for a couple of months now (literally, this was assigned in January and is due at the end of the semester.) There's a couple of catches. It must be written by the same person that actually did the research.

I have searched CINAHL and OVID, and I'm finding LOTS of articles but they're not being written by the person who did the research.

Can any of you try to lead me in the right direction? I might be so much as just searching wrong. Famous Doctors that do research and publish it are well known. I don't know of famous Nurses that do research and publish it, although I'm sure there are some.

Should I limit my search to maybe a journal or two, and which ones would I be able to find that kind of information in?

I could have learned so much more had I been assigned the hours I've spent searching reading the multitude of information I've seen that looks very interesting to me but just doesn't fit.

[llg, PhD, RN]

I suggest you browse a couple of journals that often publish research ... rather than start your search by identifying and intervention and then hoping to find a research article on it.

For example, you could skim the journal, "Nursing Research" until you find an article that deals with an intervention that you have used. You could also skim the Cochran data base of reviews and find a topic that interests you. The review would discuss many studies by many different authors, but you could look at the reference list and pick one of the studies that would fit your interests and paper requirements well. You could also browse the practice guidelines of various professional organizations. They would also be based on mulitple research studies (listed in the reference list) and you could pick one of those articles.

[livelaughlove09]

I suggest you browse a couple of journals that often publish research ... rather than start your search by identifying and intervention and then hoping to find a research article on it.

For example, you could skim the journal, "Nursing Research" until you find an article that deals with an intervention that you have used. You could also skim the Cochran data base of reviews and find a topic that interests you. The review would discuss many studies by many different authors, but you could look at the reference list and pick one of the studies that would fit your interests and paper requirements well. You could also browse the practice guidelines of various professional organizations. They would also be based on mulitple research studies (listed in the reference list) and you could pick one of those articles.

Thank you very much! About 5 minutes after I posted this I just did a google search for a few different things (I automatically turn off my google mindset when it comes to school work) and found the journal "Applied Nursing Research" and some articles that would fit exactly what I think I'm looking for. I'm going to ask my instructor about how to get a full text copy of it (our online research engines say there's a CINAHL with full text, but there's no full text article there to retrieve) and try to get one approved (very specific assignment and all the articles must be approved before writing the paper). Hopefully if I can't get a copy online, I can get a copy of it at the big library. I miss the days of the library when doing all these projects and papers. My local library doesn't have a paper copy of a nursing journal in it, which disturbs me.

I'm going to look up Cochran and Nursing Research now. Thanks so much!