Research critique

allnurses Guide · Jul 25, 2008

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 · Jul 25, 2008

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, BSN, APRN, NP · Jul 25, 2008

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 · Jul 25, 2008

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

allnurses Guide · Jul 25, 2008

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 · Jul 25, 2008

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:

RCT may be "gold standard" for research but it's not necessarily always the most appropriate, or possible appraoch
There is a difference between statistical and clinical significance
Most nursing research is not RCT
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, BSN, APRN, NP · Jul 25, 2008

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 · Jul 25, 2008

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, BSN, PhD · Jul 25, 2008

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.

carachel2 · Aug 2, 2008

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?

When a study comes across your desk regarding the use of Drug X vs. Drug Y you will be very thankful you know the basics of critiquing a study. Sure, it is kind of tedious but it is very necessary. My school requires two semesters of research classes AND it is very clinically loaded........so the answer to your question is YES you have to do this in graduate school and YES they are boring and I think almost all schools require this.

cecipun · Aug 3, 2008

Wow~ Looks like everybody is talking about grad sch here, but I'm in a BSN program. I guess I'm just learning about the basics. It's not a horrible experience for me coz my instructor doesn't put too much pressure on us. Although I'm not quite interested in nursing research, I think it is definitely relevant to our practice. I'm still in the process of forcing myself to read research articles.

My instructor said she had bad experience when she was as sch, so she is much more flexible when compared with other teachers. She would let us do papers on any topics that we are interested (she wasn't allowed to do so when she was at school). She has some beliefs that we, as students, really appreciate. I feel so grateful to have her.