Chapter 1: Nursing Research and Evidence-Based Practice Flashcards
Evidence-based practice
The conscientious integration of best research evidence with clinical expertise and patients values and needs in the delivery of high-quality, cost-effective health care.
Nursing research
Scientific process that validates and refines existing knowledge and generates knowledge that directly and indirectly influences clinical nursing practice.
Best research evidence
Produced by the conduct and synthesis of numerous, high quality studies in a health-related area. The best research evidence is generated in the areas of health promotion; illness prevention; and the assessment, diagnosis, and management of acute and chronic illnesses.
Clinical expertise
A practitioner’s knowledge, skills, and past experience in accurately assessing, diagnosing, and managing an individual patient’s health needs.
Description
Identification of the characteristics of nursing phenomena, or of the relationships among these phenomena.
Explanation
Clarification of relationships among variables and identification of reasons why certain events occur.
Prediction
Estimation of the probability of a specific outcome in a given situation that can be achieved through research.
Control
Writing of a prescription to produce the desired outcomes in practice. In research, the imposing of rules by the researcher to decrease the possibility of error and increase the probability that the study’s findings are an accurate reflection of reality.
Case study
In-depth analysis and systematic description of one patient or a group of similar patients to promote understanding of nursing interventions.
Outcomes research
Important scientific methodology that was developed to examine the end results of patient care. The strategies used in outcomes research are a departure from the traditional scientific endeavors and incorporate evaluation research, epidemiology, and economic theory perspectives.
Knowledge
Information that is acquired in a variety of ways, is expected to be an accurate reflection of reality, and is incorporated and used to direct a person’s actions.
Traditions
Truths or beliefs that are based on customs and past trends.
Authority
Person with expertise and power who is able to influence the opinions and behavior of others.
Borrowing
Appropriation and use of knowledge from other disciplines to guide nursing practice.
Trial and error
Approach with unknown outcomes used in an uncertain situation when other sources of knowledge are unavailable.
Personal experience
Knowledge gained through participation in rather than observation of an event, situation, or circumstance. Benner described five levels of experience in the development of clinical knowledge or expertise: (1) novice, (2) advanced beginner, (3) competent, (4) proficient, and (5) expert.
Role modeling
Process of teaching less experience professionals by demonstrating model behavior.
Mentorship
Intense form of role modeling in which an expert nurse serves as a teacher, sponsor, guide, exemplar, and counselor for a novice nurse.
Intuition
Insight or understanding of a situation or an event as a whole that usually cannot be logically explained.
Reasoning
Processing and organizing ideas to reach conclusions; types of reasoning include problematic, operational, dialectic, and logistic.
Inductive reasoning
Reasoning from the specific to the general, in which particular instances are observed and then combined into a larger whole or general statement.
Deductive reasoning
Reasoning from the general to the specific or from a general premise to a particular situation.
Premise
Proposition or statement of the proposed relationship between two or more concepts.
Quantitative research
Formal, objective, systematic process used to describe variables, test relationships between them, and examine cause-and-effect interactions among variables.
Qualitative research
Systematic, subjective methodological approach used to describe life experiences and give them meaning.
Systematic review
Structured, comprehensive synthesis of quantitative and outcomes studies in a particular healthcare area to determine the best research evidence available for expert clinicians to use to promote evidence-based practice.
Meta-analysis
Performing statistical analyses to integrate and synthesize findings from completed studies to determine what is known and not known about a particular research area.
Integrative review of research
Review conducted to identify, analyze, and synthesize the results from independent studies to determine the current knowledge (what is known and not known) in a particular area.
Qualitative research synthesis
Process and product of systematically reviewing and formally integrating the findings from qualitative studies.
Metasummary
Synthesis of multiple primary qualitative studies to develop a description of current knowledge in the area.
Metasynthesis
Synthesis of qualitative research involving the critical analysis of primary qualitative studies and synthesis of findings into a new theory or framework for the topic of interest.
Evidence-based guidelines
Patient care guidelines that are based on synthesized research findings from meta-analyses, integrative reviews of research, and extensive clinical trials; supported by consensus from recognized national experts; and affirmed by outcomes obtained by clinicians.
Critical appraisal of research
Examination of the strengths, weaknesses, meaning, and significance of nursing studies using four steps: comprehension, comparison, analysis, and evaluation.
