When searching for literature, it can feel difficult to know where to begin. Google Scholar is a good search tool to use. It allows you to select filters to refine the available literature. For example, to find up-to-date research, you can filter results to include only research published within the past 10 years. Boolean operators( Table 1) [ 4 ] are also great for helping to narrow searches.
Table 1. Boolean operators [ 4 ].
Boolean operator
AND
OR
NOT
Purpose
Ensures that both words are used within the search
Ensures that at least one of the words is within the articles found
Ensures articles will contain the first word but not the second
Example
Rabbits‘ AND’ pain relief
Pain relief‘ OR’ medication
Rabbit pain relief‘ NOT’ laboratory
3. Appraise. Evaluate the literature you have found. What are the strengths? Are the findings reliable? Are there any weaknesses? What could future research focus on?
4. Apply. How do the answers you have gathered from your literature search and appraisal relate back to your practice?
5. Assess. How is the information you have gathered going to impact on your own practice, clients, team and, most importantly, your patients [ 5 ]?
When completing the‘ acquire’ and‘ appraise’ sections of reviewing EBVM, it can be difficult to find high-quality veterinary studies in many areas. Furtado et al. [ 6 ] explored the information available for veterinary medicine in comparison with human medicine and found that information in the veterinary field was not always available and, when it was available, it was often of a lower quality than that in human healthcare. Where appropriate, it could be suggested to also investigate the human healthcare alternatives.
Once a particular piece of literature has been selected, there are two key questions to consider:
1. Does the study show reliability? Is the method of measuring reliable, so that if the study were to be repeated it would reproduce the same results [ 7 ]?.
2. Does the study show validity? Is the method chosen to collect the results valid, and does it measure what it is supposed to measure [ 7 ]?
It is also worth trying to ensure a balance of primary research, systematic reviews and meta-analyses when reviewing literature. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses involve a subject expert reviewing a series of independent studies containing existing data, with the aim of providing an overarching conclusion that is then published [ 8 ]. One point to keep in mind is that a meta-analysis does not automatically yield more reliable results simply by combining large amounts of data. If the included studies were poorly designed or executed, the outcome may still be weak, and the researchers may end up acknowledging this [ 8 ]. However, this does highlight that more reliable research in that area is needed, which is a key factor for consideration when making an evaluation.
Primary research is the collection of original data( for example, published in one research article) by a researcher or team, often designed to provide evidence in relation to a specific hypothesis to gain information on a clinical topic [ 9 ]. A strength of research articles is that topics are explored in great depth, but weaknesses may include, but are not limited to, researcher bias, control-group issues and potential unreliability of the methodology used [ 10 ].
RCVS Knowledge provides an EBVM toolkit [ 11 ]. Within this, the‘ EBVM toolkit 2’ is an essential resource for understanding how to find appropriate literature, and‘ EBVM toolkit 3’ discusses the levels of evidence when looking at studies. These toolkits can be used as a starting point for finding literature that can form a basis for implementing positive changes in practice to improve patient outcomes or develop practice protocols [ 11 ].
Supporting students to review and discuss evidence-based nursing
To support SVNs to review and discuss evidence-based nursing, a clinical supervisor could begin with a discussion about, and explanation of, evidence-based nursing, and talk about a recent article of interest. A two-way conversation is to be encouraged, with the student also taking notes. They can then be asked to explain the skill in their own words, therefore demonstrating their understanding back to the clinical supervisor.
Following this, the student can work on creating their evidence logs, but we would not typically ask for many logs in this skill. The most appropriate way to approach this would be to advise the student to create a document detailing their research findings before disseminating these to the team; this could take the form of a meeting, a poster or a mini presentation, depending on the student ' s preference. Any evidence the student uses should be uploaded to the Higher Education( HE) tab of the NPL and referred to within the log itself. The‘ description of activity’ section should include the topic of review, and the reflective account should focus on how the student felt about completing the task.
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