NURS-FPX 4030 ASSESSMENT 1: Locating Credible Databases and Research

Locating Credible Databases and Research

Create a 2-4 page resource that will describe databases that are relevant to EBP around one of the diagnoses found in the provided PDF supplement and could be used to help a new hire nurse better engage in EBP.

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Introduction

Evidence-based practice (EBP) integrates the best evidence available to guide optimal nursing care, to enhance safety and quality. EBP is crucial to nursing practice because it incorporates the best evidence from current literature, along with the expertise of the practicing nurse. The concern for quality care that flows from EBP generates a desired outcome. Without these factors, a nurse cannot be an effective leader. It is important to lead not only from this position but from knowledge and expertise. To gain the knowledge, you require a good understanding of how to search for scholarly resources, as well as identify which databases and websites are credible to implement evidence-based changes in practice.

Your Online e-Portfolio

Creating an ePortfolio is not required in the BSN program, but you may find it helpful to create one to attach to your professional resume while job hunting. Online ePortfolios serve two key purposes: 1) to support learning and reflection, and 2) to be used as a showcase tool. Your learning journey can be documented, and ePortfolios contribute to lifelong learning and growth through reflection and sharing. Online ePortfolios can also be shared with employers and peers to present artifacts that demonstrate your accomplishments at Capella.

Professional Context

As a baccalaureate-prepared nurse, you will be responsible for providing patient-centered, competent care based on current evidence-based best practices. You will be required to do research, analysis, and dissemination of best evidence to stay abreast of these best practices. Understanding where to go to find credible sources and locate evidence, as well as which search terms to use, is the foundation of the incorporation of best practices.

Scenario

You are supervising three nurses working on the medical-surgical floor of a local teaching hospital. This hospital is nationally recognized as a leader in education and has a computer lab with an online library where staff has access to medical research databases (that is, CINAHL, PubMed, Medline, and Cochrane Library) and online sources of all hospital policies, procedures, and guidelines, and computers at nurse workstations that also have access to these resources. (For this scenario, use the Capella University Library to simulate the hospital’s online library.) You have given the nurses their patient assignments and you have all participated in shift reports. A new nurse who just completed orientation and training a week ago approaches you and tells you that one of the assigned patients has a diagnosis he or she is very unfamiliar with. Knowing that patient-centered care based on best practices is imperative to positive patient outcomes, you want to assist this nurse in finding research that can be utilized to provide the best care for this patient. Describe how you would communicate with this nurse to encourage him or her to research the diagnosis. Assume you will assist in the quest to locate evidence, then describe where you would go within the facility and what resources you would look for. These resources may include websites, journals, facility policies or guidelines, or any other sources of online information.

• To select the diagnosis for the patient in this scenario, review the three diagnoses presented in the Assessment 01 Supplement: Locating Credible Databases and Research [PDF]  Download Assessment 01 Supplement: Locating Credible Databases and Research [PDF]resource and select one. You will use this same diagnosis to complete the next two assessments.

Create a list of at least five sources that could be used to find evidence, with the best source listed first, and explain why the sources you chose are best to find evidence for the diagnosis you chose and the clinical scenario. You are only evaluating the sources of evidence (database, website, policy database or website, journal article, et cetera). You are not completing a search and selecting evidence. Consider the following examples: a nursing journal in CINAHL may not be the best source of evidence for information on how to administer medications through a central venous catheter, whereas a hospital policy database found on a website may not be the best source of information on caring for a patient with a rare chromosomal abnormality.

Preparation

To help ensure you are prepared to complete this assessment, review the following resources related to the Capella library. These resources will provide you with an overview of the types of tools, resources, and guides available in the library. This may be useful in forming a better understanding of the library to apply to the hypothetical situation laid out in the scenario of this assessment.

• BSN Program Library Research Guide.

• Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing & Health Sciences.

• Databases A-Z: Nursing & Health Sciences.

• Get Critical Search Skills.

Remember, it is also appropriate to look toward databases and resources outside of the Capella library, such as organizational policies, professional organizations, and government healthcare resources.

You are encouraged to complete the Evaluating the Credibility of Evidence activity. This activity offers an opportunity to practice evaluating the credibility of evidence. These skills will be necessary to complete Assessment 1 successfully and are for your practice and self-assessment. Completing this activity is also a way to demonstrate course engagement.

Instructions

The purpose of this assessment is to understand where to find evidence that can be applied to clinical scenarios and to learn effective communication and collaboration with clinical staff during the process of evidence location. As a baccalaureate-prepared nurse, you will not only use research for self-improvement in your clinical role, but you will also serve as a mentor to supervised nursing staff. Therefore, you will need to be able to communicate and collaborate effectively to guide them toward resources to find research, as well as support them through the initial evidence location process. In doing so, nurses can gain access to evidence that can be analyzed and utilized to stay current on best practices. This allows them to provide safe, patient-centered care and improve patient outcomes.

For this assessment:

• Describe your role as a baccalaureate-prepared nurse supervising clinical staff nurses about communication and collaboration in locating evidence for application to a nursing practice scenario.

• Compile a list of five online databases or other online sources (that is, websites, journals, facility policies or guidelines, et cetera) that can be used to research evidence to apply to the diagnosis in this scenario and describe to which of these you would direct a nurse colleague to search for evidence.

• Describe where you might go in the workplace to complete this research and how you would access the desired, relevant research within research databases or other online sources.

Be sure to address the following in this assessment, which corresponds to the grading criteria in the scoring guide. Please study the scoring guide carefully so that you will know what is needed for a distinguished score.

• Describe communication strategies to encourage nurses to research the diagnosis/practice issue, as well as strategies to collaborate with the nurses to access resources.

• Describe the best places to complete research and what types of resources you would want to access to find pertinent information for the diagnosis/health care issue within the context of a specific health care setting.

• Identify five sources of online information (medical journal databases, websites, hospital policy databases, et cetera) that could be used to locate evidence for a clinical diagnosis/practice issue.

• Explain why the sources of online information selected should provide the best evidence for the chosen diagnosis/health care issue.

• Communicate using writing that is clear, logical, and professional with correct grammar and spelling using the current APA style.

Note: While you are not selecting and evaluating specific evidence to help with the clinical diagnosis/practice issue, you should still be citing the literature and best practices to support your description of your communication and collaboration approach. Additionally, it is appropriate to cite best practices related to EBP and evaluating databases to support your explanation as to why you selected the five sources of online information that you did.

Example Assessment: You may use the following to give you an idea of what a Proficient or higher rating on the scoring guide would look like:

• Assessment 1 Example [PDF] Download Assessment 1 Example [PDF].

Additional Requirements

Your assessment should meet the following requirements:

• Length of submission: 2-4 pages (not including the title page or the reference page) description of communication, collaboration, and evidence location process, including a list of databases or other sources with the description of why they are appropriate for clinical scenario diagnosis/health care issue (that is, something that would be useable in professional practice for other nurses). Be sure to include an APA-formatted reference page at the end of your submission.

• Number of references: Cite a minimum of three sources of scholarly or professional evidence that support your findings and considerations. Resources should be no more than five years old.

• APA formatting: References and citations are formatted according to the current APA style.

Competencies Measured

By completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the course competencies through the following assessment scoring guide criteria:

• Competency 1: Interpret findings from scholarly quantitative, qualitative, and outcomes research articles and studies.

  • Explain why the sources selected should provide the best evidence for the chosen diagnosis/health care issue.

• Competency 2: Analyze the relevance and potential effectiveness of evidence when deciding within the context of a specific healthcare setting.

  • Describe the best places to complete research within the workplace environment and what types of resources one would want to access to find pertinent information for the diagnosis/health care issue.

• Competency 4: Plan care based on the best available evidence.

  • Identify five sources of online information (medical journal databases, websites, hospital policy databases, et cetera) that could be used to locate evidence for a diagnosis/health care issue and three out of five should be specific to the diagnosis/health care issue.

• Competency 5: Apply professional, scholarly communication strategies to lead practice changes based on evidence.

  • Describe communication strategies to encourage nurses to research a diagnosis/health care issue, as well as strategies to collaborate with the nurses to access resources.

  • Organize content so ideas flow logically with smooth transitions; contain few errors in grammar/punctuation, word choice, and spelling.

  • Apply APA formatting to in-text citations and references exhibiting nearly flawless adherence to APA format.

Resources

Use the resources linked below to help complete this assessment.

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Nurses and Research

The resources below explore topics related to nurses and research:

• Curtis, K., Fry, M., Shaban, R. Z., & Considine, J. (2016). Translating research findings to clinical nursing practice. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 26(5-6), 862-872.

  • This article discusses the importance of and methods for successfully conducting and translating research into clinical practice. It also briefly discusses barriers to research.

• Borsting, T. E., Kristensen, N., & Hanssen, I. (2020). Student nurses’ learning outcomes through participation in a clinical nursing research project: A qualitative study. Nurse Education in Practice, 43.

  • This article presents a study showing how utilizing clinical research allowed the student to hone in on their communication skills, become more confident, and be able to utilize their theoretical knowledge to reflect, observe, assess, and act.

• Showalter, B. L., Cline, D., Yungclas, J., La Frentz, K., Stafford, S. R., & Maresh, K. J. (2017). Clinical research nursing: Development of a residency program. Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing, 21(5), 633-636.

  • Clinical research nurses are essential in the coordination of clinical trials and the management of research participants. Without a stable, knowledgeable research nurse workforce, the conduct of research is affected. A research nurse residency is a novel approach to preparing new graduate nurses for the oncology research nurse role. This article will describe the development and content of the research nurse residency and how this approach is being used to address a need for clinical research nurses to support burgeoning clinical trials at a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center.

• Herena, P. S., Paguio, G., & Pulone, B. (2018). Clinical research nurse education: Using scope and standards of practice to improve care. Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing, 22(4), 450-452.

  • This article discusses how clinical research has become a global enterprise, and advances in the basic sciences have exceeded the capacity of the clinical research infrastructure. This article also covers how the lack of experienced clinical research nurses can create a challenge for institutions with robust clinical trial pipelines.

Evaluating Credibility

The resources below explore evaluating the credibility of online resources:

• National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. (n.d.). Finding and evaluating online resources. https://nccih.nih.gov/health/webresources

  • This collection of resources and guides can help walk you through steps to determine the credibility of resources that you find online.

• Sbaffi, L., & Rowley, R. (2017). Trust and credibility in web-based health information: A review and agenda for future research. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 19(6), e218-e232.

  • This article presents a literature review targeted at the different strategies that practitioners use to assess the credibility of information and evidence.

Program Resources and Library Resources

Writing Resources

A variety of writing resources are available in the NHS Learner Support Lab, linked in the course room navigation menu. Access these resources to help you better understand and improve your writing.

APA Style and Format

Capella University follows the style and formatting guidelines in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, known informally as the APA manual. Refer to the Writing Center’s APA Module for tips on proper use of APA style and format.

Library Resources

Access the following library resources:

• BSN Program Library Research Guide.

  • The library research guide will be useful in guiding you through the Capella library, offering tips for searching the literature and other references for your assessments.

• Databases A-Z: Nursing Health Sciences.

  • This is a list of the library databases that are relevant to nursing and health sciences.

• Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing Health Sciences.

  • Library guide to EBP-related topics with a focus on nursing and health sciences.

• Find Scholarly Peer-Reviewed Sources.

  • Guide to help you more efficiently locate scholarly and peer-reviewed resources.

• Get Critical Search Skills.

  • This guide offers a five-step approach to improving your research search effectiveness.

Activity

Click the linked Evaluating the Credibility of Evidence title to complete this formative activity, which offers an opportunity to practice evaluating the credibility of evidence. These skills will be necessary to complete Assessment 1 successfully. This is for your practice and self-assessment.

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