Understanding Factors that Promote or Inhibit Nurses with Critical Appraisal of Evidence

Evidence-based practice (EBP) is best understood as a process—an approach to decision making.  Current literature has underemphasized several fundamental skills required for aligning practice with best evidence. An important skill that has been assumed in the literature involves the ability to appraise available evidence. Evidence appraisal has been misconstrued as simple and straightforward. Further, many attempts to appraise evidence have failed due to the lack of a workable, defined approach to analysis of evidence that includes a concise definition differentiating between quantitative research, qualitative research, and quality improvement.  Despite the challenging nature of appraising evidence, the skill of appraising literature must be cultivated in nurses across roles in EBP.

The purpose of this paper is to address the challenges associated with critically appraising evidence against set criteria. Just as the ability to develop a question must be cultivated, so must one’s ability to distill the salient points of evidence appraisal. Knowledge and skills to appraise evidence through the appropriate paradigmatic lens is critical in evidence-based decision making.  In this study, nurse volunteers from diverse practice settings, locations, and roles self-rated their knowledge and skills specific to appraising evidence against set criteria. The insights from study participants have led us to develop some representative strategies for enabling nurses to overcome the perceived impasse that the task of evidence appraisal presents. 

At the completion of this session, the participant will be able to: 1) describe factors identified in the study findings that influence critical appraisal of evidence in everyday practice, and 2) identify innovative strategies to engage nurses in clinical practice in acquiring the knowledge and skills needed to appraise evidence.