Research Guides: Nursing: Evidence-Based Practice

What is Evidence-Based Practice/Nursing?

From Mosby's Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing, & Health Professionals, 9th Edition:

Evidence-Based Practice: The practice of health care in which the practitioner systematically finds, appraises, and uses the most current and valid research findings as the basis for clinical decisions.

Evidence-Based Nursing: The practice of nursing in which the nurse makes clinical decisions on the basis of the best available current research evidence, the nurse's clinical expertise, and the needs and preferences of the patient.

Introduction to Evidence-Based Practice
This self-paced, interactive tutorial will take you through the complete EBP process, emphasizing the elements of a well-built clinical question and the key issues that help determine the validity of evidence. This program was developed by the Medical Center Library at Duke University and the Health Sciences Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Nursing Experts: Translating the Evidence
This guide is a tool for learning about evidence based practice and a portal to evidence based practice resources. It was developed with a primary audience of public health nurses but will be of interest to everyone interested in learning more about evidence based practice. From the University of Illinois at Chicago Libraries.

Finding Systematic Reviews in Databases
A quick guide for using filters and limiters to find systematic reviews in library databases.
last updated April 2024

Evidence Based Nursing Practice Self-Paced Tutorial
From Scottsdale Community College.
By the end of this tutorial you will be able to:
---Identify the purpose, format and characteristics of the following types of evidence: research article, review, case study, and pre-appraised sources
---Distinguish between quantitative and qualitative research
---Distinguish between primary and secondary literature
---Describe other types of content that may be found in a scholarly health sciences journal
Selecting Evidence for EBP
Presentation from Tufts University. Page 6 is particularly useful. The associated guide is also very informative.

PICO Tutorials

Forming Focused Questions with PICO
A guide from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Health Sciences Library.
Evidence-Based Practice: An Inter-professional Tutorial
From the University of Minnesota Libraries.
The Well-Built, Patient-Oriented Clinical Question Worksheet
From Dartmouth Biomedical Libraries

Filtered Resources

AHRQ Evidence Reports
These reports review all relevant scientific literature on clinical, behavioral, and organization and financing topics to produce evidence reports and technology assessments.
CDC Community Guide
The Guide to Community Preventive Services is a free resource of systematic reviews and other tools to help choose programs and policies to improve health and prevent disease in communities.
Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine
The Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine aims to develop, teach and promote evidence-based health care through a variety of methods so that all healthcare professionals can maintain the highest standards of medicine. The CEBM is part of the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford, England. One of their objectives is to produce high quality research capable of changing or improving current clinical practice.
Centre for Reviews and Dissemination
CRD is a research department from the University of York, England, that specializes in evidence synthesis, assembling and analyzing data from multiple research studies to generate policy relevant research. Over the past 20 years they have completed over 200 systematic reviews covering a wide range of health care topics, many of which have had a direct impact on national policy.

Cochrane Library

A collection of six databases that contain rigorous, high-quality, independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making. Includes Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Mobile application available.
ECRI Guidelines Trust

The ECRI guidelines trust is the continuation/replacement for the National Guideline Clearinghouse. It is a publicly available web-based repository of objective, evidence-based clinical practice guideline content. Its purpose is to provide physicians, nurses, other clinical specialties, and members of the healthcare community with up-to-date, clinical practices to advance safe and effective patient care.

National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence
Based in England, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) provides national guidance and advice to improve health and social care.
PCORI (Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute
PCORI helps people make informed healthcare decisions, and improves healthcare delivery and outcomes, by producing and promoting high-integrity, evidence-based information that comes from research guided by patients, caregivers, and the broader healthcare community.

TRIP: Turning Research into Practice
Trip is a tool for you to find and use high-quality clinical research evidence.

US Preventative Services Task Force
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force is an independent, volunteer panel of national experts in disease prevention and evidence-based medicine. The Task Force works to improve the health of all Americans by making evidence-based recommendations about clinical preventive services.

UpToDate

Evidence-based, synthesized medical support resource comprised of original articles written, reviewed, and continually updated by a faculty of physician experts. Content includes major aspects of conditions, symptoms, tests, diagnosis, and treatment options. Users have access to over 11,000 clinical topics, patient information topics, graphs, medical calculators, and over 6,000 unique drug entries. Mobile application available.

WHO Guidelines
The development of global guidelines ensuring the appropriate use of evidence represents one of the core functions of WHO. Recommendations that can impact upon health policies or clinical interventions are considered guidelines for WHO purposes.

Unfiltered Resources

CINAHL Ultimate

Features journal articles, dissertations, conferences, images and book chapters in Nursing and Allied Health professions from 1937 to present. Contains resources related to nursing and allied health; consumer health, biomedicine; and health sciences. Also includes research instruments, diseases and conditions, quick lessons, and evidence-based care sheets.
ClinicalKey

Features expert commentary, MEDLINE abstracts and select third-party journals. ClinicalKey includes over 1000 books, more than 600 journals, 13,000 procedure videos and millions of images. Users are able to quickly move from topic overview to in-depth specialty information in order to meet clinical challenges. Also includes the Frank Netter anatomy books and images. Mobile application available.
PsycInfo

Comprehensive database of citations, abstracts and full-text articles from major psychology journals, books, and dissertations. Journal coverage begins in 1894 and includes international material.
PubMed

A service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine that includes MEDLINE, with over 35 million citations. Covers medicine, nursing, dentistry, allied health sciences, veterinary medicine, and public health from 1950-present. Includes links to full text through Quinnipiac.
Scopus

Provides access to peer-reviewed research and conference literature in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Includes topic overviews, experiments, biographies, pictures and illustrations, as well as articles from over 23,500 academic journals, conference papers, trade publications, books, and links to quality web sites. Note: Per our license terms with this publisher, Scopus data may not be used to to train artificial intelligence tools.

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