Educating nurses how to critique research reports

Objectives: The primary objective of the study was to create an educational module informing bedside acute care nurses how to critique a research report, how to complete a literature review, and how to craft a table of evidence (TOE). The second objective was to ask five evidence-based practice (EBP) content experts to assess the educational module and provide feedback to ensure the content will assist nurses in learning how to read and understand research reports.

Methods: The consensus study included evaluations from five content experts who completed a scholarly evaluation of the EBP educational module. The study was granted permission and ethical clearance from Walden.

Results: Two common themes emerged from the experts’ review of the EBP teaching module. The first theme focused on expanding the module into a two-part series: Part 1: How to critique the article, and Part 2: How to organize and pool data. The second premise included adding an extra column at the end of the TOE with a grading scale to identify the strength of the research reports.

Conclusions: The module offers acute care nurses legitimate tools to use when assessing research reports to support their clinical practice with current best evidence. The content of the module introduces the hierarchy of evidence levels for nursing staff who lack knowledge and skills in reading and understanding research articles.