Evidence-based practice and practice-based evidence in validated therapies

Nadelson and Nadelson's (2014) "Evidence-based practice article reviews using CASP tools: A method for teaching EBP." This work of literature is based on the notion that evidence-based practice is critical to the practice of nursing. It denotes exactly just what evidence-based practice involves, utilizing information gained from clinical trials and other forms of evidence as the means of effecting better nursing treatment. The most interesting facet of this article is the notion that evidence-based practice is best learned, or perhaps gleaned, via reading articles. Specifically, this approach is contrasted with that of simply taking a course in EBP. By incorporating the learning of evidence-based practice in reading scholarly articles, nursing programs are able to facilitate this didactic value continually instead of doing so in a fleeting fashion.

The crux of the article is in delineating the efficacy of utilizing CASP (Critical Appraisal Skills Programme) (Nadelson and Nadelson, 2014, p. 344) tools to best teach students how to adopt the methods of evidence-based practice. There are several factors pertaining to CASP tools that make it ideal for this purpose, such as the fact that they have many checklists for items typically encountered in scholarly, empirical nursing articles. Some of these include determining the validity of a particular article and its applicability to nursing and to additional areas of research. The rest of the article details the specific mechanisms of CASP that are of use to nursing students. The authors even explicate how to best teach students while leveraging this platform for understanding evidence-based practice. One of the underlying motifs is that evidence-based practice actually leads to desirable action on the part of nurses.

The second article reviewed within this document is entitled "Ensuring the reporting quality of publications in nursing journals: A shared responsibility?" and written by the editors of the International Journal of Nursing Studies. The notion of evidence-based practice is central to this article, which largely functions as a review of several nursing articles published earlier this decade. Specifically, the authors are attempting to analyze these articles in the context of the standards associated with CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials). CONSORT standards were largely designed to reinforce the validity of nursing articles that are published. This article explains that numerous journals have adopted these standards to improve the quality of research articles which they publish. The authors also denote the fact that such research articles are widely the main means of implementing evidence-based practice, which is why it is essentially that they are valid. There is a tendency for authors of articles in the field of nursing to not necessarily validate their research measures, which produces the unfortunate proclivity to introduce bias into them. Thus, when readers believe they are obtaining information to provide the basis for evidence-based practice, they are actually getting biased results that could negatively impact additional practice.

The article goes on to reveal the many shortcomings found in the articles reviewed in it. Many of these do not conform to the rigorous CONSORT standards. Thus, the article ends by considering the implications of this reality, which largely consist of the fact that nursing articles must utilize more valid research methods to truly produce trustworthy and reliable evidence-based practice.

References

Editors of the International Journal of Nursing Studies. (2015). Ensuring the reporting quality of publications in nursing journals: A shared responsibility? International Journal of Nursing Studies. 52: 1025-1028

Nadelson, S., Nadelson, L. (2014). Evidence-based practice article reviews using CASP tools: A method for teaching EBP. Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing. 11(5), 344-346.