Assignment:
Identifying A Clinical Question
Write a 1000-1500 word essay addressing each of the following points/questions. Be sure to completely answer all the questions for each bullet point. There should be three main sections, one for each bullet below. Separate each section in your paper with a clear heading that allows your professor to know which bullet you are addressing in that section of your paper. Support your ideas with at least five (5) sources using citations in your essay. Make sure to cite using the APA writing style for the essay. The cover page and reference page in correct APA do not count towards the minimum word amount. Review the rubric criteria for this assignment.
Identify a clinical question related to your work environment, write the question in PICOT format and perform a literature search on the identified topic.
Purpose
To enable the student to identify a clinical question related to a specified area of practice and use medical and nursing databases to find research articles that will provide evidence to validate nursing interventions regarding a specific area of nursing practice.
Review the Application Case Study for Chapter 3: Finding Relevant Evidence to Answer Clinical Questions as a guide for your literature search.
Guidelines
- Identify a clinical question related to your area of clinical practice and write the clinical foreground question in PICOT format utilizing the worksheet tool provided as a guide.
- Describe why this is a clinical problem or an opportunity for improving health outcomes in your area of clinical practice. Perform a literature search and select five research articles on your topic utilizing the databases highlighted in Chapter 3 of the textbook (Melnyk and Finout-Overholt, 2015).
- Identify the article that best supports nursing interventions for your topic. Explain why this article best supports your topic as you compare the article to the other four found in the literature search.
Assignment Expectations:
Length: 1000 – 1500 wordsStructure: Include a title page and reference page in APA format. These do not count towards the minimum word count for this assignment. Your essay must include an introduction and a conclusion.References: Use appropriate APA style in-text citations and references for all resources utilized to answer the questions. A minimum of five (5) scholarly sources are required for this assignment to support the topic.Rubric: This assignment uses a rubric for scoring. Please review it as part of your assignment preparation and again prior to submission to ensure you have addressed its criteria at the highest level.Format: Save your assignment as a Microsoft Word document (.doc or .docx) or a PDF document (.pdf)File name: Name your saved file according to your first initial, last name, and the assignment number (for example RHall Assignment 1.docx)
Expert Solution Preview
Introduction:
As a medical professor, it is crucial to equip students with the ability to identify clinical problems and opportunities for improving health outcomes. This assignment aims to help students identify a clinical question related to their area of practice, write it in PICOT format, perform a literature search on the identified topic and identify the best article to support nursing interventions for the clinical question. In this essay, we will address each of the three bullet points and provide guidance on how to complete this assignment successfully.
1. Identifying a clinical question related to your area of clinical practice and writing the clinical foreground question in PICOT format
To identify a clinical question, the student should first consider their area of practice and then identify a specific clinical problem or opportunity for improving health outcomes. The clinical question should be relevant, important, and answerable based on current evidence. Using the PICOT format, the question should be broken down into five parts: Patient/Problem, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome, and Timeframe.
For example, if the area of clinical practice is diabetes management, a suitable clinical question in PICOT format could be: In Type 2 diabetic patients, does self-monitoring of blood glucose levels in addition to standard care compared to standard care alone, result in better glycemic control over a six-month period?
2. Describing why this is a clinical problem or an opportunity for improving health outcomes in your area of clinical practice & performing a literature search and selecting five research articles on your topic
The student should describe why the clinical question is a problem or presents opportunities for improved health outcomes, using evidence from literature to support it. They should then perform a literature search on the identified topic using nursing and medical databases highlighted in Chapter 3 of the textbook, such as PubMed, CINAHL or Cochrane Library. The search should result in at least five research articles on the topic to support the clinical question.
In the case of the diabetes management question, the student can describe the significance of glycemic control for patient outcomes and how self-monitoring of blood glucose levels can help manage diabetes. They can then perform a search on the identified topic in databases such as PubMed, retrieving research articles on how self-monitoring of blood glucose levels can impact glycemic control.
3. Identifying the article that best supports nursing interventions for your topic and explaining why
The student should evaluate the five research articles retrieved from the literature search and identify the one that best supports nursing interventions for the clinical question. The evaluation should consider the methods used, sample size, results, strengths, and limitations of each article, and compare them to one another.
After evaluating the retrieved articles, the student should identify and explain why the chosen article best supports nursing interventions for the clinical question. For example, the chosen article on diabetes management could provide strong evidence on the effectiveness of self-monitoring of blood glucose levels in improving glycemic control based on a randomized controlled trial with a large sample size.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, this assignment aims to equip students with the ability to identify a clinical question related to their area of practice, write it in PICOT format, perform a literature search, and identify the best article to support nursing interventions for the clinical question. It requires students to consider the importance of clinical problems in their area of practice and how evidence-based interventions can improve patient outcomes. With this guidance, students can successfully complete this assignment and enhance their critical thinking skills in clinical practice.
