Systemic Review

Course Announcement ?  NURS-6052N-21,Essent of Evidence-Based Pract.2020 Summer Qtr 06/01-08/23-PT27Systematic Reviews Open Dismiss 

In  the module 2 assignment, you were asked to find primary authored  research studies. Primary authored research studies are those that  explain a single study and are written by the person who conducted a  study.
In this module, your assignment will focus on systematic reviews.  Systematic reviews include an exhaustive search of the literature and  summarize the findings of many studies. The author of the systematic  review did not conduct the research studies being reviewed. 
A  systematic review is much more rigorous than a literature review or an  expository piece. Within a systematic review, the author will discuss  their search strategy, search results, and how they filtered and  selected the evidence in the review. Most will have a diagram that walks  the reader through the filtering process. It is very important  for this assignment that you are using systematic reviews, and not  primary authored research articles or expository pieces. 

Dr. Smith

Class,

Our  module assignment is due Sunday. In the assignment you are asked to  identify the level of evidence for each of the research articles you  selected. You will be utilizing Melnyk's levels of evidence from your  course readings. Well-supported rationale will be required.
Identifying the  level of evidence is important in determining whether the strength of  the evidence justifies a change to practice. When thinking of making a  practice change, would you trust a cluster of randomized trials? Or a  cluster of opinion-based literature reviews? You can see how the  strength of the evidence is just as important as the evidence itself. 
One  area that I see students particularly struggle with is the difference  between expository/literature reviews and systematic reviews. The  primary difference between the two is that systematic reviews conduct an  exhaustive search of the literature and consider pieces that both  support and dispute the author's hypothesis. This type of review will  clearly outline the search strategy, databases used, number of results,  how the literature was filtered, and selection/rejection criteria. 
In  comparison, an expository piece may refer to some literature but it is  often selected by the author to support his/her claim. This is a very  low level of evidence because it doesn't take into account all available  literature on the topic. For example, a practice issue could have 15  high-level studies that oppose the author's opinion, and 2 studies that  support the author's opinion. In an expository piece, the author may  choose to only use those two studies that support and give a false  impression.
While  expository articles are typically easier to read and interpret, they  are not considered sufficient evidence to support a change in practice.
I look forward to reviewing your presentations for module 3. Keep up the great work!

Dr. Smith