Discuss the evidence for an aspect of clinical practice that impacts on the quality of the patient experience

 

The essay should focus on an aspect of clinical practice which you are familiar and must be directly 

related to your field of nursing practice. 

 

Part 1: Introduction (200-300 words) 

The introduction should explore the contribution of evidence-based practice in nursing. This should 

include reference to NMC Code. You need to introduce the aspect of clinical practice and discuss 

your rationale for choosing this topic. You may choose to do this referencing local, national or 

international guidelines. 

 

Part 2: (500 words) 

This builds on the rational and sets out how you formulated your question. 

The question will be formulated by using PICO or PEO, this will be informed by the clinical topic 

under review. 

You should ensure your question is clearly stated. 

You may find it useful to present as in a table, please note words in the table do not count as part of 

the word limit. 

P	POPULATION
I	INTERVENTION
C	CAMPARISON (if you have one)
O	OUTCOME

Table 1 PICO 

 

If using tables in your essay, please ensure they are labelled with appropriate titles and relate to the 

text. If the table is too large and interrupts the flow of the assignment, then it should be in 

appropriately labelled appendices. 

 

 

Once you have set out the question discuss the process of searching outlining your search strategy. 

You should include two databases: MEDLINE (OVID) and CINAHL (EBSCO) to conduct your search, indicating why you chose these. This must include enough detail for the search to be replicated, including the parameters of the search 

key words, date, language, and inclusion and exclusion criteria with the rationale for these 

parameters. 

An understanding of Boolean operators should be demonstrated. At the end of the 

search strategy the reference for ONE paper chosen and the rationale must be provided. The paper 

must be original research, it cannot be a systematic review detailing several papers. 

 

Part 3: (800-1,000 words) 

A number of tools for critiquing research are available, e.g. Caldwell, CASP. You should choose one 

and provide a rationale for the tool chosen. This will structure the discussion regarding the 

strengths and limitations of the research paper.  

Discuss how the findings have been disseminated into clinical practice and how these impact on the quality of the patient experience. If the findings cannot be applied, then this should be discussed hypothetically. Change theory may be applied to this section. 

 

Part 4: summary and conclusions (100-200 words) 

 

• Question chosen must relate to Adult Nursing only.  

• The work must contain a full and correct reference list. You are expected to use the author-date approach. 

• APA 6th edition citation  

• No old references (more than 10 years)