ASSESS
|
1. Start with the patient -- a clinical problem or question arises from the care of the patient |
ASK
|
2. Construct a well built clinical question derived from the case |
ACQUIRE
|
3. Select the appropriate resource(s) and conduct a search |
APPRAISE
|
4. Appraise that evidence for its validity (closeness to the truth) and applicability (usefulness in clinical practice) |
APPLY
|
5. Return to the patient -- integrate that evidence with clinical expertise, patient preferences and apply it to practice |
Self-evaluation |
6. Evaluate your performance with this patient |
The most common definition of Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) is from Dr. David Sackett. EBP is “the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of the individual patient. It means integrating individual clinical expertise with the best available external clinical evidence from systematic research.” (Sackett D, 1996) EBP is the integration of clinical expertise, patient values, and the best research evidence into the decision making process for patient care. Clinical expertise refers to the clinician’s cumulated experience, education and clinical skills. The patient brings to the encounter his or her own personal preferences and unique concerns, expectations, and values. The best research evidence is usually found in clinically relevant research that has been conducted using sound methodology. (Sackett D, 2002)
The evidence, by itself, does not make the decision, but it can help support the patient care process. The full integration of these three components into clinical decisions enhances the opportunity for optimal clinical outcomes and quality of life. The practice of EBP is usually triggered by patient encounters which generate questions about the effects of therapy, the utility of diagnostic tests, the prognosis of diseases, and/or the etiology of disorders.
Evidence-Based Practice requires new skills of the clinician, including efficient literature searching, and the application of formal rules of evidence in evaluating the clinical literature.
This tutorial includes five major units. We recommend that you go through them in sequence. They will give you an overview of the Evidence-Based Practice process as well as give you an opportunity to practice with new cases.
| Overview | What is EBP? provides definitions and explains the steps in the EBP process. |
| Ask | Asking Clinical Question – introduces you to a patient, illustrates the anatomy of a good clinical question, and defines the types of questions and studies. |
| Acquire | Searching the Literature - constructs a well-built literature search based on the PICO and identifies potentially relevant articles. |
| Appraise | Evaluating the Evidence - identifies criteria for determining the validity of a study selected for our case. |
| Practice | Testing your Knowledge - gives you an opportunity to practice the EBP process with several new cases. |
| References | Points you to additional sites for continued study of the EBP process and provides a glossary of terms used in EBP. |
| Feedback | Gives you the opportunity to provide feedback about this tutorial. We ask that you take the time to give us your thoughts and suggestions for improvement. All comments will be greatly appreciated. |
This guide is a derivative of the Introduction to Evidence-Based Practice tutorial by Duke University Medical Center Library and the Health Sciences Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. 
.
Umpqua Community College Library, 1140 Umpqua College Rd., Roseburg, OR 97470, 541-440-4640
Except where otherwise noted, content in these research guides is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.