Essential Foundation for Evidence-Based Practice

Essential Foundation for Evidence-Based Practice

a spirit of inquiry and a culture that supports it. Inour first article in this series (“Igniting a Spirit of Inquiry:AnEssential Foundation for Evidence-Based Practice,” November 2009),we defined a spirit of inquiry as “an ongoing curiosity about the best evidence toguide clinical decisionmaking.” A spirit of inquiry is the founda- tionof EBP, andonce nurses pos- sess it, it’s easier to take the next step—toask the clinical question.1

Formulating a clinical question in a systematicwaymakes it pos- sible to find an answermore quickly and efficiently, leading to improved processes and patient outcomes. In the last installment,wegave

an overviewof themultistepEBP process (“The Seven Steps of Evidence-Based Practice,” Janu- ary). Thismonthwe’ll discuss step one, asking the clinical question. As a context for this discussionwe’ll use the same

scenariowe used in the previous articles (see Case Scenario for EBP: Rapid Response Teams). In this scenario, a staff nurse,

let’s call herRebeccaR., noted that patients on hermedical– surgical unit had a high acuity level thatmay have led to an in- crease in cardiac arrests and in the

number of patients transferred to the ICU.Of thepatientswho had a cardiac arrest, four died. Rebecca sharedwith her nurse manager a recently published study onhow the use of a rapid response teamresulted in reduced in-hospital cardiac arrests andun- planned admissions to the critical

Asking the Clinical Question: A Key Step in Evidence-Based Practice

A successful search strategy starts with a well-formulated question.

This is the third article in a series from the Arizona State University College of Nursing and Health Innovation’s Center for the Advancement of Evidence-Based Practice. Evidence-based practice (EBP) is a problem-solving approach to the delivery of health care that integrates the best evidence from studies and patient care data with clinician expertise and patient preferences and values. When delivered in a context of caring and in a supportive organizational culture, the highest quality of care and best patient outcomes can be achieved. Essential Foundation for Evidence-Based Practice

The purpose of this series is to give nurses the knowledge and skills they need to implement EBP consistently, one step at a time. Articles will appear every two months to allow you time to incorporate information as you work toward implementing EBP at your institution. Also, we’ve scheduled “Ask the Authors” call-ins every few months to provide a direct line to the experts to help you resolve questions. Details about how to participate in the next call will be pub- lished with May’s Evidence-Based Practice, Step by Step.

Case Scenario for EBP: Rapid Response Teams

You’re a staff nurse on a busy medical–surgical unit. Overthe past three months, you’ve noticed that the patients on your unit seem to have a higher acuity level than usual, with at least three cardiac arrests per month, and of those patients who arrested, four died. Today, you saw a report about a recently published study in Critical Care Medicine on the use of rapid response teams to decrease rates of in-hospital car- diac arrests and unplanned ICU admissions. The study found a significant decrease in both outcomes after implementation of a rapid response team led by physician assistants with spe- cialized skills.2 You’re so impressed with these findings that you bring the report to your nurse manager, believing that a rapid response team would be a great idea for your hospital. The nurse manager is excited that you have come to her with these findings and encourages you to search for more evidence to support this practice and for research on whether rapid re- sponse teams are valid and reliable.

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care unit.2 Shebelieved this could be a great idea for her hospital. Based onher nursemanager’s suggestion to search formore evi- dence to support theuseof a rap- id response team,Rebecca’s spirit of inquiry ledher to take thenext step in the EBPprocess: asking

the clinical question. Let’s follow Rebecca as shemeetswithCar- losA., oneof the expertEBPmen- tors from the hospital’s EBP and research council, whose role is to assist point of care providers in enhancing their EBPknowledge and skills.

Types of clinical questions. Carlos explains toRebecca that finding evidence to improve pa- tient outcomes and support a practice change depends upon how the question is formulated. Clinical practice that’s informed by evidence is based onwell- formulated clinical questions that guide us to search for the most current literature. There are two types of clinical

questions: backgroundquestions and foregroundquestions.3-5 Fore- ground questions are specific and relevant to the clinical issue. Fore- groundquestionsmust be asked in order to determinewhich of two interventions is themost ef- fective in improving patient out- comes. For example, “In adult patients undergoing surgery, how does guided imagery compared withmusic therapy affect anal- gesia usewithin the first 24hours post-op?” is a specific,well- defined question that can only

guides her in formulating a fore- groundquestionusing PICOT format. PICOT is an acronym for the

elements of the clinical question: patient population (P), interven- tion or issue of interest (I), com- parison intervention or issue of interest (C), outcome(s) of inter- est (O), and time it takes for the intervention to achieve the out- come(s) (T).WhenRebecca asks why the PICOTquestion is so important, Carlos explains that it’s a consistent, systematicway to identify the components of a clinical issue. Using the PICOT format to structure the clinical question helps to clarify these components,whichwill guide the search for the evidence.6, 7 Awell- built PICOTquestion increases the likelihood that the best evi- dence to informpracticewill be foundquickly and efficiently.5-8

To helpRebecca learn to for- mulate a PICOTquestion,Car- los uses the earlier example of a foregroundquestion: “In adult patients undergoing surgery, how does guided imagery compared

be answered by searching the current literature for studies comparing these two interven- tions.

Background questions are considerably broader andwhen answered, provide general knowl- edge. For example, a background

question suchas, “What therapies reduce postoperative pain?” can generally be answeredby looking in a textbook. Formore informa- tion on the two types of clinical questions, see Comparison of Background and Foreground Questions.4-6 Essential Foundation for Evidence-Based Practice