On completing this Unit you should be able to critically appraise a research study to decide if if its contents could be used to improve your practice or help you make informed decisions.
1. To define critical appraisal in a practitioner context
2. To understand the key criteria for critical appraisal and to select an appropriate checklist or other instrument to use for critical appraisal
3. To use these to identify the conclusions of a paper and to decide whether the methodology is sound enough to justify the findings
4. To assess the results of a paper for generalisability to other areas
5. To develop ways of recording and presenting critical appraisal of papers, and be aware of resources to support this process
Contents:
Appraisal of original research (with worked case study)
Appraisal of reviews (with worked case study)
Appraisal of qualitative studies (with worked case study)
Selecting a checklist
Reconciling differences and inconsistencies
Using and presenting the results of appraisals
Resources for critical appraisal
Next - Introduction