Course Description

Objectives

Upon successful completion of the course, the participant will:

• Articulate the definition of Evidence-based Practice (EBP) or Evidence-based Medicine (EBM).
• Formulate a well thought out clinical question based on a specific patient problem.
• Design an online search for evidence related to a well thought out clinical question in a timely manner.
• Evaluate the validity, importance, and applicability of research studies focused on therapy, diagnosis, prognosis, or systematic reviews.
• Articulate the concept of probabilities and limiting uncertainty when using diagnostic tests, with application of likelihood ratios (LR) and the LR nomogram.
• Evaluate sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative likelihood ratios as applied to a patient scenario given a 2×2 contingency table.
• Propose the appropriate level of evidence for a published article using the Oxford taxonomy on studies of therapy, diagnosis, prognosis, and systematic reviews.
• Evaluate upper and lower limits of confidence intervals around point estimates for results in published evidence for therapy, diagnosis, and prognosis.
• Compare effect sizes to minimally clinically important differences (MCID) to make judgments about the clinical meaningfulness of study results of health care intervention (therapy).
• Design a Critical Appraisal of Topic (CAT) report to demonstrate the application of EBP principles in the care of an individual patient.
• Evaluate clinical guidelines using EBP principles.
• Articulate strategies to include use of best evidence in your clinical practice setting.
• Design an evidence-informed practice approach in your own clinical practice environment.