The Clinical Questions Instructions

The Clinical Questions Instructions

Guidelines

This paper focuses on the identification of a clinical question, issue or problem.  This may be something that is currently occurring in your institution, or something you have identified in other institutions.  It should be significant to nursing, but may be impacted by other professions and disciplines.  Please avoid problems, issues or gaps where there is already good evidence-based strategies and solutions to the problem (for example: fall prevention, CAUTIs, CLABSIs, diabetes education have all been thoroughly addressed in the literature/evidence).  Think of a problem that makes you go, “hmmm – why are we doing that this way, and is there additional ways to do this?”

Clinical question typically fall into one of 4 main groups:

Etiology (harm/risk factors) – what causes this problem?

Diagnosis (how is this problem diagnosed?)

Therapy/management strategies (what is the best strategy to manage this?)

Prognosis (What is my desired outcome?)

Here’s some examples of clinical questions:

• Why is there a rise in childhood obesity?

How can mother/father and neonate bonding be enhanced in NICU?

• How can post-operative recovery be improved in the bariatric patient (ERAS protocols?)

What is impact of social isolation on the elderly?

• Who is most susceptible to nursing burnout and how can it be mitigated?

What’s the best way to educate a nursing student with a hearing disability?

• How can legislators be encouraged to support full practice authority for APRNs?

Writing the Paper – What to Include

Introduction (you do not need a heading for this).

Problem identification

• What is the problem?

Why is it a problem? Is it a problem on your unit, or nationwide?

• What data would you need to collect to determine it is truly a problem?

What is the significance to nursing?

• Your role in EBP

What is your previous involvement in EBP projects

• What type of support do you receive at your facility for EBP (time, management, culture)

Is there EBP interprofessional involvement?

• What are your personal challenges or successes with EBP? What is your goal for improvement