Gathering Evidence
Effective practice relies on robust, reliable and relevant evidence. This may come from a variety of sources. The first step in any project (audit, evaluation, service improvement) is to gather all the evidence available from sources such as:
- literature reviews - to outline what is known about the topic and any gaps in knowledge,
- audit, surveys, interviews, or focus groups.
- Data analysis follows data/evidence gathering to focus on the elicitation of findings, conclusions and recommendations for practice improvement.
You may wish to start by exploring this resource designed to help you develop skills in effectively searching literature.
What does this mean for the Effective Practitioner?
The effective practitioner requires a variety of skills and tools to gather robust evidence. These include database searching skills, for example using the Knowledge Network to find peer-reviewed articles at the right level and nature of your project. It's important that a nurse, midwife and allied health professional is able to select the most suitable quantitative and qualitative methods to gather data and have the resources and skills to be able to analyse data either with a local clinical effectiveness department or through personally using data analysis tools such as MS Excel or SPSS.
Learning Activities
* COMING SOON *
Click the link below to open or download a PDF document of reflective, work based activities that align to the Facilitating Learning Pillar of Practice.
