PICOT Question
Emergency room healthcare providers (p) given safety and violence protocol training (i) versus those providers not given the safety and violence protocol training (c) demonstrate increased knowledge of safety and violence policies and procedures(o) over the next six weeks (t)?
Search Strategy Conducted
The search strategy was multi-step and involved major electronic databases: MEDLINE, CINAHL, and the Cochrane Library (Fain, 2017). During the first step, the preliminary search was conducted. It involved using the keywords of the study, including (but not limited to) “safety protocol,” “safety and violence protocol,” “safety training,” “safety and violence training,” and “safety and violence procedures.” During this step, the sources were selected based on their titles. Next, the abstracts of the previously picked sources were reviewed to determine their potential value to the study. Finally, during the third step, the selected sources were examined to ascertain their applicability to the study. After that, the chosen literature was deemed appropriate for use. Only sufficiently recent sources in English that focused on the topic of interest were selected for the study.
Critical Appraisal of the Evidence Performed
The selected sources were critically appraised. In particular, the tool of the hierarchy of evidence was applied to each source to determine their ability to inform the study (Polit & Beck, 2017). Apart from that, the methodological quality of each source was assessed by considering a number of aspects that determine the soundness of the evidence presented by a study. They include (but are not limited to) the validity and reliability of employed tools, the use and applicability of statistical tests, the control of extraneous variables, the determination of a study’s limitations, the possibility of bias, and the consistency of design. Each source was provided with an evaluation matrix that focused on its strengths and weaknesses as suggested by Polit and Beck (2017). Due to a comprehensive assessment of the methodological quality of its literature, the present study can make conclusions about the quality of evidence that it employs.
References
Fain, J. (2017). Reading, understanding, and applying nursing research (5th ed.). Phliadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis.
Polit, D.F., & Beck, C.T. (2017). Nursing research: Generating and assessing evidence for nursing practice (10th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins.