Evidence Based Practice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Evidence Based Practice - Essay Example Part One Brief Background Diabetes mellitus is a health condition wherein the â€Å"amount of glucose (sugar) in the blood is too high† (Diabetes UK, 2010, p. 3). When left untreated, diabetes is considered as a serious illness because it can trigger heart-related problems, stroke, kidney failure and/or blindness. Aside from the 500,000 undiagnosed individuals who are suspected to have diabetes, approximately 2.6 million people in UK were already diagnosed with diabetes back in 2009 (Diabetes UK, 2010, p. 4). This figure can double up to 4 million by 2025 (p. 4). Part of the duty and responsibility of the nurses is to deliver self-management education to diabetes patients (Chan and Zang, 2007). For this reason, nurses should know by heart the differences between the juvenile diabetes (type I) and the adult-onset diabetes (type II) on top of the diagnostic tests, importance of weight management, and other related healthcare management and treatment for this particular health disorder. Rationale for the Selection of this Topic Area As a diabetic educator and diabetes nurse, I used to work with diabetic patients. Since I work part time as a member of continuing nursing education in my region, I decided to conduct a systematic research study with regards to the nurses’ actual knowledge on diabetes mellitus. Search Process... According to Randolph (2009), the principle of inclusion and exclusion method is to segregate relevant journals from those that are irrelevant. In order to address the research questions highlighted in this study, the gathered journals were segregated using the inclusion and exclusion method depending on the degree of relevance of each study. As part of the research study inclusion, the gathered journals will be pre-screened based on the research method and the author(s)’ research findings (Cronin, Ryan and Coughlan, 2008). To ensure the quality and relevance of the gathered journals with the chosen research topic, the gathered journals were critically appraised by using the guidelines specified under the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP). When critically appraising a peer-reviewed journal, it is important to take note whether or not the authors made a clear statement with regards to the aims of the research study. It is equally important to examine the research study ’s overall research design. For instance, was the researcher able to justify the research method used in the study or was the strategy used in recruiting the research survey participants appropriate to the aims of the study? (NHS, 2006). In this study, databases such as the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR), NCBI / PubMed, and Education Resources Information Centre (ERIC) will be used in search for electronically available peer-reviewed journals. According to Ely and Scott (2007), keyword searches are often used when gathering relevant literature. When making keyword and phrases search; Younger (2004) mentioned the importance of acknowledging the differences between the American and British English [cited in Cronin, Ryan and Coughlan, 2008]. With this in mind, the