Evidence based practice updates - 8 November 2012

New guidelines, research and other tools and updates on evidence based techniques and processes from across the UK. For more information about this theme see Quality and Safety e-Bulletin: evidence based practice.

Some of the resources linked to are in PDF format - see how to access PDF files. 

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ): Chronic Kidney Disease Stages 1-3: Screening, Monitoring, and Treatment. This new AHRQ research review has found no or limited evidence that screening, monitoring, and treating adults with early-stage chronic kidney disease was beneficial to patients.  The condition affects more than 44 percent of U.S. adults over the age of 70.  The review examined screening, monitoring, and treatment of adults in stage 1, 2 or 3 of the five stages of chronic kidney disease.

BMC Health Services Research: Factors influencing the development of evidence-based practice among nurses: a self-report survey. This Norwegian study published in BMC Health Services Research surveyed the implementation of evidence-based practice among 407 nurses at a large hospital. The results suggest that nurses rely on experiential knowledge and lack the time and skills to manage research evidence. The authors recommend training in evidence-based practice to increase their clinical usage.

Committee on the Use of Social Science Knowledge in Public Policy et al: Using science as evidence in public policy. This American report investigates why scientific evidence is important to policy making and argues that an extensive body of research on knowledge utilization has not led to any widely accepted explanation of what it means to use science in public policy. It identifies the gaps in our understanding and develops a framework for a new field of research to fill those gaps.

Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC): ReStore. Research methods web resources. Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, the ReStore project aims to preserve, sustain and actively maintain selected research methods resources beyond their funding periods.

Trip Database: The latest version of the Trip Database is now live. It has had a complete overhaul with a simplified interface and the addition of some powerful new features and various other tools to make finding evidence even easier (including a PICO search).

Implementation Science: Implementing nutrition guidelines for older people in residential care homes: a qualitative study using normalization process theory. The UK Food Standards Agency developed nutrient and food based guidance for residential care homes. “The acceptability of these guidelines and their feasibility in practice is unknown. This study used Normalisation Process Theory (NPT) to understand the barriers and facilitators to implementing the guidelines and inform future implementation." 

Implementation Science: Sources of non-compliance with clinical practice guidelines in trauma triage: a decision science study. "United States trauma system guidelines specify when to triage patients to specialty centers. Nonetheless, many eligible patients are not transferred as per guidelines. One possible reason is emergency physician decision-making. The objective of the study was to characterize sensory and decisional determinants of emergency physician trauma triage decision-making."

Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) Feasibility of a wiki as a participatory tool for patients in clinical guideline development. This study was undertaken in the Netherlands and concludes that the wiki is “a promising and feasible participatory tool for patients in guideline development”, and makes suggestions around useful features for a patient-centred design. 

International Practice Development Journal (IPDJ): New issue available online. Volume 2 issue 2 November 2012 has now been published [you will need to register to access the full text].

King’s College London: Everyday drugs could combat dementia, according to a major study. Medications used to treat hypertension, diabetes and skin conditions could be doubling as treatments for Alzheimer’s within 10 years according to researchers.

NICE Public health briefings for local government: NICE guidance and public health outcomes. The public health outcomes framework for England sets out objectives for the public health system in the three years from April 2013. It consists of four domains and over 60 indicators for measuring progress. NICE has created a document which provides links to NICE guidance relevant to more than 40 of these indicators and shows how it can help local authorities tackle their public health priorities.

NICE Public health briefings for local government – three other new briefings. The three new briefings cover: tackling the harm caused by alcohol; health inequalities; population health.

RCN Policy and International Department: Draft Regulation on Clinical Trials on medicinal products for human use and repealing 2001/20/EC (PDF 88.4KB). The RCN has produced a short briefing on key issues in the draft regulation which impact on nursing. The RCN will now be working with key stakeholders during the passage of the draft legislation.

Women’s Royal Voluntary Service (WRVS): Falls: measuring the impact on older people (PDF 253KB). The Women’s Royal Voluntary Service charity has published the results of research in a report ‘Falls: measuring the impact on older people’. The study reveals how common falls are among older people. 35% have fallen in the last two years with 32% of those living alone suffering a fall in the last year. The impact often goes beyond the physical. Over one fifth (21%) of older people who had suffered a fall in the last five years have lost their confidence as a result, with 10% saying they are now less independent. This lack of confidence is often exacerbated during the winter months as the majority of older people (52%) say they feel much more vulnerable to falling in winter.
Press release: Psychological impact of falls devastating for older people
BBC Health: Elderly people 'staying at home for fear of falling'.