HI20.2010 Critically appraise clinical information and evidence

Overview

This standard covers critically appraising clinical information and evidence.  It includes the documentation of the critical appraisal process and results. You will need to identify the type and quality of evidence, identify a suitable critical appraisal method, extract the information required for critical appraisal, conduct the critical appraisal and document the methods and results. Users of this standard will need to ensure that practice reflects up to date information and policies. Version No 1

Knowledge and Understanding

You will need to know and understand:

1. the context within which clinical information and evidence is needed and used by patients, clinicians, policy makers, developers of guidance, and the public
2. the main sources of guidelines e.g. national guidelines, specialist societies
3. the main sources of regulatory and policy information e.g. licensing bodies
4. what primary clinical evidence is and how to distinguish it from reviews, opinions, and hypotheses
5. the hierarchy of evidence e.g. systematic review through to expert opinion
6. what secondary clinical evidence is, i.e. systematic review or meta-analysis
7. the research methods and concepts needed to find and abstract the information required for critical appraisal
8. the range of commonly used critical appraisal tools and how those appropriate to the required appraisal are used, e.g. the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE) instrument for appraising guidelines
9. how to document what was done and what was found so that the process of providing clinical information and evidence is transparent, and limitations and possible biases are disclosed

Performance Criteria

You must be able to do the following:

1. identify the type and quality of clinical information and evidence
2. identify the critical appraisal method appropriate to the clinical information and evidence
3. extract from the evidence source the information required for critical appraisal
4. conduct the critical appraisal correctly
5. produce accurate and clear documentation on the critical appraisal methods and results

Additional Information

This National Occupational Standard was developed by Skills for Health. This standard links with the following dimension within the NHS Knowledge and Skills Framework (October 2004): Dimension: IK2 Information collection and analysis