Evidence-based practice for the busy nurse practitioner: part four: putting it all together.

Purpose: Understanding the critical appraisal process allows nurse practitioners (NPs) to determine a study's reliability, validity, and applicability to their client(s)/families, and to their clinical practice setting. The purpose of this final part of this four-part evidence-based practice (EBP) series is designed to utilize a clinical scenario that will walk the NP through EBP steps 1 through 3 while providing an example of how to critically appraise a randomized control trial.

Data Sources: Scientific literature review, gray literature, PubMed and other online literature databases and resources, and online EBP websites.

Conclusions: As healthcare providers, our role is to provide the best possible care we can to our client(s) and their families. One way to do this is through the utilization of the EBP process. When EBP processes are integrated into our clinical practice settings it augments the existing provider-client relationship and shared decision-making process.

Implications For Practice: It is hoped that this four-part series enhanced NPs' understanding of the EBP processes of developing a clinical inquiry, searching for the best evidence, critically appraising the evidence, and integrating EBP into clinical practice.