Pre-appraised Sources

Newer forms of literature have developed recently to aid busy clinicians in applying evidence in their practice. Many experts in evidence based practice recommend that these sources are consulted first, before diving into the primary literature.

Pre-appraised literature is that which uses an explicit review process to find and appraise evidence (Chapa, Hartung & Mayberry, 2013). Pre-appraised sources are appraised for you by experts. The purpose of this literature is to provide clinicians with the best evidence, often at the point of care.

Pre-appraised sources come in the several formats:

1. Evidence summaries- an appraisal and summary of evidence on a clinical topic, usually carried out by an board of experts and intended for point of care use. Most evidence summaries are proprietary (require a paid subscription). Note that SCC Library does not have access to most of these sources, but many hospitals and many larger academic institutions will. Always check with your workplace and college/university library to find out what sources are available to you.

Ex: CINAHL evidence care sheets, Clinical Evidence, Dynamed, UptoDate, ACP's PIERS.

For a specific example, see CINAHL Evidence Care Sheet: Preventing Surgical Site Infections

2. "Journals of secondary publication"- journals that take research published elsewhere and summarize and provide expert commentary on that research. Two examples of a journals of secondary publication are the journals Evidence Based Nursing and ACP Journal Club.

Take a look at this example of a article published in Evidence based nursing:

Qualitative – other: Nurse-led central venous catheter insertion: review of 760 procedures performed across three hospitals reveals a low rate of complications.

Take note that a summary, commentary and implications for practice are provided and that the original article being discussed was published elsewhere (the International Journal of Nursing Studies): Alexandrou E, Murgo M, Calabria E, et al. Nurse-led central venous catheter insertion-procedural characteristics and outcomes of three intensive care based catheter placement services. Int J Nurs Stud 2012;49:162–8.

3. Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs)-practice recommendations based on the best available evidence; written by healthcare organizations such as Association of Women's Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN), Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses (AORN). Guidelines are meant as recommendations for patient care based on the available evidence.

Clinical practice guidelines are not equal. The student should check that the guideline is recent and indicates the strength of the evidence) (DiCenso, Bayley, & Haynes, 2009). The most comprehensive sources for CPGs is the National Guidelines Clearinghouse

Works Cited

Chapa, D., Hartung, MK., & Mayberry, LJ (2013) Using pre-appraised evidence sources to guide clinical practice. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners 25: 234-243.

DiCenso, A., Bayley, L., & Haynes, R. (2009). Accessing pre-appraised evidence: fine-tuning the 5S model into a 6S model. Evidence Based Nursing, 12(4), 99-101. doi:10.1136/ebn.12.4.99-b