The process of Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) can be broken up into 5 phases, called the 5 A's of EBP. Those phases are as follows.
Step 1: assess the patient or the problem in front of you.
Step 2: ask or identify the most important question, using the most appropriate question framework.
Step 3: acquire the best available evidence to help you answer the question.
Step 4: appraise the evidence to decide if it's applicable to your patient or scenario.
Step 5: apply the solution to your patient or problem.
EBP is a never-ending process, whether you're using it for patient-care or systems improvement. Each problem or situation should be reassessed to make sure the solution still works and to make sure new problems are addressed.
The 6-S Hierarchy of Pre-Appraised Evidence
Summaries
E.g. evidence summaries and clinical practice guidelines
Synopses of Syntheses
E.g. synopses of systematic reviews
Syntheses
E.g. systematic reviews
Synopses of Studies
E.g. synopses of individual research studies
Studies
Primary literature, i.e. individual research studies
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