Evidence-Based Practice / Unit 22 EBP 3175 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Designing a Study That Could Be Appraised
The idea
The technique: settle aim, questions and feasibility first; choose outcomes somebody will act on; let the question select the design; fix criteria, variables and instruments before recruiting; clear ethics review before enrolling; then anticipate the threats an appraiser would look for, and design against them rather than reporting them.
In practice
A study built to survive appraisal. Aim and questions agreed in a planning meeting, with feasibility settled before a protocol exists. Outcomes chosen for clinical importance and for what the system acts on, so the finding has somewhere to go. The design selected to answer the question rather than chosen first. Inclusion and exclusion criteria, variables and instruments all fixed before recruitment, with instruments chosen for established reliability and validity. The full protocol reviewed and approved before anyone is enrolled, with privacy regulation met. Randomization used where possible so unknown characteristics distribute across groups. Attrition anticipated and tracked, since uneven dropout destroys the comparison rather than merely shrinking it. The findings disseminated, because an unreported study has generated nothing anyone can use.
Where people slip
Design against the threats rather than reporting them. Every appraisal question in Part 1 is a question a designer could have answered in advance, and the ones answered in advance do not become limitations sections.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
- 3152Appraising and Designing Are Different Views
- 3153The Design Meeting
- 3154Choose Outcomes That Matter to Someone
- 3155The Design Follows the Question
- 3156Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria
- 3158Measures Must Measure What Is Intended
- 3160Risk Cannot Exceed Benefit
- 3161Review Before the Study Runs
- 3163Threats to Internal Validity
- 3164Attrition
- 3167Randomization Controls What You Did Not Think Of
- 3170The Research Process Has Steps
- 3171It Ends in Dissemination
Unlocks
- Nothing yet depends on this.
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