Academic Writing CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF AN RCT

ASSESSMENT 1 CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF AN RCT There is an increasing volume of published research now accessible to health professionals. Health professionals, such as nurses, require critical appraisal skills to assess the quality of evidence in order to safely influence clinical decision making. The aim of this assessment is for students to critically appraise a selected published randomised controlled trial (RCT) and to apply that to a provided scenario. Students will be provided with a written clinical scenario, a therapeutic clinical question developed from the scenario and an RCT selected to address the clinical Students are then required to:  Present a concise summary of the RCT  Using a framework undertake a critical appraisal of the validity of the study with reference to appropriate literature where necessary  Present and discuss the results  Based on the validity of the study and strength of the results discuss the possible application of the evidence to the clinical scenario provided. Contributes 30% to overall course grade.