NURS 4030 Assessment 2: Determining the Credibility of Evidence and Resources Example

To guarantee that the information you are using is trustworthy and accurate and to help you make informed decisions, it is crucial to critically assess the evidence and resources’ reliability. My safety issue from assignment 1 was sepsis diagnosis. Early diagnosis of sepsis can promote better treatment outcomes. This paper aims to describe this safety issue, propose evidence-based criteria that would be used to assess the credibility of evidence sources, assess the credibility of chosen sources, and use an evidence-based model to justify the importance of incorporating credible evidence into the model.

Safety Issue

A new nurse has been hired to work in a medical-surgical unit of a healthcare facility and has been assigned to care for a patient with sepsis on their first day. The patient is experiencing borderline low blood pressure, slightly elevated heart rate, and confusion. The nurse is unsure how to proceed due to a lack of knowledge and experience with managing sepsis and limited time to perform a full physical examination.

In this situation, it is important for the nurse to seek guidance and support from the unit’s nurse manager or other experienced nurses, utilize available resources such as computers and internet access to research appropriate protocols and nursing diagnoses, and communicate with the healthcare team to ensure that the patient’s condition is being closely monitored and necessary interventions are implemented.

The nurse should also continue to educate themselves on sepsis management and seek out additional support as needed because it would improve her anxiety and EBP knowledge and skill competencies (Larsen et al., 2019). To make an accurate diagnosis and plan evinced based interventions for this patient, the nurse would rely on evidence-based practice to seek evidence-based information in this case.

Criteria for Determining the Credibility of the Sources

Various criteria have been used to determine the trustworthiness of online bases sources of information, but there is no conventional method that has been set to achieve a uniform assessment of credibility. Various models, such as the CRAAP model, have been used to assess source credibility. This model has its benefits and drawbacks. Various alternatives have been in various settings to teach EBP and promote the use of credible sources.

The CCOW model is one alternative to the CRAAP model that would be easy and efficient in determining the credibility of sources in finding evidence for making clinical decisions by the nurse in the above scenario. According to Tardiff (2022), the CCOW model is a criterion that encourages an investigative approach to appraising the sources and thus offers a convenient way to ensure that trainees and practitioners use trustworthy sources. CCOW model is an acronym for credentials, claims, objectives, and worldview.

This criterion requires that firstly the user assess whether the source was published by an expert or reputable organization in the relevant field. The user then assesses whether the claims are accurate or unreliable. Thirdly, the user of the information assesses the objectives to assess whether the information was intended at informing, convincing, or selling ideas to the user (Tardiff, 2022).

Lastly, the worldview criterion promotes the user of the information to assess whether the information is biased or neutral so that the decision they make using it would not harm the patient. An example of using this criterion is when searching for a piece of information on the internet. The user will need to decide if the website is from a reputable organization or just a blog if the information was meant for medical reasons and thus purposeful, and if the information contained conforms with worldviews or is age-old.

Sources

The following sources will provide evidence-based information to make an early diagnosis of sepsis and improve patient safety and care quality. The sources have been annotated and their credibility assessed.

American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. (n.d.). Sepsis Guidelines for Nurses – AACN. Aacn.org. Retrieved January 3, 2023, from https://www.aacn.org/clinical-resources/sepsis

This is a credible source because it was published by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, an organization of experts in nursing and critical care. This source was published to educate nurses on the best guidelines to follow when diagnosing and treating a patient with sepsis. The information contained in this area represents reviewed information from various studies and research evidence from more than one study.

Husabø, G., Nilsen, R. M., Flaatten, H., Solligård, E., Frich, J. C., Bondevik,