Research & Evidence-Based Practice Flashcards

A cardiovascular nurse evaluates a clinical practice guideline from the American Heart Association (AHA). Which component indicates the STRENGTH of a recommendation?

Answer: Class of Recommendation (COR)

The AHA Class of Recommendation (COR) — ranging from I (strong benefit) to III (no benefit or harm) — indicates the strength of a guideline recommendation.

In translational research, what does 'T2 translation' refer to in the context of cardiovascular nursing?

Answer: Translating clinical research findings into practice guidelines and policies

T2 translation refers to moving findings from clinical trials into health guidelines, clinical practice, and health policy — implementing proven interventions at scale.

A nurse assesses the reliability of a new cardiac pain assessment tool. The tool is administered twice by the same nurse 48 hours apart with similar results. This BEST demonstrates:

Answer: Test-retest reliability

Test-retest reliability measures the consistency of a tool when administered to the same individuals under the same conditions at two different time points.

Which statistical measure BEST quantifies the degree of agreement among multiple cardiac nurses rating the same patient's wound healing using an ordinal scale?

Answer: Cohen's kappa

Cohen's kappa is the appropriate statistic for measuring inter-rater agreement on categorical or ordinal data, adjusting for agreement expected by chance.

A cardiac nurse reviews a diagnostic accuracy study on a new troponin assay. The study reports a sensitivity of 95% and specificity of 85%. What does the 85% specificity mean?

Answer: 85% of patients without MI will correctly test negative

Specificity of 85% means the test correctly identifies 85% of individuals who do NOT have the condition as negative (true negatives).

A hospital implements an evidence-based early ambulation protocol after cardiac surgery. Six months later, outcomes data is collected. This implementation follows which phase of the PDSA cycle?

Answer: Study

The Study phase of the PDSA (Plan-Do-Study-Act) cycle involves analyzing data collected after implementation to evaluate whether the change led to improvement.

A researcher conducts a Delphi study to establish consensus on best practices for cardiac telemetry monitoring. Which characteristic is UNIQUE to the Delphi method?

Answer: Uses iterative anonymous expert rounds with controlled feedback

The Delphi method uses multiple rounds of anonymous expert surveys with summarized group feedback after each round to build consensus while preventing group-think.