Orthopaedic Nurse Test Research & Evidence-Based Practice 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A nurse wants to find the highest level of evidence for a clinical question about fracture pain management. Which study design should they prioritize?
- Case report
- Randomized controlled trial
- Systematic review with meta-analysis (Correct answer)
- Expert opinion
Correct answer: Systematic review with meta-analysis
Systematic reviews with meta-analysis sit at the top of the evidence hierarchy, synthesizing data from multiple RCTs.
Question 2: When critically appraising an orthopaedic nursing study, the term 'internal validity' refers to:
- Whether findings apply to other patient populations
- Whether the study accurately measures what it intends to measure (Correct answer)
- The sample size adequacy
- The statistical significance of results
Correct answer: Whether the study accurately measures what it intends to measure
Internal validity reflects how accurately a study measures its intended outcome, free from bias and confounding.
Question 3: An orthopaedic unit wants to implement a new protocol for post-operative deep vein thrombosis (DVT) prevention. The best first step in an EBP process is to:
- Trial the protocol on one patient
- Formulate a PICO clinical question (Correct answer)
- Review existing unit policies
- Survey nursing staff preferences
Correct answer: Formulate a PICO clinical question
Formulating a PICO question (Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome) is the foundational first step of evidence-based practice.
Question 4: In a study on post-operative knee replacement outcomes, the Hawthorne effect refers to:
- Patients improving because they know they are being observed (Correct answer)
- A statistical error from small sample size
- Bias introduced by non-random assignment
- Confounding due to co-morbidities
Correct answer: Patients improving because they know they are being observed
The Hawthorne effect occurs when participants change their behavior simply because they are aware they are being studied.
Question 5: Which database is considered the most comprehensive source for retrieving peer-reviewed orthopaedic nursing research?
- Wikipedia
- MEDLINE/PubMed (Correct answer)
- Google Scholar only
- Textbook appendices
Correct answer: MEDLINE/PubMed
MEDLINE/PubMed is the premier biomedical database providing access to peer-reviewed nursing and medical literature.
Question 6: A nurse reads a study reporting p < 0.05 for an orthopaedic intervention. This means:
- There is a 5% chance the results are clinically significant
- The null hypothesis is rejected at a 5% significance level (Correct answer)
- The effect size is large
- The study has a 95% power rating
Correct answer: The null hypothesis is rejected at a 5% significance level
A p-value < 0.05 means there is less than a 5% probability the results occurred by chance, so the null hypothesis is rejected.
Question 7: During a journal club reviewing a hip arthroplasty study, a nurse notes the control group received usual care while the intervention group received structured physiotherapy. This study design is best described as:
- Qualitative phenomenology
- Randomized controlled trial (Correct answer)
- Cross-sectional survey
- Case-control study
Correct answer: Randomized controlled trial
An RCT involves random allocation to intervention and control groups to evaluate the effect of an intervention.
Orthopaedic Nurse Test Research & Evidence-Based Practice 2
A nurse wants to find the highest level of evidence for a clinical question about fracture pain management.
Which study design should they prioritize?