Instructions:

The aim of this assignment is to assess the student’s ability to:

Critically appraise three (3) sources of evidence relevant to an identified clinical dilemma and identify how this evidence should or should not inform clinical practice. Each source of evidence must be peer-reviewed and report a single study. It is up to the student to critically assess the appropriateness of the evidence.

You will be expected to:

• Construct a clinically meaningfully question that is amenable to inquiry (LO 1, 3, 4 & 5)
• Access information to inform professional practice using a systematic and documented search (LO2, 4 & 5)
• Demonstrate an ability to undertake a systematic and critical review of evidence (LO 1, 4 & 5)
• Relate te Tiriti o Waitangi, Māori health, and social justice to a critical review of evidence (LO1)
• Answer a clinical question in a robust, meaningful, and defensible manner (LO 1, 3, 4 & 5)

Your written assessment should include:

1. Rationale for choosing the problem or issue that you have identified as it relates to practice (Introduction).
2. A focused practice issue, and question, formulated with a variant of the PICO framework.
3. Consideration of the significance of te Tiriti o Waitangi, Māori health, and social justice in relation to the practice issue, the question, and the critical appraisal.
4. Literature search strategy used to select three sources of evidence, including databases and search techniques (keywords or MESH headings; PRISMA flow diagram).
5. Selection of three sources of evidence that address your question,  and are peer-reviewed reports of single research studies – not literature reviews or meta-analyses. Rationale for your choice.
6. Identification and use of an appraisal tool(s) to critically appraise the selected sources of evidence.
7. A critical appraisal of each source of evidence, with an analysis of the methodological approach, study design, methods, results, limitations and conclusions.
8. A meaningful conclusion that is demonstrably based on the practice issue, question, the findings in the selected sources of evidence and critical appraisals, and a critical consideration of te Tiriti o Waitangi, and Māorihealth and social justice.

Note: As a general guide points 1, 2, 3, and 4 should be about 1,200 words, and 5, 6, 7 & 8 should be about 1,800 words (+/- 10%). Tables and reference lists are not included in the word count.