Research Masterclass: Critical Appraisal Skills – Making the Most of Evidence

This free 1-hour masterclass featured Simon Etkind on using critical appraisal skills to critique a research paper.

This masterclass is part of a series of events by the QICN’s Community Nursing Research Forum and is open to all community nurses and midwives interested in research.

About the Masterclass

This session introduced critical appraisal of research, a tool that helps determine how trustworthy research findings are, and to what extent research should influence clinical practice. Following a short introduction to critical appraisal, we discussed and appraised a recent research paper to assess quality and relevance of the findings.

About the Speaker

Simon Etkind is an assistant professor in palliative care at the University of Cambridge. He works clinically as a consultant in palliative medicine at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, alongside contribution to medical student teaching at the University of Cambridge Clinical School, and research as co-lead of the PELiCam Palliative and End of Life Care Research Group. His research focuses on supporting people living with multiple illnesses or clinical syndromes such as frailty. He is particularly interested in the uncertainties inherent to complex illness trajectories, the effect these have on care experience and outcomes, and how we can improve care in situations of uncertainty.

Recording

Watch a recording of the masterclass here. 

Summary

Read a short summary of the masterclass here.

Next sessions:

Thursday 3rd July – 1 – 2pm: Designing posters to have impact with Dr Maria J Grant

In this masterclass, Dr Maria J Grant outlines how to create visually striking and impactful posters. She contrasts traditional formats with those of the #BetterPosters movement, highlighting the importance of layout, typography, colour, imagery, and branding, in translating conference and organisational guidelines into polished poster designs.

Maria is a freelance trainer, coach and mentor working with colleagues, including those in NHS England and the British Association for Nursing in Cardiovascular Care (BANCC), to provide one-off sessions and tailored programmes of support. Having worked as an academic researcher for over 20 years, her primary focus is on how we communicate our work through the written word. #Encourage #Support #Enable

Book here. 

Other masterclasses in the series

• 5 November 2024 – Conducting Service Evaluations
• 24 September 2024 – Conducting systematic reviews and critical literature reviews.
• 11 July 2024 – Applying for clinical academic fellowships