Appraisal of Practice Guidelines

NP 820 Week 3 Critical Appraisal of Practice Guidelines

Details:

While there are several tools to critically appraise practice guidelines, the most comprehensively validated appraisal tool is the AGREE II Instrument. The AGREE II Instrument can be used by individual practitioners to critically appraise health guidelines and by decision makers to inform policy decisions. The purpose of the AGREE II Instrument is to provide a framework to:

1. Assess the quality of guidelines.
2. Provide a methodological strategy for the development of guidelines.
3. Inform what information and how the information ought to be reported in guidelines.

Overall assessment includes rating the overall quality of the guideline and whether the guideline would be recommended for use in practice.

Items are rated on a 7-point scale from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 7 (Strongly Agree). A score of 1 is given when there is no information on that item or if it is poorly reported. A score of 7 is given if the quality of reporting is excellent and when full criteria have been met (Score explanations found in the AGREE II-GRS Instrument).

A quality score is calculated for each of the six domains, which are independently scored. Domain scores are calculated by summing up all the scores of the items in the domain and by scaling the total as a percentage of the maximum possible score for that specific domain.

For this assignment, you will choose a guideline and assess the overall quality and whether the guideline would be recommended for use in practice.

General Requirements:

Use the following information to ensure successful completion of this assignment:

• Download the AGREE II instrument.
• Doctoral learners are required to use APA style for their writing assignments. The APA Style Guide is located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.
• This assignment uses a rubric. Please Review the rubric prior to the beginning to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
• You are not required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite.

Directions:

Perform the following tasks to complete this assignment:

1. Using the AGREE II instrument as your guide, create a table that discusses a practice guideline in which you might have questioned the recommendations. (Note: You may be able to copy and paste the instrument into a new Word document and complete the information.)
2. Each domain must have its own cell (similar to the one shown in the manual) and add domain scores and an overall guideline assessment. Be sure to include comments and additional considerations that influenced your rating decision and cite any sources used.

Portfolio Practice Hours:

Practice immersion assignments are based on your current course objectives, and are intended to be application-based learning using your real-world practice setting. These assignments earn practice immersion hours, and are indicated in the assignment by a Portfolio Practice Hours statement which reminds you, the learner, to enter in a corresponding case log in Typhon. Actual clock hours are entered, but the average hours associated with each practice immersion assignment is 10.

You are required to complete your assignment using real-world application. Real-world application requires the use of evidence-based data, contemporary theories, and concepts presented in the course. The culmination of your assignment must present a viable application in a current practice setting. For more information on parameters for practice immersion hours, please refer to DNP resources in the DC Network.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

• Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
• Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
• One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
• I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.

Weekly Participation

• Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
• In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
• Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
• Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.

APA Format and Writing Quality

• Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
• Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
• I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.

Use of Direct Quotes

• I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
• As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
• It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.

 

LopesWrite Policy

• For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
• Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
• Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
• Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

• The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
• Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
• If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
• I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
• As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

• Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: 
  • Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
  • Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.