Reading Research: A User-Friendly Guide for Health Professionals

Learn how to evaluate and apply health sciences research with this beginner’s guide! Reading Research: A User-Friendly Guide for Health Professionals, 7th Edition provides a clear introduction to reading and understanding research articles, with practical guidelines for implementing research into clinical practice. It describes how to interpret common research methods including qualitative, quantitative and mixed-method approaches, and explains how to find relevant, reliable research on the internet. Written by Barbara Davies and Jo Logan, both of whom are noted educators and research experts, this easy-to-use pocket guide is ideal for both students and health professionals.

• Concise overview of health sciences-related research maximizes your study time and makes it easier to understand qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods research
• Succinct introduction to reading and understanding health sciences research articles is accompanied by practice worksheets and other learning resources on an Evolve website
• Helpful guidelines suggest how to find interesting research results, identify how to use research results towards planning and delivering best practices and improving patient outcomes, and recommend actions to address barriers to using research in practice
• UNIQUE! Tips boxes provide practical, easy-to-follow advice for those who are new to the subject
• UNIQUE! Alert! boxes warn of common assumptions made when reading research
• Recommendations for best practices in research include brief definitions of popular research terms as well as links to World Health Organization information, the latest RNAO (Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario) Best Practice Guidelines, and guidelines from Australia, the USA, the UK, and other countries

• NEW! Enhanced worksheet exercises on the Evolve website demonstrate how to apply knowledge gained from the text, based on research articles drawn from Australia, Canada, Europe, and the USA, on a variety of health issues encountered in hospital and community settings

Barbara Davies, RN, PhD, FCAHS is a professor emeritus at the University of Ottawa, School of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, and has taught research methods in undergraduate and graduate programs. She was the co-director of the Nursing Best Practice Research Centre for 9 years and Vice-Dean Research for the Faculty of Health Sciences. She received a Premier’s Research Excellence Award from the Ministry of Enterprise, Opportunity and Innovation, of Ontario, Canada. She is a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. Her research program aims to increase the translation and uptake of evidence into practice for frontline health care workers, decision makers, and consumers. She is actively involved in the development, implementation, evaluation, and sustainability of best practice guidelines in nursing and health care.

Jo Logan, RN, PhD, is an adjunct professor at the University of Ottawa, School of Nursing, where she taught in the undergraduate and graduate programs. She is an affiliate member of the Ottawa Health Research Institute. Her research interests include evidence-based practice and supportive care. She is co-developer of the Ottawa Model of Research Use, which has been used in many research and clinical projects and has been described in numerous articles and book chapters. She has presented many workshops on professional practice and research use and was a director of Nursing Research, Education, and Quality Improvement at the Ottawa Civic Hospital.