Research and Evidence-Based Practice
For Nursing, Health and Social Care Students
Published on 25. January 2019
Book
Paperback/Softback
178 pages
978-1-908625-59-5 (ISBN)
Description
If you're studying nursing, health, or social care, this book is your essential guide to understanding how research shapes real-world care-and how you can use it to improve your own practice.
Clear. Practical. Student-friendly.
Designed to cut through complexity, this book helps you finally make sense of research and apply it with confidence in both academic work and clinical settings.
Why this book is a must-have
Master the essentials of research
Understand why research is done, how it's designed, and what makes evidence trustworthy.
Build real evidence-based practice skills
Learn how to find, evaluate, and apply research to improve patient care and professional decision-making.
Gain confidence in academic work
From literature reviews to dissertations, this guide supports you through every stage of your studies.
Make sense of complex concepts-easily
Clear explanations, real examples, and structured learning help you grasp even challenging topics.
Learn what matters in practice
Ethics, funding, data collection, analysis, and communication-everything you need to understand how research becomes action.
Whether you're starting your first research module or preparing for your dissertation, this book helps you move from confusion to clarity-and from theory to practice.
A practical foundation for better learning, better assignments, and better care.
Clear. Practical. Student-friendly.
Designed to cut through complexity, this book helps you finally make sense of research and apply it with confidence in both academic work and clinical settings.
Why this book is a must-have
Master the essentials of research
Understand why research is done, how it's designed, and what makes evidence trustworthy.
Build real evidence-based practice skills
Learn how to find, evaluate, and apply research to improve patient care and professional decision-making.
Gain confidence in academic work
From literature reviews to dissertations, this guide supports you through every stage of your studies.
Make sense of complex concepts-easily
Clear explanations, real examples, and structured learning help you grasp even challenging topics.
Learn what matters in practice
Ethics, funding, data collection, analysis, and communication-everything you need to understand how research becomes action.
Whether you're starting your first research module or preparing for your dissertation, this book helps you move from confusion to clarity-and from theory to practice.
A practical foundation for better learning, better assignments, and better care.
Reviews / Votes
Perfect for nursing students.'I'm a second-year nursing student starting to prepare for 3rd year, this book is brilliant in so many ways:
1) The lay out is clear and simple. From the first page explaining what the book aims to cover and how each chapter can be read in any order.
2) The depth of information was ideal, enough to understand but not too much that you overthink what you are reading leading too misinterpretation.
This book is useful in helping me understand what I need to be looking at and for going into my 3rd year and preparing for my research project and write my dissertation. From reading the other reviews and reading the book, I'm glad that I have this to help me through my final year of adult nursing.'
Amazon reviewer 'I would definitely recommend this book to any student starting a research module or even to refresh your memories ready for your dissertations/literature reviews. The content included is everything I would want to know as a student starting a research module. The glossary at the back is great for understanding the research terminology, which can often feel like a brand new language when you first start reading research papers. There are also handy references which you can use to do further reading and enhance your critical discussion within your assignments.
The book lives up to its intention to act as a lead-in to the research topic and has a clear and concise style throughout, whilst explaining things in the amount of detail needed to fully understand them. A must read for any nursing or health and social care student!'
Student nurse blog, studentnurseandbeyond.co.uk Highly recommended for nursing and healthcare students!
'I am a third year nursing student and have found this book extremely useful and interesting to read. The book provides a lot of key information in regard to evidence-based practice and understanding research. The book talks about different aspects of nursing research, explaining each process clearly and in-depth, while also using experiences and case studies to make them clearer.
I have used this book while writing my dissertation, the content in the book had everything I needed to know, with a lot of useful references as well to be able to gain critique in my work.
I would highly recommend this book to any nursing and healthcare students and anyone who wants to refresh on their evidence-based practice knowledge or even improve their best practice. This is a book that I would be keeping and referring back to when I need.'
Amazon reviewer A key resource for any social work/nursing student and health care practitioners.
'As a social work student, I have found this book explores the essentials of evidence-based practice, providing a rich, explorative and additional seam of knowledge which I have found to be extremely useful, informative and refreshing. This will no doubt help to inform my practice as I seek to prioritise the engagement and involvement of service users (as experts in their lived experience) in evaluation and audit processes.
The format in which the information is laid out makes it very easy to read and on many occasions, I found myself hooked for several hours totally engrossed in the book with so many interesting variations, key cases, methodologies and research approaches that are clearly laid out.
This book will remain on my shelves for many years as I feel it will be my go to book with its invaluable step by step research processes which will help anyone to develop in practice.
I would highly recommend this book to social work students, nursing and healthcare students, social care practitioners and anyone with a keen interest in research and evidence-based aspects of health, nursing and social care and specially at the very affordable price too.'
Amazon reviewer
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cheltenham
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 247 mm
Width: 177 mm
Thickness: 9 mm
Weight
370 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-908625-59-5 (9781908625595)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Vanessa Heaslip | Bruce Lindsay
Research and Evidence-Based Practice
For Nursing, Health and Social Care Students
E-Book
01/2019
Lantern Publishing
€20.99
Available for download
Previous edition
Bruce Lindsay
Understanding Research and Evidence-based Practice
Book
10/2007
Reflect Press Ltd
€25.50
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Persons
Vanessa Heaslip is a Professor of Nursing and Healthcare Equity at the University of Salford, and a visiting Associate Professor in the Department of Social Work at Stavanger University, Norway. She has extensive experience in nursing and nurse education and is an experienced qualitative researcher. Her research interests focus on socially excluded groups whose voices are not traditionally heard in the academic or professional discourse, as well as experiences of marginalised communities who experience inequality of opportunity in accessing statutory services. Professor Heaslip has contributed to many books and has written journal articles, editorials and discussion papers. She is also on the editorial board of the Journal of Clinical Nursing and writes regular reviews for a variety of nursing and academic journals, based on her expertise in qualitative research, socially excluded groups, marginalised communities, equality and diversity.
Bruce Lindsay worked in health care for over thirty years after qualifying in children's nursing and adult nursing in Sheffield. He was awarded a PhD for his research into the development of the care of children in acute hospitals. He was a Senior Lecturer and Deputy Director of the Nursing and Midwifery Research Unit at the School of Health Sciences, University of East Anglia, until 2012, and was a systematic reviewer for Cochrane for fifteen years. He is now a freelance music journalist and biographer.
Bruce Lindsay worked in health care for over thirty years after qualifying in children's nursing and adult nursing in Sheffield. He was awarded a PhD for his research into the development of the care of children in acute hospitals. He was a Senior Lecturer and Deputy Director of the Nursing and Midwifery Research Unit at the School of Health Sciences, University of East Anglia, until 2012, and was a systematic reviewer for Cochrane for fifteen years. He is now a freelance music journalist and biographer.
Content
About the authors; Introduction
Part One: Understanding research
1. Identifying the research aim
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Why does society want health and social care research?
1.3 Why do researchers do research?
1.4 What will be studied?
1.5 Who makes the decisions?
1.6 What do we want to find out?
1.7 Achieving success
2. Reviewing the literature
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Why does a researcher need to know what's already available?
2.3 Understanding the context
2.4 Understanding the existing evidence
2.5 Can I justify my project?
2.6 Carrying out the literature review
2.7 Developing a search strategy
2.8 Searching databases
2.9 What else should be searched?
2.10 Evaluating quality
2.11 Conclusion
3. Designing a study
3.1 Introduction
3.2 The three levels
3.3 Making sense of the levels
3.4 Paradigms
3.5 Methodologies
3.6 Method
3.7 Tools
3.8 The research hierarchies
3.9 External influences
3.10 Making the final choice
4. Can it be done? Funding and ethics
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Who funds research?
4.3 How much does research cost?
4.4 Ethical issues in health and social care research
4.5 Gaining ethical approval
4.6 Public engagement in research
4.7 Reading research - identifying ethical issues
5. Recruitment and data collection
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Recruitment issues
5.3 Participants or subjects?
5.4 Developing inclusion and exclusion criteria
5.5 Selection and sampling
5.6 Sampling
5.7 How big should the sample be?
5.8 Attrition
5.9 Obtaining consent
5.10 Giving rewards
5.11 Data collection
5.12 Data collection tools
5.13 Issues in data collection
5.14 Confidentiality and anonymity
5.15 Conclusion
6. Data analysis
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Quantitative and qualitative analysis: the same but different?
6.3 Quantitative analysis
6.4 Measurement scales
6.5 Types of statistical analysis
6.6 Major methods of quantitative analysis
6.7 Conclusion
7. What do we know now? Communicating research findings
7.1 Introduction
7.2 What can research tell us?
7.3 Limits to research accuracy
7.4 Building a body of research
7.5 Disseminating research
7.6 Conclusion
Part Two: Evidence-based practice
8. Reviewing the evidence
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Reliable, valid, relevant and applicable?
8.3 Relevance and applicability
8.4 Research synthesis
8.5 Evidence from other sources
8.6 Role of the service user
8.7 Conclusion
9. Putting the evidence into practice
9.1 Introduction
9.2 The relationship between evidence and practice
9.3 Top-down or bottom-up?
9.4 Changing personal practice
9.5 Practitioner inquiry
9.6 Action research
9.7 Conclusion
10. Audit and evaluation
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Audit and evaluation: what are they?
10.3 Differentiating between audit, evaluation and research
10.4 When to audit or evaluate
10.5 What standards matter?
10.6 Involving services users in audit and evaluation
10.7 Conclusion
11. 'Closing the circle': issues for the future
11.1 Introduction
11.2 The speed of change
11.3 New and forthcoming developments
11.4 Predicting, creating and dealing with change: the place of research
11.5 The international nature of health and social care
11.6 Who will be the health and social care researchers of the future?
11.7 Conclusion
Glossary; References; Index
Part One: Understanding research
1. Identifying the research aim
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Why does society want health and social care research?
1.3 Why do researchers do research?
1.4 What will be studied?
1.5 Who makes the decisions?
1.6 What do we want to find out?
1.7 Achieving success
2. Reviewing the literature
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Why does a researcher need to know what's already available?
2.3 Understanding the context
2.4 Understanding the existing evidence
2.5 Can I justify my project?
2.6 Carrying out the literature review
2.7 Developing a search strategy
2.8 Searching databases
2.9 What else should be searched?
2.10 Evaluating quality
2.11 Conclusion
3. Designing a study
3.1 Introduction
3.2 The three levels
3.3 Making sense of the levels
3.4 Paradigms
3.5 Methodologies
3.6 Method
3.7 Tools
3.8 The research hierarchies
3.9 External influences
3.10 Making the final choice
4. Can it be done? Funding and ethics
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Who funds research?
4.3 How much does research cost?
4.4 Ethical issues in health and social care research
4.5 Gaining ethical approval
4.6 Public engagement in research
4.7 Reading research - identifying ethical issues
5. Recruitment and data collection
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Recruitment issues
5.3 Participants or subjects?
5.4 Developing inclusion and exclusion criteria
5.5 Selection and sampling
5.6 Sampling
5.7 How big should the sample be?
5.8 Attrition
5.9 Obtaining consent
5.10 Giving rewards
5.11 Data collection
5.12 Data collection tools
5.13 Issues in data collection
5.14 Confidentiality and anonymity
5.15 Conclusion
6. Data analysis
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Quantitative and qualitative analysis: the same but different?
6.3 Quantitative analysis
6.4 Measurement scales
6.5 Types of statistical analysis
6.6 Major methods of quantitative analysis
6.7 Conclusion
7. What do we know now? Communicating research findings
7.1 Introduction
7.2 What can research tell us?
7.3 Limits to research accuracy
7.4 Building a body of research
7.5 Disseminating research
7.6 Conclusion
Part Two: Evidence-based practice
8. Reviewing the evidence
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Reliable, valid, relevant and applicable?
8.3 Relevance and applicability
8.4 Research synthesis
8.5 Evidence from other sources
8.6 Role of the service user
8.7 Conclusion
9. Putting the evidence into practice
9.1 Introduction
9.2 The relationship between evidence and practice
9.3 Top-down or bottom-up?
9.4 Changing personal practice
9.5 Practitioner inquiry
9.6 Action research
9.7 Conclusion
10. Audit and evaluation
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Audit and evaluation: what are they?
10.3 Differentiating between audit, evaluation and research
10.4 When to audit or evaluate
10.5 What standards matter?
10.6 Involving services users in audit and evaluation
10.7 Conclusion
11. 'Closing the circle': issues for the future
11.1 Introduction
11.2 The speed of change
11.3 New and forthcoming developments
11.4 Predicting, creating and dealing with change: the place of research
11.5 The international nature of health and social care
11.6 Who will be the health and social care researchers of the future?
11.7 Conclusion
Glossary; References; Index