prev next front |1 |2 |3 |4 |5 |6 |7 |8 |9 |10 |11 |12 |13 |14 |15 |16 |17 |18 |19 |20 |review

Now, what are the steps that practicing clinicians should take to fulfill this need?

1. The clinician should be able to transform the information need into answerable questions. For example, an Obstetrician might want to find clinically important information about the practice of amniotomy (rupturing of the amniotic membranes) as a mean to enhance uterine contractions and shorten the duration of labor. The transformation of this information leading to an answerable question could be something like "Does amniotomy shorten the duration of labor?".

2. The clinician should try to track down the best evidence to answer this question with.

3. Once the evidence is located, it should be critically appraised regarding its validity (how close is the evidence to the truth) and its usefulness (is this evidence useful for me in my usual environment of practice).

4. To apply the result of the appraisal of the evidence into clinical practice.

5. Periodically evaluate the performance after applying the evidence to practice.