Appraise current practice supported by an evidence-based framework, and how this may be holistically applied to meet the complex needs of critically ill patients and their families.

Level 6, module 2, assessment 1 – Oral presentation and written assignment

Assesses learning outcomes 1, 2, 3.

1. Appraise current practice supported by an evidence-based framework, and how this may be holistically applied to meet the complex needs of critically ill patients and their families.
2. Examine and apply advanced knowledge and skills to advocate for the patients’ best interests in partnership with the patient, family and the multiprofessional team.
3. Work effectively as part of the Multi-Disciplinary Team and critically discuss effective team working practices

Assessment task

The student will choose an aspect of practice. This could be an aspect of clinical practice (e.g. mouth care), or organisational practice (e.g. handovers).

They will give a short presentation (<= 15 minutes) on a recommendation from a guideline or systematic review on this aspect of practice, and the evidence underlying this. To discuss the evidence, they should appraise 3 – 4 pieces of primary research related to the recommendation they are considering. (approx. 10 minutes)

Discuss how team working practices could impact on the aspect of practice, for instance considering how to embed new clinical practice in their unit.(approx. 5 minutes)

The presentation will be presented live (and recorded). The assessors would have the opportunity to ask questions for around five minutes after each presentation to further assess the student’s knowledge of the topic.

We will encourage matrons from participating units to attend the presentations. The assignment would be submitted via the course e-learning site.

Students would be given a result as an overall pass/fail with further feedback using the marking rubric.

Presentation guidelines

The presentation can be based on published guidelines, but it is the evidence underlying the recommendations that must be discussed. This is to demonstrate you understand the level of evidence and you must discuss whether this is strong or weak.

The evidence must come from primary research (3-4 articles), not secondary. Anything with ‘review’ (e.g. systematic review, literature review narrative review) or ‘meta-analysis’ in the title is not primary research.

Structure

You should briefly introduce your topic and then discuss each of your chosen articles. You should dedicate slides to each of the articles and give an overview of each including aims, methods, participants/settings, results and strengths and limitations. The CASP checklists will help you with your appraisal of the articles https://casp-uk.net/casp-tools-checklists/

You should include a conclusion commenting on the strength of the evidence and consider the findings in relation to your practice.

Team working

You will need to demonstrate that you understand what is important about team working in the context of the topic of your presentation. For instance, if you are talking about something that would be new for your unit you could discuss how to introduce a new practice. If it is something that you are currently doing on your unit you could discuss how to ensure everyone is following best practice. Please dedicate some slides to team working practice. Your discussion should be supported by literature. Look in the list of articles for the second practice presentations for some good starting points.

• Communication – why is open communication important? How do you ensure good communication? You could also mention practical points, e.g. documentation.
• Having a common mental model and situational awareness for the team depends on good communication among other things. This is important in clinical scenarios like an arrest, but still useful in other situations.
• Safety culture is another important aspect of team working. Do members of the team feel safe to raise concerns?
• Multidisciplinary teamworking and an MDT approach with different professions collaborating is very important.
• Mutual support is needed.
• You could also consider what problems are caused by poor team working – care quality suffers, burnout of staff members.