Topic 3 DQ2 NUR 699

What factors must be assessed when critically appraising quantitative studies (e.g., validity, reliability, and applicability)? Which is the most important? Why? I personally think all three factors, validity, reliability, and applicability, are important and need to be considered when critically appraising quantitative studies. “Teaching learners to find evidence quickly that can answer their clinical questions and critically appraise it, not only for strengths and weaknesses (validity) but also for applicability to the given patient situation, is integral to EBP education” (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2015). Validity describes the strengths of your conclusion and reserch in the terms of the results measured were the intended results. “The validity if a study refers to whether the results of the study were obtained via sound scientific methods” (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2015). Reliability refers to if the research method produces stable and consistent results. Applicability refers to if the information is relative to the practice change. The purpose of appraising articles is to determine if the hypothesis, guides the research and methods to find and produce reliable, valid, and applicable information