Worksheet Assignment: Systematic Search and Evidence Assessment

This assignment comprises four worksheets designed to guide students through the process of conducting a systematic search and evaluating the quality of evidence in healthcare research. Worksheet 1 focuses on formulating strong foreground/PICO questions related to a chosen service context, specifically addressing a problem, potential interventions, and desired outcomes. Worksheet 2 guides the development of a search plan, identifying key terms and synonyms for effective database searches. Worksheet 3 involves implementing the search strategy across multiple databases, documenting search terms, and refining the approach based on results. Finally, Worksheet 4 focuses on assessing the quality of evidence, including the efficacy hierarchy, rigor, and relevance of the research findings to the student's chosen PICO question. The student is required to provide detailed information about the selected sources, including the study design, sample characteristics, potential threats to validity, and key findings. The assignment emphasizes iterative refinement and the application of critical thinking skills to evaluate research for its applicability to real-world healthcare scenarios.

Worksheet 1
Name:
Draft Systematic Search Assignment
This assignment includes 4 worksheets. You will turn in a draft of your 4 worksheets across the course of the quarter for feedback
from your instructor as well as participation points during the weeks that they are due. For your final assignment, you will turn in all 4
worksheets, completed, and revised using any feedback that you have received. Download the worksheet and fill in your answers to
each question and complete all tasks as outlined.
Tip: Please read over the entire worksheet before completing it.
Worksheet 1: Formulating Questions
Purpose: The purpose of this worksheet is to help you write a strong foreground/PICO question, and clearly articulate why knowing
the answers to each of these questions that you propose might direct your practice.
Please choose a service context with which you are familiar. You must have a basic understanding of the organization, system, or
other location in which the intervention you are considering would be implemented in order to complete the final assignment.
Question 1:
What problem are you interested in addressing (e.g. Reducing teen pregnancy, preventing child maltreatment, increasing access to
mental health care, reduce bullying)?
[The topic of interest is affect to physiotherapy in healing broken hips]
Question 2:
What are your ideas about how this problem might be addressed (e.g. Implement abstinence-based sexual education in schools,
provide universal parent training to all first-time parents, implement a telehealth program, provide mentors to at-risk kids). Please list
at least 2 different ideas for how the problem you list above might be solved.
[The different ways by which the problems can be removed are physiotherapy and hip replacement. ]
1

Worksheet 1
Tip: If you are unsure as to what interventions might be used to solve the problem, you may want to explore what
interventions are currently being used in the field to address the problem by:
 talking with your field supervisor or other professional in the field
 consulting your instructor
 performing a google search
Pose 3 possible PICO (COPES, foreground) questions.Using your answers to the questions above, brainstorm three possible PICO
questions. Your question may or may not have an “alternative course of action”. These questions can share elements in common. For
example, you might use the same client type or problem for each, but vary the interventions or outcomes. Please choose questions to
which you do not already know the answer.
Tip: Avoid questions that are focused on general methods or techniques, such as “individual therapy” or “group therapy”. Try to
identify a particular type of individual or group therapy. Also avoid questions that are too narrow, such as using a particular exercise
or activity such as “breathing exercises”, rather than “yoga”.
Four Elements in a Well-Formulated Question
P I C O
Client Type
And/or Problem
What You
Might Do
Alternative Course
of Action
What You Want
To Accomplish
Describe the population you are
interested in working with. This part
of the question will help you consider
whether or not the population that
you are interested in serving does or
does not match up with the samples
that are included in research studies
you find.
Describe an intervention you
might use. You can choose
something general like “parent
training”, or a specific
intervention like, “Parent-Child
Interaction Therapy”.
Optional: Describe an alternative
intervention. Use this column only if
you are interested in comparing one
intervention to another.
One outcome of treatment, program, or
policy. Choose only one outcome for
each question. Try to be specific. General
outcomes like “well-being” are hard to
pin down. Try to think about things that
you can observe, measure, or on which
people can report.
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Worksheet 1
Examples A:
If parents of children with
developmental disabilities
are provided respite care
by the state
will they experience less
parenting stress?
Examples B:
If young men of color who
are first time fathers
If LGBTQ women (18-25)
are provided with Triple P
parent training
received dialectical
behavior therapy
or a classroom based
parenting program
which one will result in less
harsh parenting?
will this result in reduced harm
(sexual assault, suicidality,
depression, homelessness etc.)
from alcohol abuse?
1.[If the adults are suffering from
pain because of fracture in hip
[are provided with physiotherapy
]
[Alternative course of interaction] [will the suffering from painget reduced?]
2. [If an adult who is suffering from
hip fractures ]
[undergo partial hip replacement] [Alternative course of interaction] [will the sufferings from hip painget
reduced?]
3. [If the sufferers of hip fractures ] [undergo total hip replacement] [Alternative course of interaction] [can reduce the effects of pain from
fractures of hip ?]
3