Underpinnings of evaluation -- Evaluation in advanced practice nursing -- Nature of evidence as a basis for evaluation -- Conceptual models for evaluation in advanced nursing practice -- Economic evaluation -- Evaluation of organizations, systems, and standards for practice -- Evaluating organizations and systems -- Evaluating health care information systems and patients care technology -- Evaluation of patient care standards, guidelines, and protocols -- Evaluation of populations and health care teams -- Evaluating populations and population health -- Evaluating health care teams -- Evaluation of health policy and the future of health care -- Translating outcomes from evaluations to health policies -- Future trends and challenges in evaluation.
With methods to synthesize qualitative evidence emerging, this book examines the methodological bases of qualitative synthesis and describes the processes involved in the conduct of a rigorous synthesis of qualitative evidence, with a particular focus on meta- aggregation.
Providing an overview to new reviewers and students, this book contains the fundamental knowledge, principals and processes for the synthesis of quantitative data in reviews of the effectiveness of health care interventions.
The randmomized control clinical trial has become the gold standard in scientific method for the evaluation of pharmaceuticals, biologics, devices, procedures, and diagnostic tests. This trial design has been successfully used in both therapeutic and disease prevention trials. It is superior to alternative designs by eliminating several sources of bias which exist in those designs. This role has evolved over the past three decades in a number of disease areas including cardiology, opthalmology, cancer and AIDS. While the specifics in using the randomized control design for a specific intervention and disease may differ, the basic fundamentals still apply in developing the study protocol and operational procedures. These fundamentals include identifying the specific questions to be tested and appropriate outcome measures, detailing the intervention with visit schedules for subject evaluation, establishing an an interim data and safety monitoring plan, detailing the final analysis plan, and determining the organizational structure.
