Quality assessment of evidence (sometimes called 'critical appraisal') is where you carefully evaluate the way a study was conducted to see how reliable and free of bias it is. This indicates whether the results can be trusted, or whether they are valid and reliable.
According to the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP), critical appraisal is
"the process of carefully and systematically examining research to judge its trustworthiness, and its value and relevance in a particular context. It is an essential skill for evidence-based medicine because it allows people to find and use research evidence reliably and efficiently. All of us would like to enjoy the best possible health we can. To achieve this, we need reliable information about what might harm or help us when we make healthcare decisions" (CASP, 2022, para. 1).
University students are often told to use peer reviewed journal articles in assignments because they are reliable. It is important to understand that there may be issues with some peer reviewed articles and they may not be reliable. There may be problems with how the study was conducted (the methodology), or maybe the researchers were biased in some way. Therefore, knowing how to critically read and appraise research is crucial to nursing practice. This is because you want to base your decisions on patient care on the best, most reliable evidence available.
Critical Skills Appraisal Programme. (2022). What is critical appraisal? https://casp-uk.net/what-is-critical-appraisal/
The CRAAP test is a quick way to evaluate any type of information, from journal articles to webpages.
The Critical Appraisal Skills Program (CASP) is one set of checklists that you will be expected to use in your program. Each checklist is designed to assist you to appraise a specific study type. LINK OUT
There are four sets of questions in each CASP checklist that examine:
You will need to understand some research methods terminology LINK OUT to answer the questions on the checklists.
To assess the quality of the evidence we find, checklists are a very useful tool. There are several different organisations that provide checklists, such as the Joanna Briggs Institute, the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine, and the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP).
Checklists are useful as they mean each study is evaluated in a similar way. If there are multiple studies to evaluate, it is a good idea to try and use checklists from the same place if possible. Sometimes not all study types are covered by one place, so in that case you may need to use checklists from multiple organisations.
To use a checklist, the first step is to identify what study type you are assessing. This is because each study type is done differently, and therefore has different things it is assessed on.
LINK TO OTHER PAGE ON STUDY TYPES