Step 0: Cultivate a spirit of inquiry – choosing a topic

Our team was quick to think about a topic for our paper and that worked well for us. We did not face any challenges when it came to choosing a topic, but we definitely were not very confident when it came to knowing if our topic would work.

Step 1: Ask the burning clinical question in PICOT format

Our team was able to quickly form a PICOT question that worked for us. We made minor adjustments regarding the format of our question, but in the end it was relevantly easy to for our team to form our clinical question.

Step 2: Search for and collect the most relevant evidence – finding articles

What worked well for our team was that we each decided to find at least two articles, in the case that one wasn’t going to be approved. That really helped us because we were able to have backup articles, or extra articles, to pull from. Our team had challenges though when when it came to searching for articles. It was hard to find articles that were about a specific interventions, and it was hard to find articles that were in a good time frame. A lot of the articles that we found were solely based on the connection of silica exposure and development of lung disease, which were used, but didn’t provide the information that we needed to prove our clinical question.

Step 3: Critically appraise the evidence – Part 1 (rapid critical appraisal)

What worked for our group was that we each took one of the articles we found that were approved. This helped us because we were able to each do our own work. Challenges that our team faced were that it was difficult for some of the articles to determine which critical appraisal worksheet was correct to use. Although the worksheets still helped, it was a challenge that our team faced.

Step 3: Critically appraise the evidence – Part 2 (evidence table & annotated bibliography)

Our team completed our evidence table and annotated bibliography similar to how we completed our rapid critical appraisals. We each took an article, specifically the article we did for the appraisal, and completed our part for this section. One of the things that our team had a challenge with was figuring out how to write our evidence table. At first, we included too much information and within the table we had to change from complete sentences. Our other challenge that we faced was figuring out the correct APA format of our references.

Step 3: Critically appraise the evidence – Part 3 (synthesis – writing the paper)

We did a fairly well job on our first rough draft of this paper. We had minimum corrections and that was because we worked on this paper in a similar fashion as we had been doing. We each took a section of the paper and worked on it. After we were each finished with our section, we went and read through the paper and made corrections where we thought were needed, or we added information that we thought was missing. Some challenges that we faced with this final paper is that not all of the suggestions that were given to us, were transferred to the final draft. This was difficult because we lost points where we just decided not to do the changes.

Final reflection

This process taught me that the right information may not be found on the first try. From there, you need to change key words and change what you are searching for. This will be able to be applied to my nursing career because there will definitely be times where I am going to want, or going to need, to further understand something. After the process of writing this paper, I can say that I feel that I am able to contribute to new initiatives as a new nurse in which ever practice I end up in.