Course overview
This course provides students with the knowledge and research skills to investigate and evaluate the strength and clinical utility of allied health research evidence and to become educated consumers of health sciences research to support lifelong learning in their chosen profession. Course content includes an overview of quantitative research designs (primary and secondary evidence), the hierarchy of quantitative research evidence, critical appraisal of research designs, structuring a search strategy around a clinical question, library database searching, establishing the strength of the body of evidence, interpretation and reporting of results, writing and presenting a systematic review of the current, best-available body of evidence (up to 8 papers) for a clinical question.
Course learning outcomes
- Understand the hierarchy of quantitative health research evidence.
- Differentiate research designs within the hierarchy of evidence.
- Evaluate the relevance of primary and secondary research designs to health practice clinical questions.
- Independently frame a research question for a systematic review of the experimental health research literature
- Access and search library databases and other relevant resources to answer this question
- Analyse and synthesise the findings of the literature to develop a manuscript which could be submitted to a journal for publication that succinctly summarises and evaluates the best research evidence for a therapeutic intervention