Step 0: Cultivate a Spirit of Inquiry – Choosing a Topic When my work group read the assignment description about writing a research piece, we struggled at first to come up with a topic. There were a lot of aspects of nursing that were interesting to us and so we had to brain storm before we finally came to our final topic idea of simulated practice in nursing. Solving this problem consisted of active listening to every team member during the brain storming session. What went well in this step was that while we struggled to land on a topic initially, we were all respectful of everyones ideas and were all equally interested in the topic we decided on.

Step 1: Ask the Burning Clinical Question in PICOT Format Formatting our topic into a question was a little challenging at first. We were unsure of what (if any) aspects of the PICOT question would need to be left out in order for our question to be relevant and able to be researched. This was solved when we consulted our professor for some advice and found that time wasn’t necessarily an aspect we needed for our final question. While formatting the question was slightly difficult, it was very helpful that we were all able to be together to format it so that everyone had an equal say and equal contribution.

Step 2: Search for and Collect the Most Relevant Evidence – Finding Articles The division of work went very well for this portion of the paper. It was easy to say that everyone find one article and combine our efforts to have four solid articles. A challenge in this portion of the process was finding articles that were helpful in answering our question and not just providing background information concerning simulation. This problem was solved by applying search filters and submitting the articles to our professor for feedback on their validity.

Step 3: Critically Appraise the Evidence – Part 1 (Rapid Critical Appraisal) Once we got to this point, we only had three articles that needed to be appraised in this format, so the challenge was evenly dividing the work of three article appraisals among four people. We solved this by having each person do certain portions of the different worksheets rather than one person do full worksheets. Once we figured out the work division everything went well by assigning clear responsibilities, especially since this was the first step since the beginning of online school which led to us not being able to meet in person.

Step 3: Critically Appraise the Evidence – Part 2 (Evidence Table and Annotated Bibliography) A clear pattern for things that went well during all of these steps is the equal division of responsibilities and that’s no different for this step. This was a strength that really carried us through the remainder of writing the piece. A struggle we faced for this step was making everything concise. The format for the evidence table specifically needed to be mostly bullets and short and clear points. My group and I found so much information regarding our subject that limiting information to include was a challenge even going into writing the full paper. We solved this by reevaluating our information and deciding what was most important to answering our question and only including those points.

Step 3: Critically Appraise the Evidence – Part 3 (Synthesis – Writing the Paper) A strength to writing the paper was the work plan we had developed at the beginning of the project. We all contributed to writing a team work plan that designated who would write what when it came to writing the paper. This team work plan was extremely helpful to the final process of writing the paper and making sure every required aspect was included. We struggled with the formatting of the paper. The formatting in google docs (the platform we used in order to all be able to edit the paper) is different than word (the format it was required to be submitted in). With this in mind extra steps had to be implemented to fix the proper format. We solved this issue by having one team member download the final google doc product to a word document and fix any remaining formatting issues.

Final Reflection This process may have been challenging at times, however it provided me with valuable skills going forward in my nursing education and future career. I definitely learned more about how to effectively work as a team. It is so important to be accommodating and understanding while also setting clear guidelines. Teamwork can be challenging at times, but it is an important skill that will need to be utilized for the rest of my professional career. I will apply the skills I learned in my future nursing practice. I will use these skills by understanding the importance of clearly defined roles, but also the importance of being able to adapt in order to accomplish a common goal. I also learned that evidence based practice provides valuable information on the best current practices for patient care. In future, I will always perform interventions based on what the evidence shows to be effective, as long as it is in line with the protocols of my facility. Writing this piece gave me useful tools to improve my ability to be a caring and competent nurse.