THE SCIENTIFIC SUPPORTABILITY OF PSYCHIATRIC NURSING LITERATURE: A META-EVALUATION STUDY (TEXTBOOK REFERENCES, RESEARCH, CITATIONS, COMMUNICATION

The purpose of this study was to determine the degree of scientific supportability of psychiatric nursing literature through the application of a meta-evaluation study technique; and second, to identify the source of references in psychiatric nursing textbooks. The question of scientific supportability of primary nursing reports is an issue of major concern when research literature is utilized as references in psychiatric nursing textbooks. Textbook references represent a link between science and nursing education.;From a random sample of 50 primary research articles referenced in the leading psychiatric nursing textbooks, a meta-evaluation methodology was utilized to judge the scientific supportability of the research reports by assessing the quality of the literature, the extent to which the results are substantiated by the research report, and the presence of heuristic value. An Expert Panel objectively judged the research articles by using a validation checklist according to pre-established guidelines. A Research Panel applied the Reference Appraisal Classification instrument to classify the source and type of references in psychiatric nursing textbooks. The interrater agreement of the Expert Panel was measured with Kappa statistics, and the study results were explained with descriptive statistics.;The major finding of this study was that a two member expert panel can consistently and objectively judge the scientific supportability of primary research reports. From the sample, 81% of the articles were judged to have scientific supportability. A secondary finding was that of the 5,880 references only 7.7% were primary research reports representing 203 medical science reports, 125 nursing science primary research reports, and 121 primary research reports from the social sciences. Secondary references sources were cited 86.2% of the time.;The objective judging of the scientific supportability of primary research articles is the first step in determining the presence or absence of a desired scientific base for psychiatric nursing education. The benefit of scientific supportable material being used in basic nursing textbooks is that "good nursing science" will be built on increasingly appropriate data, and therefore should increase the probability of valid results occurring in the education of nursing professionals.