Determining the Evidence in the Perioperative Environment: Standardizing Research Process Tools for Conducting the Integrative Literature Review

The foundation for evidence-based decision making has been established in the perioperative environment, but the ongoing challenge for perioperative nurses is to validate, modify, or develop practice guidelines that support evidence-based practice. To accomplish these tasks successfully, perioperative nurses must be well versed in the research and literature review processes and must understand the underlying principles of rigor and replicability when determining the evidence using published literature. The purpose of this article is to outline an identifying, organizing, and synthesizing strategy for determining the evidence, using the integrative research review and a standard set of research process tools designed to address issues related to rigor and replication.