DEPARTMENT Research Methods Reporting and Appraising Research Studies Regena Spratling, PhD, RN, APRN,CPNP, FAANP, & Donna Hallas, PhD, PPCNP-BC, CPNP, PMHS, FAANP, FAAN In today’ s fast-paced health care delivery system, new evidence for practice emerges on a daily basis, and research results are quickly disseminated. Nurse practitioners are challenged to evaluate the rel- evance of the evidence to their patient populations and whether clinical practice should be changed on the basis of the presenting evidence. Nurse researchers also need to report study findings in a relevant, organized, and scholarly manner using reporting guide- lines. This paper discusses both critical appraisal checklists and reporting guidelines providing exemplars for using each of the available tools. J Pediatr Health Care. (2021) 35, 108-113 KEY WORDS CASP critical appraisals checklist, reporting guidelines, nurse practitioners INTRODUCTION In today’ s fast-paced health care delivery system, new evidence for practice emerges on a daily basis, and research results are quickly disseminated. Nurse practitioners (NPs) are chal- lenged to evaluate the relevance of the evidence to their patient populations and determine whether clinical practice should be changed based on the presenting evidence. Nurse researchers also need to report findings in a relevant, orga- nized, and scholarly manner. The best method to determine whether the evidence can be applied to clinical practice is to appraise the evidence reported in the literature critically. Critical appraisal of research evidence is defined as “an objective, structured approach that results in a better understanding of a study’ s strength and weaknesses” (Duffy, 2005, p. 282). Critical appraisal tools have been developed as a guide for evaluating research studies via an objective, analytic, and evaluative process (Buccheri & Sharifi, 2017; Duffy, 2005; Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2015). The selection and application of the correct critical appraisal tool to evaluate a research study is a reliable and valuable method for decision-making on whether to change clinical practice based on the presenting evidence. Nurse clinicians have embraced quality improvement (QI) to improve clinical practice. NPs use critical appraisal tools to evaluate the research evidence and also use the Standards for Quality Improvement Reporting Excellence reporting guideline to report the findings for QI studies to their institution and disseminate their findings in publica- tions. Although it is important to publish results of QI stud- ies that have been conducted to improve practice at individual hospitals and institutions, clinicians should be aware that QI studies are not generalizable. Nurse researchers design a variety of studies using method- ologies that enable the research outcomes to be generalizable. Nurse researchers use specific reporting guidelines relevant to the study design to present research findings and recommen- dations for practice. When authors use reporting guidelines, the presentation is of higher quality and offers evidence from nursing research that may be relevant to clinical practice (Riley et al., 2017). In addition, many scholarly journals require the presentation of evidence-based practice and practice guide- lines using specific reporting tools. Research journals also have requirements for publications; for example, randomized con- trolled trials (RCTs) must be reported using the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials guidelines. The purpose of this paper is two-fold: (1) to describe rel- evant information for NPs to evaluate new research Regena Spratling, Associate Professor, and Associate Dean and Chief Academic Officer for Nursing, School of Nursing, Byrdine F. Lewis College of Nursing and Health Professions, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA. Donna Hallas, Clinical Professor, and Director, Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Program, New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing, New York University, New York, NY. Conflicts of interest: None to report. Correspondence: Regena Spratling, PhD, RN, APRN, CPNP, FAANP, School of Nursing, Byrdine F. Lewis College of Nursing and Health Professions, Georgia State University, 140 Decatur St., Urban Life Bldg. Rm. 950, Atlanta, GA 30303.; e-mail: rspratling@gsu.edu. J Pediatr Health Care. (2021) 35, 108-113 0891-5245/$36.00 Copyright © 2020 by the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Published online September 18, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pedhc.2020.08.008 108 Volume 35  Number 1 Journal of Pediatric Health Care Ò