Critical Appraisal Techniques for Healthcare Literature
Learn how to critically appraise published medical research literature to keep up with research developments in your field.
Duration
3 weeksWeekly study
4 hoursLanguages
English, Italiano, Español, Français, PortuguêsEnglish, Italiano, Español
Critical Appraisal Techniques for Healthcare Literature
This course has been certified by the CPD Certification Service as conforming to continuing professional development principles. Find out more.
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Learn to analyse healthcare research papers and determine their value
In today’s clinical professions, staff are expected to keep up with fast-changing, evidence-based research in their own field and beyond.
On this course, you will learn critical appraisal techniques to evaluate the quality of healthcare research literature.
You will evaluate published papers, interrogate their methodologies, identify strengths and weaknesses and produce a balanced appraisal of papers to discuss with colleagues, patients, and academic bodies. You’ll assess the contributions of published papers to their research fields, and identify where there’s a need for further research.
What topics will you cover?
- Principles of critical appraisal
- Techniques and models for critiquing healthcare research papers
- Relevant research designs and analysis methods, both quantitative and qualitative
- Papers discussed and appraised will cover a broad range of health areas
Who is this accredited by?
The CPD Certification Service was established in 1996 and is the leading independent CPD accreditation institution operating across industry sectors to complement the CPD policies of professional and academic bodies.
Learning on this course
On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.
What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...
- Identify an appropriate framework with which to appraise a published paper
- Evaluate the design, methods, analyses and conclusions of published papers
- Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of published papers to produce a balanced critical appraisal
- Assess the contributions made by published papers to the current state of knowledge in that field
- Identify recommendations for further research resulting from an analysis of published work in a specialist field
Who is the course for?
This course is designed for healthcare professionals including medics, dentists, nurses, midwives, paramedics, radiologists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists and pharmacists.
It will be relevant to any stage of a career. Established professionals may look to complete the course as evidence of CPD, and the skills will also be highly relevant to junior staff, trainees, and undergraduate/postgraduate students.
This course will also be useful for healthcare educational researchers and any other learners who:
-Need to critically appraise and stay abreast of the healthcare research literature as part of their clinical duties
-Are considering carrying out research & developing their own research projects.
-Are undertaking or plan to join a formal pre-doctoral integrated academic training programme.
This course is part of a partnership between City St George’s, University of London and FutureLearn that is coming to an end. As a result, this course will retire on 24 August 2026.
Please note that the course content, data and materials are no longer being actively updated and may not reflect the most recent developments in this subject area.
We encourage you to enrol on course before the retirement date if you wish to take part.
Who developed the course?
City St George's, University of London (formerly St George's)
City St George’s, University of London (formerly St George’s) School of Health and Medical Sciences is a leading provider of education in the fields of healthcare, medicine and psychology.
Learning on FutureLearn
Your learning, your rules
- Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps to help you keep track of your learning
- Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
- Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores
Join a global classroom
- Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
- Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
- Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others
Map your progress
- As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
- Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control
- Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate
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