Undertaking a systematic review: the road to successful completion

The systematic review is an important research method that allows forthe critical analysis of the results from a range of existing studies to answer researchquestions. The findings can be used to inform clinical decisions, as well as thedevelopment of protocols and guidelines. The aim of this paper is to explore the stepsinvolved in undertaking a Cochrane systematic review and to encourage more nursesto participate in this world wide collaboration to answer questions that are relevant tonursing practice. The first stage of a review involves initiating a focussed clinicalquestion in which the patient group or problem is identified as are the intervention,comparison and outcome, which will become the focus of study. Each review isguided by a protocol that is subject to peer review and followed by a structuredsearch of the worldwide literature on the subject. Quality assessment and dataextraction are done systematically and subject to cross-checking. The results areanalysed using statistical methods, including meta-analysis. Publication is electronicin the Cochrane Library and many will also be published in other journals. As withall research, findings should be presented in a way that enables the reader to assesswhether the review can be applied to their patient