Associate Professor Lorraine Henshaw co-authors new book

Critical Appraisal Skills for Healthcare Students: A Practical Guide to Writing Evidence-based Practice [EBP] Assignments is published by Wiley and has been designed to help students navigate the often-intimidating world of research evaluation and interpretation.

Associate Professor Lorraine Henshaw, who is a member of the University of Salford Nursing and Midwifery Professoriate team, co-authored the work with two academics from the University of Derby: Senior Lecturer Donna Barnes and Charlotte Whiffin who is Associate Professor of Nursing.

The University of Salford has one of the biggest Nursing Directorates in the UK. Lorraine joined in  Oct 2023, bringing her expertise and understanding of the stumbling blocks that students can come across when faced with EBP and critical appraisal assignments.

Lorraine said: “Between myself, Charlie and Donna we have more than two decades of experience in this field, teaching EBP and research to many hundreds of students. We started to see a pattern of the common problems, so decided it was time to provide some really practical help and to share it beyond our own students, making it available to a wider audience. The book is also a collaboration with students who shared their experiences and have contributed to making the book a really student-focused resource.

“The skills needed can be even harder for international students, who obviously come from educational backgrounds which may have very different systems and practices from those we use in the UK. Many of our scholars are not used to producing assignments at all and are used to exam-based systems, so we hope this book will be an enormous help for them too.”

“We realised there were many common issues which have really practical workarounds, if explained in the right way and this is what we’ve focused on in the book. We are really happy with the outcome and hope it will be a brilliant support for students which will take away the fear factor of getting to grips with this sometimes tricky subject.”

The book has launched today and can be ordered from: 

Critical Appraisal Skills for Healthcare Students: A Practical Guide to Writing Evidence-based Practice Assignments | Wiley