Assignment 1: Application – Best Practices

For over 20 years, the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) study has conducted research trials to examine factors that impact risks and development of conditions that impact women such as heart disease, breast and colorectal cancer, and osteoporotic fractures in postmenopausal women. Health care providers use results from these trials to develop guidelines for delivering care to patients. In your role in clinical settings, you must be familiar with these guidelines, and you must be aware that through clinical practice, guidelines frequently evolve and change. Often, what is considered a best practice today might not be a best practice in the future. For this Assignment, you compare guidelines outlined in the WHI study to current best practices for assessing and managing conditions.
By Day 7 of Week 11
To Prepare:

Review the Women’s Health Initiative article in this week’s Learning Resources. Select one disorder presented in this study.  Link for article: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/whi/background.htm
Locate and select a research article that addresses current best practices for assessing and managing the disorder you selected. Be sure that the research article you select is from a reputable source.
Consider the similarities and differences between the best practices presented in the WHI study and the article you selected. Think about the potential impact of differences in best practices on women’s health.
Consider whether the best practices in the article you selected should be used in clinical practice.

To Complete:
Write a 2- to 3-page paper that addresses the following:

Describe the disorder you selected from the Women’s Health Initiative study.
Explain the current best practices for assessing and managing this disorder as suggested in the research article you selected.
Compare the best practices presented in the WHI study to the current best practices presented in the article. Explain how the differences in best practices might impact women’s health.
Explain whether you think the current best practices in the article you selected should be used in clinical practice. Support your position with evidence-based research.

Note: The School of Nursing requires that all papers submitted include a title page, introduction, summary, and references. The Sample Paper provided at the Walden Writing Center provides an example of those required elements (available at http://writingcenter.waldenu.edu/57.htm). All papers submitted must use this formatting.
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/whi/background.htm