Intro to the 6S Pyramid

What kind of questions is the 6S Pyramid most helpful to answer?

• Background questions

• Foreground questions

• Affective questions

• Psychomotor questions

This level of the 6S pyramid contains regularly updated clinical guidelines or textbooks that integrate evidence-based information about specific clinical problems

• Systems

• Summaries

• Synopses

• Single Studies

This level of the pyramid is contains evidence commonly referred to as a systematic review

• Systems

• Summaries

• Meta-analyses

• Syntheses

True or false: Databases (e.g. CINAHL, Evidence-Based Nursing) may contain evidence from more than one level of the pyramid

When researching using the 6S Pyramid, you should start:

• With quantitative studies before moving to qualitative studies

• With Google Scholar as this will contain the most recent evidence

• From the top, and move down the pyramid until you find your answer

• From the bottom, and move up the pyramid until you find your answer

(Select all that apply) Clinical questions such as PICO/PECO and PS questions can be answered using single studies, which are:

• The top level of the pyramid

• The lowest level of the pyramid

• Articles containing recommendations for practice

• Original or primary research

This type of search looks for evidence across multiple resources.  These tools return information from all levels of the pyramid.

• Systems

• Meta-searches

• Google Scholar

• Systematic reviews

This level of the pyramid has resources that summarize the information found in systematic reviews and may include commentary of the clinical relevance of the findings of the review

• Synopses of syntheses

• Synopses of summaries

• Synopses of single studies

• Synopses of clinical guidelines

The RNAO Best Practice Guideline Intra-professional collaborative practice among nurses provides and discusses recommendations based on evidence from lower levels of the pyramids. What level of the 6S pyramid would it be found on?

• Clinical Guidelines

• Systems

• Evidence-Based Texts

• Summaries

A narrative literature review is a selective review of relevant literature that may give a broad overview of a topic and be comparable to a textbook chapter. How is it different from a systematic review and therefore CANNOT be considered to be on the "Syntheses" level of the pyramid? (Select all that apply)

Hint: A narrative literature review would not be ANYWHERE on the pyramid

• Narrative literature reviews do not follow strict, systematic search

• Narrative literature reviews do not necessarily have a clear clinical question

• Narrative literature reviews may be biased and do not contain all relevant published and unpublished papers.

• Studies used in narrative literature reviews are not typically appraised for study quality

• A narrative literature review can have just 1 author