Application of Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (Consort)

In the era of evidence-based practice (EBP), randomized controlled trials (RCTs) may provide the best evidence of the efficacy of nursing interventions and yet the quality of Rct reporting in nursing literature has not been evaluated. The purposes of this study were to apply the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) statement to published reports of nursing science, examine how adequately the published reports adhere to the statement, and examine the effect of the adoption of CONSORT on the quality of the Rct published reports. One hundred RCTs from 2002–2005 were identified from four nursing journals. Articles were randomly assigned to four reviewers and the quality of the published reports was evaluated using a modified CONSORT checklist. There was no difference between the four journals in the quality of the published reports of RCTs based on the modified CONSORT checklist employed (F = 1.27, P = 0.29). The quality of reporting of RCTs improved significantly in the only journal, Nursing ...