Evidence-Based Practice in Social Work and Nursing

1. Course overview

Self-study course · companion material for your studies · Study & academic work

For students of social work (Bachelor's and Master's, including dual and part-time programmes), of childhood education and curative education (Heilpädagogik), and for early-career professionals in social and nursing-related fields who want to learn how to turn practice questions into search questions, find studies and guidelines, read them critically and combine them responsibly with professional knowledge and the preferences of service users – for term papers, presentations, journal clubs, timed written papers and practical placements. Self-study course – companion material for your studies; it does not replace any lecture or seminar, any university examination or any practical placement.

8 modulesapprox. 8 hoursat your own paceSources in APA 7 styleConfirmation of participation after you have worked through all modules

Self-study course · companion material for your studies

This course is companion material for self-study: you work independently with texts, cases and expandable solution outlines. There is no support from teaching staff, no assignments to submit and no evaluation of your learning progress – the self-reflection serves only your own understanding. The course is not a degree programme and not offered by a university.

How to work with this course

Work through the modules at your own pace – ideally in the suggested order.
Each module combines professional and legal foundations with case studies, an exercise with solution hints and questions for reflection. All statements are backed by sources in APA 7 style.
At the end of each module you will find a voluntary self-reflection with 5 questions – not evaluated, and you can repeat it as often as you like.
With ‘Mark module as done’ you confirm yourself, at the end of each module, that you have worked through it. As soon as all modules are marked as done, your confirmation of participation is ready. (For enrolments before 18 October 2026, the previous procedure continues to apply.)

Course content

Module	Topic	Time
Module 1	Knowledge that holds up: what evidence-based practice means You clarify what evidence-based practice means in medicine, nursing and social work, what building blocks make up a decision, and where professional ethics, codes of conduct and criticism set the limits.	approx. 55 min.
Module 2	From practice question to search question: the EBP cycle with PICO You learn, step by step, to turn a vague practice question into a precise PICO search question and to place it within the five-step EBP cycle.	approx. 50 min.
Module 3	Which study fits? Designs, levels of evidence and their limits You get to know the most important study designs, choose the one that fits a practice question and critically assess evidence hierarchies.	approx. 55 min.
Module 4	Searching with purpose: databases, search strategy and documentation You learn where freely accessible evidence can be found, how to build a search string with blocks of synonyms from a PICO question, and how to document your search and screening so that others can follow it.	approx. 55 min.
Module 5	Reading studies critically: bias, effects and reporting standards You learn to read studies in a fixed order, to estimate the risk of bias with RoB 2, to translate effect measures into everyday language and to place reporting guidelines such as CONSORT 2025 and PRISMA 2020 correctly.	approx. 55 min.
Module 6	Classifying guidelines, national expert standards (Expertenstandards) and professional standards You learn to distinguish AWMF guidelines, national expert standards of the German Network for Quality Development in Nursing (Expertenstandards, DNQP), professional standards in social work and legislation, to classify a document by class, date, target group and contributors, and to assess its limits critically.	approx. 55 min.
Module 7	Evidence meets lifeworld: expertise, preferences and participation You learn to combine knowledge from studies, professional expertise and the wishes of the people involved into a well-reasoned decision, and to place the limits of this approach critically.	approx. 60 min.
Module 8	Journal club, literature report and critical review You combine the building blocks of evidence-based practice into a journal club, a literature report and a critical review, and learn to keep findings, interpretation and limitations clearly apart.	approx. 55 min.

Legal position as of October 2026
Legal and knowledge position as of October 2026: taken into account are, among others, the reporting guideline CONSORT 2025 for randomised trials, the IQWiG methods version 8.0 (19 December 2025), the new DNQP methods paper (November 2025) and the second update of the national expert standard on chronic wounds (2025), the AWMF rulebook version 2.2 (22 May 2025), as well as the professional code of conduct of the Nursing Chamber of North Rhine-Westphalia (Pflegekammer Nordrhein-Westfalen, 2025) and the professional ethics of the German Professional Association for Social Work (DBSH), 2nd edition (December 2024). Official data: care statistics (Pflegestatistik) as of December 2023, nursing training and nursing degree courses 2025 (Destatis, July 2026) and residential child care and full-time foster care 2024 (Destatis, March 2026).

This self-study course is companion material for your studies: for catching up, revising and preparing through self-study, without support or evaluation by teaching staff. It does not replace any lecture or seminar, any university examination or any practical placement and does not confer any official recognition; what counts is your university's requirements and the laws as currently in force. It does not replace legal advice in an individual case.