Introduction/Objective: The objectives of this research were to: develop a MEDLINE search strategy for identifying systematic reviews relevant to nursing; use a combination of electronic and handsearching to identify systematic reviews of effectiveness in areas of nursing practice; describe the identified systematic reviews in terms of the aspects of nursing covered and the quality of the reviews; make the most recent systematic reviews in nursing accessible by including them in the Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effectiveness (DARE).

Methods: Systematic reviews relevant to nursing were identified through electronic and handsearching. These reviews were then appraised for quality against three criteria, namely a well-defined research question, a comprehensive search strategy, and appropriate data synthesis techniques.

Results: 81 reviews were identified for further scrutiny. 36 of the 81 were reviews which purported to answer a question of effectiveness. These reviews were appraised for the methodological quality, and possible inclusion in DARE. 19 (53%) of the 36 reviews of effectiveness met all three quality criteria. This presentation will describe the process and results of the quality appraisal.

Discussion: The extent to which nursing has a history of research synthesis was unclear until now. We have identified some high quality systematic reviews, abstracts of which are available on DARE which can be accessed via the Internet and the Cochrane Library.