The Institute of Eminence (IOE) Pillar II - Exemplary Research and Innovation team of Manipal College of Nursing (MCON), Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), organized the ‘Research week 2022’ spanning for six days from 17 to 22 October 2022. The initial five days virtual workshop series on "Evidence synthesis by Systematic Reviews” from 17 to 21 October 2022 was conducted. The last day (22 October 2022) was commemorated as ‘Research Day’, the theme for which was "Evidence sharing in research". The preamble of research week 2022, was to kindle the spark of research potential and evidence-based practice among researchers, gain an in-depth understanding of the importance of Systematic reviews in evidence-based practice, and also to provide a platform to showcase research contributions to one’s own field of practice.

The virtual workshop series on "Evidence synthesis by Systematic Reviews” commenced with a session on Day 1 on ‘Introduction to Systematic Reviews &  Steps of systematic review’ by Ms. Tenzin Phagdol, Research Assistant – ICMR funded project, MCON, MAHE. The resource person highlighted the importance of evidence-based practice, types, and importance of systematic reviews and also presented an overview of the steps of the systematic review. The second session of Day 1 focused on “Development of a systematic review protocol and PROSPERO registration” by Mr. Anil Raj, Assistant Professor, Department of Medical-Surgical Nursing, MCON, MAHE. A detailed discussion on how a systematic review protocol can be developed was demonstrated and the steps of registration of a systematic review on PROSPERO were deliberated. The first session on Day 2  focused on “Framing a systematic review question/PICOTS”, which was deliberated by Dr. Sonia R.B D’Souza, Professor and HoD, Department of OBG Nursing, MCON, MAHE, who discussed in detail the PICOTS framework for systematic review. The second session of Day 2 of the virtual workshop was on ‘Formulating a search strategy & Databases’ search including practical sessions’ by Dr. Baby S Nayak, Professor and HoD, Dept. of Child Health Nursing, MCON, MAHE. She discussed in detail how the search strategy needs to be formulated and also demonstrated the steps of searching databases like PubMed Medline and CINAHL among others.  The first session of Day 3 was on “Data collection and de-duplication of studies using Rayyan software” which was deliberated by Ms. Prima JJ D’Souza, Assistant Professor, Department of Fundamentals of Nursing, MCON, MAHE. The session included detailed demo sessions on how data collection and de-duplication of studies can be done using the Rayyan software. The day ended with a session on “Selection of studies and Data extraction” by Ms. Anupama DS, Research Fellow, Department of Global health governance, Prasanna School of Public Health (PSPH), MAHE, Manipal. The first session of the fourth day of the virtual workshop series was deliberated by Dr. Edlin Glane Mathias, Research Fellow- Public Health Evidence South Asia, Dept. of Health Information, PSPH, MAHE, Manipal, who spoke on “Quality appraisal of Non-RCTs and Observational studies”, and the next session of the day was dealt by Dr. Judith A Noronha, Professor and Dean, MCON, MAHE on the topic “Quality appraisal of RCTs and Assessing risk of bias (ROB)”, emphasizing the importance of assessing ROB in systematic reviews. The last day of the virtual workshop series dealt with “Quality appraisal of systematic review using AMSTAR 2” deliberated by Dr. Binil V, Associate Professor, Department of Mental Health Nursing, MCON, MAHE, and the final session of the day was taken by Ms. Meena Konsam, Research Scholar, MCON, MAHE on “PRISMA and reporting of Systematic Review”, where the updated version of PRISMA was discussed in detail. A total of 78 participants participated in the workshop series and we received very good feedback for all the sessions of the workshop. Participants in their feedback also appreciated the virtual workshop and expressed their wish to have more similar workshops conducted by Manipal College of Nursing Manipal in the future.

The last day (22 October 2022) was commemorated as ‘Research Day’, the theme for which was ‘Evidence sharing in research'. The chief guest Dr.Anil K Bhat, Associate Dean, Professor and Head, Department of Hand Surgery, KMC, MAHE, Manipal in his address reiterated the importance of data sharing in research and that data that is published should be put up in a repository, where people can find the data and follow the principles of FAIR - findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability when sharing data. Dr. Judith A Noronha, Dean, MCON, Manipal in her address stated how we have moved from evidence synthesis to evidence gap map and restated that research strengthens the caring aspect and for professional growth. She also said that systematic reviews would go a long way in helping researchers to conduct research in a better way, collating strong evidence, and further helping in measuring the strength of the evidence. Dr. Baby S Nayak, Professor and HoD, Dept. of Child Health Nursing, MCON, MAHE and Chairperson of IOE Pillar 2 welcomed the gathering and introduced the chief guest. Dr. Sonia R.B D’Souza, Professor and HoD, Department of OBG Nursing, MCON, MAHE and faculty coordinator for the research day gave the overview of the research week and Dr Melita Sheilini, Assistant Professor- Selection grade, Department of Medical-Surgical Nursing gave away the vote of thanks. Dr Jyothi Chakrabarthy, Professor and HoD, Dept. Of Medical surgical nursing, MCON, Manipal compered the program. A total of 160 delegates registered for the research day.

After the inaugural program, a keynote address on the topic ‘Transferring research evidence to local context’ was deliberated by Dr Preethy D’Souza, Senior Research Fellow, Social Science Research Unit (SSRU), UCL, The UK. She beautifully explained the various approaches like Progress-Plus, PLUS, transfer tools, Logic models, etc. that can be used to transfer evidence to the local context. Following the Keynote address, we had the scientific paper presentations on original research in the forenoon. A total of 27 original research outputs were presented by delegates in the forenoon.

This was followed by the presentation of innovation papers and systematic reviews and protocols in the afternoon. The judges for the presentations were Dr Bharti C Magazine, Deputy Director, Directorate of Research (Health Sciences) and additional professor, Department of Pharmacology, KMC, and Dr Shovan Saha, Associate Professor and In charge –Head, Department of Occupational Therapy, Manipal College for Health Professions, MAHE, Manipal, Dr Mamatha S Pai, Professor and Dr Anjeline D’Souza, Assistant Professor – selection grade, Dept. of Child Health Nursing, MCON, MAHE. The first place for the original scientific presentations was secured by Dr Jayesh Mudgal for his work titled “Developing a preclinical PTSD model using a multi-model approach” and Ms Faiza Iqbal won the second place for her work titled “Artificial intelligence approach to predict the sepsis and mortality in high-risk neonates” whereas in the category of innovation papers and systematic review papers – Ms Henita Joshna Menezes secured the first place for her work titled “Technology based comprehensive Cardiac rehabilitation Therapy(TacT) for women with cardiovascular disease” and Ms Anupama DS, won the second place for her work titled “Experiences of postmenopausal women living with osteoporosis – A qualitative systematic review”.  The closing remarks for the research day were given by Dr Shovan Saha, Associate Professor and incharge –Head, Department of Occupational Therapy, Manipal College for Health Professions, MAHE, Manipal, who also declared the winners in the category of innovation and systematic review papers. Dr Mamatha S Pai, Professor, Dept. of Child Health Nursing, MCON, MAHE declared the winners for the category of original research papers. Dr Baby S Nayak, Professor and HoD, Dept. of Child Health Nursing, MCON, MAHE and Chairperson of IOE Pillar 2 gave away the concluding remarks for the research week 2022.

Dr Sonia R.B D’Souza, Professor and HoD, Department of OBG Nursing, MCON, MAHE and Dr Melita Sheilini, Assistant Professor- Selection grade, Department of Medical-Surgical Nursing were the faculty coordinators for the research week 2022, supported by team members from the IOE - Pillar 2 : Exemplary Research and Innovation as well as by the PhD scholars of MCON, Manipal.