Importance Of Scholarship For Evidence Based Practice

As a provider of care, professional nurses depend on research, theories, and evidence based practice to guide the care they provide to patients. Nurses deliver care to their patients based on information they have learned through many years of school and training. Training for nurses and other providers of care is founded on theories, research, and evidence based practice in the healthcare field. Theories, research, and evidence based practice are all important for providing care to patients and each can be used in a different manner depending on the situation. Clinicians often use research based evidence to design and implement care that is high-quality and cost effective for patients. Evidence based practice can be used to provide care to patients in a steadily changing clinical environment. (PDF page 8-9). Nursing theories are frequently used as frameworks for establishing nursing care interventions and assessing

Evidence based practice is an integral part of nursing care. According to the Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses, evidence based practice is defined as, “the conscientious use of current best evidence in making decisions about patient care.” (AMSN) The use of evidence based practice has drastically improved patient outcomes, increased quality and safety of healthcare, and reduced costs for facilities. (Melnyk, 2016) In this paper I will provide the history of evidence based practice, how it has already been incorporated and impacted healthcare, and why it is important to nursing and healthcare as a whole.

Nursing education is constantly evolving as new techniques are introduced within the medical profession. Thus, it is imperative nurses are kept updated, and continuously learning new methods to enhance and improve patient care. Over the last 150 years there has been a drastic change in nursing`s participation in research. Nursing research advanced initially from the investigations made by Nightingale in the nineteenth century of nursing education during the 1930`s. This further progressed to the research of nursing roles in 1950s following on to the 1990s where nurses began to focus on clinical problems and finding solutions to these problems which had a major impact within the nursing profession. As of today many health professionals are focusing on clinical research which in turn has helped to establish an evidence informed practice for nurses. (Burns and Grove 2003)

Another important barrier is nursing education. Nurses who graduated many years ago were not taught evidence-based practice and even current schools focus too much researching rather than how to implement current research into care (AJN, 2012). This lack of knowledge on how to implement may stem from the lack of knowledge on how to read and interpret research data or that nurses might feel overwhelmed due to the fact that there is so much and might not know how to narrow what is important or how to read all of it (Brown et al., 2009). In the Tacia study (2015), advanced care nurses could easily point out

Nursing informatics and technology are quickly becoming the hot buzz words for nursing in the twenty-first century. While performing research for this specific paper, the observations of how far technology has come from its inception is mind boggling. When looking back to the mid 1990’s every patient had paper charting. Nurses manually charted vital signs, nursing notes, treatments and all orders were manually written in the chart. The patient’s name, insurance information, and billing items were stored electronically. Fast forward twenty plus years and everything nurses do with, for or to a patient is filed electronically. This file today is known as the electronic health record (EHR) (Lavin, Harper, & Barr, 2015). This paper will be delving into the history of nursing informatics and technology, the pros and cons for nurses and what will be the big picture for informatics and technology in nursing today and in the future. Nursing informatics and the technology that has evolved over time are changing and quickly affecting how nurses treat, communicate, plan and document everything that they do for their patients.

The evidence based interventions we learn can improve patient’s outcomes, help provide quality care, reduce cost and eliminate practices that have become obsolete.

Itroduction: Evidence-based practice is an approach to medicine that uses scientific evidence to determine the best practice (Beyea & Slattery, 2006). As nurses perform their daily tasks they must continually ask themselves, “What is the evidence for this intervention?”. Nurses are well positioned to question current nursing practices and use evidence to make care more effective. In order to improve patients’ outcomes it is the responsibility of the nurse to transition evidence-based practice into the norm, through application of daily practice (Flynn Makic, Rauen, Watson & Will Poteet, 2014). Continual evaluation of current practice must be performed to ensure the use of evidence-based practice opposed to practice based upon tradition. The implementation of evidence-based practice standardizes healthcare practices and diminishes groundless variations within care. These variations lead to the production of uncertain health outcomes (Stevens, 2013).

This paper will discuss how evidence based practice effects nursing practice and how nurses can apply what they learn to their practice. Evidence based practice is a great way to improve the quality of care we provide. “Evidence based practice means using the best available research findings to make clinical decisions that are most effective and beneficial for patients” (Chitty & Black, 2011, p.258). By allowing nurses to participate in research and development, we are able to see firsthand how effective our intervention can be. Nurses run into all kinds of problems on a daily basis and they are able to share their experience and expertise to help develop a better way to solve a problem.

Over the course of decades medical treatment has advanced causing an increase in the wellness of patient clinical outcomes. A large portion of the improvement is due to the vital role nurses play in the delivery of safe and quality care to their patients. For many years different methods of treating patients have evolved due to the continued research for the best practice. Nurses, researchers and people with questions have always tried to find better and efficient solutions to treat their patients detailing the best possible evidence-based practice. Evidence-based practice is an important tool to use for clinical decision making however one must understand it first. Interpreting Evidence-based practice allows nurses to comprehend the steps to determine if new evidence is needed and realize there are some benefits to utilizing up to date research and obstacles that may impeded the research into practice. .

The impact of evidence based practice has been brought into nursing through education, practice, and science over the last decade. Evidence based practice provides quality care to patients that is effective, safe, and efficient. Evidence based practice promises moving care to a high level of producing the intended health outcome for the patients. “EBP is aimed at hardwiring current knowledge into common care decisions to improve care processes and patient outcomes” (Stevens, 2013). EBP empowers nurses and expands their skills by using the best available evidence to guide nursing care and patient outcomes.

Showing knowledge of up-to-date health practices is simply not enough. A nurse must have an adequate ability to research and discover current trends and best practices in his or her specific clinical setting (QSEN Institute, 2014). So, while creating this clinical practice project, a proficient knowledge of how to research for evidence-based

The findings from good, current, reliable, valid or trustworthy research are the basis for maintaining high standards of care and all nurses must practice based on the most up to date evidence (NMC 2008). It is now an important part of nursing to actively participate in research and evidence based practice in order to continually improve the standard of the health care system. This process ensures that nurses are kept up to date with relevant information needed to provide the most effective care for patients.

b) One of the national forces that have influenced the direction of nursing informatics is the Institute of Medicine (IOM), which has written core competencies for all health care professionals including nurses (Pritchard, 2015). The programs devised by the the Institute of Medicine aims to teach health care professionals to be better at knowing how to manage information accurately and how to use computers to make the information available to all disciplines in order to achieve better patient outcomes. On the other hand, the National Center for Nursing Research (NCNR) is one nursing force that has influenced the direction of informatics (Pritchard, 2015). This agency has created program goals and for nurses and competencies

Background - The modern nurse has a rewarding, but extra challenging, career. The role of the 21st century nurse is not limited to assisting physicians, but to be more of a partner with both the doctor and patient as an advocate, teacher, researcher, counselor, case manager, and of course, caregiver. Because of the complexities of the marketplace, HMOs, governmental structure, rising costs, lack of adequate staff and support, the nurse must rely on a number of tools in order to be effective and successful. The nurse must have the ability to analyze materials from other nurses and scholars, and must remain current with both scholarship and practice. It is therefore advantageous for the nurse to have access to understanding many of the theoretical templates that nursing scholarship has to offer. While unlikely that a nurse will utilize only one theoretical view, the more robust the toolbox, the better the nurse will be able to handle difficult situations (Kozier, Erb and Blais, 1997).

As technology has and continues to advance so will the expansion of nursing informatics. Data from (19th annual 2008 himss leadership survey, 2008) hold this statement true showing a steady increase in the implementation of technologies. As computers became smaller, it became easier and efficient for hospitals and physicians office to implement their use. (sutton, 2007)The first computers were large, expensive, and inefficient. Now, computers are compact, inexpensive, and efficient. The smaller technology allows for portability of information. PDA’s are small enough to fit in your pocket. With these small devices, you can look up a patients medication, drug interactions, side effects, and just about anything, you could think of to