Evidence-based practices describe problem-solving strategies to clinical practice that encompasses the best evidence from clinician's proficiency, a patient's inclinations and values, and well-designed research. EBP was developed as a useful tool for delivering high-quality care in different nursing specialties. The approach also helps nurses to offer individualizes patient care. Evidence-based procedures improved nursing standards which have translate in better healthcare delivery for patients. Additionally, EBP has helped to encourage patients to take an active role in their healthcare delivery which has translated in better care outcomes. EBP has helped to streamline operations and procedures within the health care institution, which has resulted in high quality and cost-effective care. Evidence-based practices have had a positive impact on patients, healthcare professionals, and healthcare institutions as it results in a streamlined process, better patient outcomes and cost-effective care. The adoption of EBP has improved professional development among healthcare providers and has led to better care policies which support continuous quality improvement. The adoption of EBP has resulted in quality care services which have helped to improve patient safety by mitigating clinical errors. The paper will explore the implementation of evidence-based practices within healthcare organizations focusing on its evolution, application in nursing care, impact on patient outcome, nurses, facility policy and the relationship with continuous quality improvement and patient safety. Evidence-based procedures offer integrated and streamlined care practices that result in better patient outcomes.
Definition of Evidence-Based Practice (EBP)
The term evidence-based practices or EBP in the nursing profession refers to the procedure of collecting, handling, and executing critical research outcomes to enhance patient outcomes, health care practice or the work environment. EBP is centered on the integration of best external evidence with individual clinical expertise (Dommett, Devonshire & Churches, 2018). This focuses on the amalgamation of research evidence, a patient's preference, and clinical expertise. EBP has been invaluable to the health care environment as it presents a problem-solving approach to clinical procedures that motivate nurses to offer individualized and specialized patient care. EBP helps nurses to provide cost-efficient and highest quality patient care. Evidence-based research is central to the nursing profession.
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Importance of EBP in the Nursing Profession
EBP is used to deliver high-quality care in different nursing specialties. Evidence-based research enables nurses to employ solutions that are backed by data which incorporate clinical research and clinical expertise into the decision-making process. This offers a problem-solving strategy to clinical practices which motivate nurses to offer individualizes patient care (“Why is evidence-based practice in nursing so important?” 2018). The use of EBP in research help nurses with high quality and most cost-efficient patient care. Patients within health facilities expect to get the most affordable and effective care based on the best available evidence. Nurses can use evidence-based resources to not only offer quality and personalized care to patients but also provide cost-effective services which make healthcare more accessible to patients. The use of evidence-based practices has helped to streamline operations and procedures within the health care institution. EBP has resulted in more consistent clinical practices and recommendations across the health service (Clinical Information Access Portal [CIAP], 2020). The implementation of EBP has enabled care providers to offer quality healthcare services that are based on best practices instead of opinions or traditional guidelines (Sadoughi, Azadi & Azadi, 2017). EBP implementation translates in better healthcare delivery for patients.
Evolution of EBP in Nursing
The concept of EBP was initiated in the 19 th century when Florence Nightingale was credited with enhancing patient care when she discovered that restricted ventilation and unsanitary conditions could impact the health of patients adversely. She recorded medical statistics using different patient demographics to determine the morbidity and mortality rates in hospitals were linked to various injuries and illnesses (“Why is evidence-based practice in nursing so important?” 2018). In 1972, Archie Cochrane introduced the principle of randomized control trials or RTC among other types of research. His called for a system of healthcare with limited resources and argued that health practitioners should only use treatments that are certified and effective (“Why is evidence-based practice in nursing so important?” 2018). The RTC presented a verified form of evidence which kick-started the EBP movement. David Sackett introduced the term evidence-based medicine in 1966. He proposed that EBP should not be limited to research, but should look to merge patient values, clinical experience and research evidence. Afterwards, Sackett's proposal became widely adopted, and it was renamed into the evidence-based practice. EBP is critical to health care as it offers policies and procedures that result in safe and quality patient care.
Application of EBP to Nursing Care
The integration of evidence-based practices offers nurses with research studies which helps them to make sound and well-founded decision. Nurses also use EBP to stay updated on novel medical protocols for patient care. Nurses also use EBP to encourage patients to assume an active role in their treatment process. Nurses can use EBP to determine a practical course of action for health care delivery. To accomplish this, nurses must develop a clinical question to help identify and highlight the problem (conduct a diagnosis on the patient). Then nurses can collect relevant evidence on the topic. Nurses can proceed to analyze the evidence using different research methods, for example, case-control analysis, observational studies or randomized control trials (“Why is evidence-based practice in nursing so important?” 2018). The nurses can then apply findings from the research to the problem within the clinical practice. Finally, they can appraise the results to determine their effectiveness. Through the process of EBP implementation, patient engagement becomes part of the research project for the clinician. Clinicians must employ clinical practices when implementing EBP as they offer systematically developed guidelines to assist patient and practitioner decision about appropriate health care for different situations (Dommett, Devonshire & Churches, 2018). This simple process illustrates how nurses can apply EBP to nursing care.
Impact of EBP on Patient Outcome
Evidence-based practices help nurses to incorporate patients in their care plan. This enables patients to assume a more active role in their healthcare because they can voice their concerns about treatment. Additionally, patients can share their preferences and values and make a sound suggestion on how they want the treatment to proceed. The implementation of EBP has helped patients to participate in their treatment process actively. For instance, patients can raise questions or concerns about the impact of care or treatment, the choice of a diagnostic test, the background of a disorder, or the conceivable outcome of a condition or a disease (CIAP, 2020). EBP has helped nurses to offer specialized treatment for patients. This has been beneficial, and it has helped to increase the chances of recovery.
Impact of EBP on Healthcare Professions
The adoption of EBP has helped improve the quality of healthcare service, which has led to improved patient care and outcome. The demand for public accountability and improved patient outcome has led to the adoption of EBP in healthcare (Sadoughi, Azadi & Azadi, 2017). EBP presents a problem-solving method to health care that integrates the meticulous use of prevailing best practices from clinical expertise, well-developed studies, and patient values and preferences. The application of EBP helps to solve the problem of a clinician’s medical expertise and the patient’s preferences and values (Sadoughi, Azadi & Azadi, 2017). The application of concepts in evidence-based practices have been vital in improving patient outcomes. EBP has equipped nurses with the necessary skills and competence to make sound and well-founded decisions. Additionally, EBP helps nurses to encourage patients to take an active role in their treatment process. Nurses can develop news skills and competencies that allow them to offer better and individualized services to patients.
Impact of EBP on Facility Policies
Evidence-based practices and guidelines have a substantial impact on the clinical practice and health policies of different facilities. EBP policies and guidelines have a significant impact on facility policies because they are broadly accepted as a central tenet of cost-effective and high-quality patient care. The Institute of Medicine's Roundtable on EBP suggests that by 2020, 90 percent of the decision in care institutions should be evidence-based (Lavenberg et al., 2019). The American Nurses Association also requires that nurses in any healthcare facility follow evidence-based practices while offering care services to patients. EBP plays a significant role in policy development in healthcare institutions. EBP procedures and guidelines support and promote professional development among nurses and offer cost-effective and high-quality care (Lavenberg et al., 2019). The adoption of EBP helps healthcare institutions to develop practices and policies to enhance patient outcomes and also results in improved performance from staff.
Association Between EBP and Continuous Quality Improvement
There is a positive association between EBP and continuous quality improvement. The adoption of evidence-based practices typically results in quality improvement. Demand for better patient outcomes have underwritten EBP implementation. Stakeholders such as health care insurance companies and hospital executive boards underscore EBP implementation to preclude practices that lack recommended policies and procedures concerning cost-effective care and improved patient outcomes (Sadoughi, Azadi & Azadi, 2017). Evidence-based practices usually result in continuous quality improvement as it offers a three-circle model that integrates the patient's circumstances and state, the patient's preferences and comprehensive research evidence, and actions assimilated with the clinician's medical expertise (Udo et al., 2019). EBP also helps nurses to make sound and well-founded decisions based on available evidence, and this has helped to advance the quality of care and service delivery. Overall, the implementation of evidence-based practices has resulted in cost-effective and high-quality care. EBP has also resulted in professional development among nurses which helps to support continuous quality development.
Relationship Between EBP and Patient Safety
There is a positive correlation between evidence-based practices and patient safety. The implementation of the EBP has resulted in professional development among nurses because they base their decision on available evidence, the expertise of clinicians, and the values and preferences of patients. This helps to establish specialized care for patients and reduce medical and clinical errors. Evidence-based practices help to increase skills and competencies among care provides, who are able to use EBP concepts to offer quality care and safe practices to patients (Udo et al., 2019). Additionally, the adoption of EBP helps to reduce the cost of care for patients. EBP encourages patients to assume an active role in their treatment process and offer input or raise concerns regarding the treatment process. This helps to mitigate errors that might compromise the patient's safety. Overall, the implementation of EBP helps to improve accessibility and quality of health care services which help improve patient safety.
Conclusion
Evidence-based procedures have been instrumental to the health care environment because it presents a problem-solving strategy to clinical guidelines that motivate nurses to offer individualized and specialized patient care. The implementation of EBP creates a platform that nurses can use to advance their skills and competencies and focused on providing specialized patient care. Additionally, the EBP encourages patients to take an active role in their care and treatment process. Evidence-based procedures encourage healthcare facilities to develop policies and procedures that ensure continuous improvement and guarantee patient safety. However, despite the numerous advantages of EBP in a clinical setting, EBP adoption remains low. Healthcare institutions should look to increase EBP adoption to improve healthcare quality and mitigate the cost of care. One approach to increase EBP adoption is by engaging in collaborative training programs with EBP. This would help healthcare institutions understand the benefits of EBP and facilitate adoption. Additionally, critical stakeholders in health care, such as management, should be at the forefront in advocating for the adoption of evidence-based practices. Increased adoption of evidence-based practices would help healthcare institutions to offer better healthcare services to patients, increase patient outcome while reducing the cost of care, making it accessible to more people.
References
Clinical Information Access Portal. (2020). The role and purpose of evidence-based practice . https://www.ciap.health.nsw.gov.au/training/ebp-learning-modules/module1/the-role-and-purpose-of-evidence-based-practice.html
Dommett, E., Devonshire, I., & Churches, R. (2018). Bridging the gap between evidence and classroom 'clinical practice' – the potential of teacher-led randomized controlled trials to advance the science of learning. Journal of the Chartered College of Teaching.
Lavenberg, J. G., Cacchione, P. Z., Jayakumar, K. L., Leas, B. F., Mitchell, M. D., Mull, N. K., & Umscheid, C. A. (2019). Impact of a hospital evidence ‐ based practice center (EPC) on nursing policy and practice. Worldviews on Evidence ‐ Based Nursing , 16(1), 4-11.
Sadoughi, F., Azadi, T., & Azadi, T. (2017). Barriers to using electronic evidence-based literature in nursing practice: a systematized review. Health Information & Libraries Journal , 34(3), 187-199.
Udo, C., Forsman, H., Jensfelt, M., & Flink, M. (2019). Research use and evidence-based practice among Swedish medical social workers: A qualitative study. Clinical Social Work Journal , 47(3), 258-265.
Why is evidence-based practice in nursing so important? (2018, December 10). Eastern Illinois University . https://learnonline.eiu.edu/articles/rnbsn/evidence-based-practice-important.aspx
