Safeguarding patient wellbeing is the primary mandate of the nursing community. To fulfill this mandate, the community implements a number of initiatives. Investing in research is among the initiatives. Thanks to research efforts, the nursing community is able to gain insights into human health and the interventions that can be adopted to keep patient populations healthy. While remarkable progress has been made in nursing research, more needs to be done. In response to the need for greater nursing research efforts, the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) released a report which identifies the priorities that nursing practitioners need to focus on. Overall, the priorities reflect the urgent issues that the nursing community should invest their energies and resources as they attempt to address them.
NINR Nursing Research Priorities
The main goal of the NINR report is to challenge nurses to recognize the role that research can play in advancing the science of health. Among the priorities that the report explores are health promotion, disease prevention, enhancing patients’ quality of life and focusing on end-of-life and palliative care (“Bringing Science to Life”, 2011). Furthermore, the report lists scientific innovations and empowering nurses as other priorities of nursing research. While the list of priorities is not exhaustive, it captures the essential elements of nursing research. Today, the nursing community faces challenges that can only be solved through robust and extensive research. For example, in the United States, nurses struggle to deliver effective end-of-life care (Patel & Kruczynski, 2015). Through nursing research, nurses will be able to develop interventions which allow them to effectively attend to the needs of patients at the end of their lives. Disease prevention and promoting quality of life are other issues that the NINR report identifies as requiring urgent action. These issues are indeed pressing and deserve to be regarded as priorities. The American nursing community is largely effective in preventing the spread of disease. However, the nurses in other countries such as those that are still developing lack the capacity needed to properly tackle the spread of diseases. For example, when the Ebola crisis hit West African nations, the nursing and medical communities in these countries were overwhelmed (Mark, 2014). By investing in research, the nursing fraternity can boost the capacity of their colleagues in other nations to keep communities safe against infections and disease.
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It is true that the NINR report captures the most crucial issues in nursing today. However, the report would be more complete if it included other issues that have been omitted. Among these issues is the need to invest in the welfare of nurses. Today, nurses in the US suffer burnout and fatigue as they are required to work for long hours (Zimmerman, 2017). None of the priorities in the NINR report can be achieved if the wellbeing of nurses is not secured. For example, it is nearly impossible for nurses to deliver adequate and proper end-of-life care if they feel fatigued and their effort is not being recognized. Therefore, for the NINR priorities to be pursued effectively, focus needs to be given to ensuring that all the needs of nurses are addressed.
Effect of Priorities on Nursing Researchers
The NINR nursing research priorities are designed for the entire nursing community. However, these priorities have a particular impact and mostly concern nursing researchers. In the report, the NINR acknowledges that the pursuit of these priorities hinges on the efforts of the researchers (“Bringing Science to Life”, 2011). It is through the efforts of the researchers that nurses are able to identify and implement solutions to the challenges that the community faces today. In essence, the priorities challenge the nursing researchers to invest greater effort into research endeavors. Another impact of the priorities is that they narrow down the issues that require inquiry. There are dozens of pressing issues that the researchers need to investigate. However, since their resources are limited, the researchers are unable to address all the issues. Thanks to the priorities, the researchers are able to focus their energies on the most important questions.
Criteria for Evidence-based Practice
Nurses and other healthcare professionals are usually challenged to embrace evidence-based practice. This type of practice allows the professionals to leverage the power of science in the administration of effective treatment. For nurses to integrate evidence into their practices, they need to first understand what constitutes evidence-based practice. One of the elements of the criteria is experimental testing. For a practice to be regarded as evidence-based, it is stipulated that it must have been developed through a randomized controlled trial (Metz et al., 2007). These trials establish such issues as the effectiveness and the safety of the practice. In addition to being the result of a rigorous experiment, the practice should also be such that it can be adopted in a variety of settings (Metz, Esperitu & Moore, 2007). For example, an intervention can be considered evidence-based if it proves effective for different patient populations. Another criterion that a practice needs to meet to be considered evidence-based is that it should be in line with some theoretical model (Metz, Esperitu & Moore., 2007). For instance, suppose that nurses wish to adopt an intervention for substance abuse. Before it is integrated into practice, this model needs to be consistent with theoretical frameworks concerning substance abuse. It is worth noting that the criteria that different institutions adopt vary from one to another.
Role of Quality in Evidence-based Practice
One of the goals of evidence-based practice is to improve the quality of care that the medical community delivers (Benerjee et al., 2012). This goal underlines the role that quality plays in evidence-based practice. As they incorporate evidence into practice, medical professionals are guided by the objective of delivering care of the highest quality possible. In essence, evidence-based practice provides the professionals with the impetus to strive for high quality service. In addition to improving quality, evidence-based practice has been shown to reduce the cost of care and enhance patient outcomes (Melnyk, 2016). By having these impacts, evidence-based practice helps practitioners to deliver high quality care. For example, when the practitioners keep the costs of care low, they make it possible for patients to afford care of high quality. Overall, evidence-based practice drives modern medicine and challenges practitioners to be in the forefront of offering excellent care.
Research Proposal
The discussion above has highlighted the role that nursing research plays in healthcare. Moreover, the discussion has also explored the need for medical practitioners to adopt evidence-based practice. Another role that the discussion has played is that it has inspired a research. The following is a proposal for this research.
The research will focus on the adoption of telemedicine in healthcare. Essentially, telemedicine is concerned with the use of modern telecommunication devices and technology to perform such operations as diagnosis and treatment remotely. The hypothesis that the research will seek to prove is that telemedicine is as safe and effective as the direct involvement of practitioners in patient care. To establish this hypothesis, the research will rely on a number of theoretical models. The main model that will be used is positivism. As regards telemedicine, the positivism theory seeks to determine the positive impacts that telemedicine has on health outcomes (Wade, Gray & Carati, 2017). This theory is important as it will support the hypothesis that telemedicine improves safety and effectiveness of healthcare delivery. The research will designed in the form of a literature review. In keeping with this design, the research will involve an extensive and thorough examination of publications focusing on the impacts that telemedicine has on health outcomes. Particular focus will be given to publications which detail research findings. It is anticipated that the literature review will confirm the hypothesis. As already stated, the hypothesis is that telemedicine is among the key drives of improved safety and effectiveness of care and that is as reliable and effective as the traditional model of direct care delivery. Once research findings have been established, the next step usually involves sharing the findings with concerned stakeholders. Scientific journals offer the best avenue of ensuring that the findings are disseminated to the concerned stakeholders. Journals that focus on telemedicine will particularly be critical in sharing the findings. The Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare is among those that could be used to disseminate the research findings.
In conclusion, the needs of patients continue to change. It is important for nurses and other healthcare professionals to keep up with these changes. Nursing research offers an avenue to align nursing practice with evolving changing needs. Through research, nurses are able to identify and adopt effective interventions. As they conduct research, nurses need to give special attention to key priorities. The priorities include end-of-life care and disease prevention. It is also important for nurses and the larger healthcare fraternity to adopt evidence-based practice. This practice enables nurses to use the latest insights in their quest to deliver the best possible quality of care. Already, evidence-based practice has vastly improved patient outcomes. As they continue to rely on evidence, nurses will be able to reshape nursing practice and healthcare in general.
References
Banerjee, A., Stanton, E., Lerner, C., & Marshall, M. (2012). What can quality improvement Learn from evidence-based medicine? Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 105 (2), 55-9. Bringing science to life. NINR strategic plan. (2011). National Institute of Nursing Research. Retrieved August 13, 2018 from https://www.ninr.nih.gov/sites/files/docs/ninr-strategic-plan-2011.pdf
Mark, M. (2014). Ebola crisis: how health workers on west African frontline are paying with Their lives. The Guardian. Retrieved August 13, 2018 from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/08/-sp-ebola-west-africa-health-workers
Melnyk, B. M. (2016). Improving healthcare quality, patient outcomes, and costs with Evidence-based practice. Reflections on Nursing Leadership. Retrieved August 13, 2018 From https://www.reflectionsonnursingleadership.org/features/more-features/improving-healthcare-quality-patient-outcomes-and-costs-with-evidence-based-practice
Metz, A. J. R., Esperitu, R. E., & Moore, K. A. (2007). What is evidence-based practice? Child Trends. Retrieved August 13, 2018 from
https://www.childtrends.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/2007-14WhatIsEBP.pdf
Patel, K., & Kruczynski, M. (2015). Palliative and end-of-life care: issues, challenges, and Possible solutions in the United States. American Journal of Managed Care. Retrieved August 13, 2018 from https://www.ajmc.com/journals/evidence-based-oncology/2015/april-2015/palliative-and-end-of-life-care-issues-challenges-and-possible-solutions-in-the-united-states-
Wade, V., Gray, L., & Carati, C. (2017). Theoretical frameworks in telemedicine research. Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare, 23 (1), 181-7.
Zimmerman, B. (2017). Survey: 70% of nurses report burnout in current position. Becker’s Hospital Review. Retrieved August 13, 2018 from
https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/human-capital-and-risk/survey-70-of-nurses-report-burnout-in-current-position.html
