Demonstrating Evidence Based Practice

The Role of Nursing Research in Demonstrating Evidence-Based Practice
It helps for hospitals to embed in their culture evidence-based practice. This is particularly important as it demonstrates that in addition to conducting an evaluation of published studies, nurses also make use of such research studies in both operational and clinical undertakings/procedures. It is important to note that although some could think of nursing research and evidence-based practice as overlapping, both are manifestly distinct. While “nursing research is theory based and systematically designed to answer, test an intervention, or solve a problem,” evidenced based practice is seen to be “a lifelong problem-solving approach to how health care is delivered that integrates the best evidence from high-quality studies with a clinician’s expertise and a patient’s preferences and values” (Baker, 2017). When the health care decisions regarding a specific patient take into consideration the preferences of the said patient, the clinical expertise of those attending to the patient, and research evidence, then evidence-based care is seen to be apparent or discernible. For most in the nursing profession, the guiding principle is often the delivery of compassionate and effective care so as to ensure that the patients’ needs are met in the best way possible. In essence, robust research evidence presents to the nursing professional reliable info on what works and what does not. It therefore follows that scientific evidence ought to be put to its most beneficial and effective use. However, it is important to note that there are queries that may prove difficult or impossible to frame in scientific terms - which necessitates sourcing of some other evidence. Nursing research, with the backing of evidence-based research, facilitates the discernment of other equally meaningful insights including, but not limited to, clinical intuition. Nursing research ought to critique quantitative, scientific evidence so as to further enhance nursing practice, by not only exploring but also embracing knowledge gathered from the application of nursing.
References
Baker, D.J. (2017). Nursing Research, Quality Improvement, and Evidence-Based Practice: The Key to Perioperative Nursing Practice. AORN Journal, 105(1), 3-5.