Evidence-based practice in healthcare and clinical settings

Evidence-Based Practice

There is a lot of talk about evidence-based practice in the medical community, and it may seem as though it is being overstated. However, that is definitely not the case. Evidence-based practice is very important in order to make sure healthcare outcomes are the best they can be. Any problematic outcomes can be improved through the use of scholarly inquiry and analysis. Being able to analyze issues properly and in a scholarly manner provides food for thought and also provides an opportunity for the most realistic and logical decision for patient care. This is not to say that logic is the only way to determine something, but that particular steps have to be taken in the vast majority of circumstances to ensure the patient is getting the best care. Nurses must not simply make a choice as to what kind of care to provide to a patient. The decision for care must come from information that can be used to guide the nurse as he or she thinks through what should be done for the patient. It is formulaic to a large degree, but that is what provides the best outcome for the largest number of patients.

There are many areas of evidence-based practice that can be discussed. For example, a speaker in the pediatric rotation provided a PowerPoint presentation on the kinds of things that can indicate abuse. This is very important knowledge for nurses in family practice, because there is a duty to protect the patient. If a nurse believes there is abuse going on in the home and that is why the patient has been brought to the doctor's office or hospital, that nurse must take steps to protect the patient and provide him or her with help. In many cases, that can mean making a report of potential abuse to a state agency, so that the family and the home can be investigated. However, without evidence based information and training a nurse might not know what to look for. That could cause him or her to miss signs of abuse that should have been reported, or to overreact to something and report a family that had done nothing wrong.

Another example of the value of evidence-based practice comes from a research class that helped nurses determine whether something they read was scholarly. There are many websites and articles that provide data and statistics, but that does not mean they have any accuracy. There are fabricated pieces of information available today, especially online. Because of this, it is vital when reading a research document to be able to quickly determine the level of value it has for the reader and potentially for patients. Peer reviewed journal articles are the most valuable of resources, because they have been fact checked and cannot just be made up and published by anyone who wants to present his or her opinion about a data set. Textbooks are also valuable for the information they provide about treatments, medications, clinical trials, devices used to help patients, and upcoming ideas in the medical community.