Evidence-based practice has become popular in several disciplines of healthcare and continues to do so. One of the major characteristic of EBP is its reliance on scientific evidence, individual choices and needs of the patient and clinical expertise. It is one of the healthcare approaches, in which the professionals make use of the hard evidence available in order to make healthcare decisions for a patient. It builds, enhances and values clinical knowledge, and expertise of pathophysiology and the mechanisms of disease. Furthermore, it also includes conscientious and complex decision-making, that is based not just on the evidence available but also on the situation, preferences and characteristics of the patient. EBP recognizes the individuality in healthcare and accepts that it is constantly changing and involves several probabilities and uncertainties. It is ultimately the formation of a process that has been practiced for years by the best clinicians (McKibbon, 1998 ).
Energy and time are involved for an effective Evidence-Based Practice among which the first one is to form pertinent and appropriate questions to be answered in order to satisfy the needs of the patient (Sackett, et. al, 1997; Sackett et. al, 1991). Next comes the important information required to answer these questions that can include lab tests found in textbooks but mostly involves journal research articles (Covell, Uman, & Manning, 1985). Assessing and reading the information for decision making is the next step; while making a decision and then evaluating it for outcomes comes next. Many clinicians find it easy and sufficient to depend on their own experiences or of their colleagues; however, this can have negative consequences as well. An example of this case occurred when a four-day-old baby girl was born with different birth defects and the family was told by the doctor that she might be deaf and blind along with having trouble in development, growth and feeding. The family was also told that she would not be mentally fit and the condition was rare so the severity of the problem has changed to being undetectable as well. This decision making of the clinician was limited to his experience only and left the family disturbed regarding their daughter's health. However, the child is now going to kindergarten and is developing as well as growing normally (McKibbon, 1998 ).
Literature plays an important role in EBP and includes four stages of development in the process. Evaluation is the largest stage and it consists of reports dealing with communication among clinicians and researchers. It also includes case reports, review articles, thought pieces, editorials and letters. All of these are tested and reported, which follows the stage of research. The next stage includes reports of investigations and studies held in labs with tissue samples, cells, test tubes etc. Some of the ideas are unworthy of continuation while others move to the evaluation stage. The number of ideas is shortlisted in this stage and very few go further for testing and validation in the final stage (Matson, 1996). The last stage takes a lot of time and money as the tests done are very long-term and based on real life situations and on actual patients. Out of every five interventions, only one or two are further proved to be approved by the government and implemented in routine healthcare (McKibbon, 1998 ).
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