Nurse Research Evidence-Based Nursing: Develop

Nurse Research

Evidence-Based Nursing:

Develop a nursing research question.

In what ways can the use of evidence-based practice help to reduce low morale, high turnover and personnel shortages amongst nurses?

Describe how the nursing research question addresses evidence-based practice.

The above research question implicates evidence-based practice as a primary path to the improvement of conditions such as the distribution of labor, with the anticipation that such practice would refine and make more efficient the treatment procedures implemented by nurses.

Describe the differences between world-view paradigms and naturalistic paradigms.

The world-view paradigm presumes that there is a specific way of implementing treatment strategies and can be characterized by a relative inflexibility to evolving evidence. This differs from a naturalistic paradigm, which may instead presume that a variety of explanations or possibilities is likely. Within the scope of this paradigm, there is more room for evolution in one's interpretation.

Discuss the role of the evidence hierarchy

The evidence-hierarchy denotes that a variety of ways of experimental testing have been employed to deliver practice norms and that this variety exists on a highly stratified hierarchy of credibility. Here, evidence derived from more scientific modes such as systematic reviews and randomized controlled trials are to be deferred to over less empirical modes such as case studies or expert opinions.

Part II:

Evidence-based practice is increasingly accepted as a superior model for education and practice in the fields of nursing and healthcare in general. From an educational standpoint in particular, there is a critical need to emphasize evidence-based nursing over non-evidence based approaches. Indeed, the text by Polit & Beck (2008) contends that this may be the best way to combat reliance on historically patterned but medically unsound practices. For instance, the text notes, "in many areas of clinical decision-making, research has demonstrated that 'tried and true' methods or practices taught in basic nursing education are not always best. For example, although many nurses were taught to place infants in the prone sleeping position to prevent aspiration, there is now persuasive evidence that supine (back) sleeping position decreases the risk for sudden infant death syndrome." (p. 28)

This also implicates the practice dimensions of nursing. According to the primary text, evidence-based practice is particularly important as a way to dissuade against poorly informed or assumption-driven decision-making. Where non-evidence-based practice is in place, the risk is higher that error or unwanted health consequences may result from treatment approaches. By contrast, the use of evidence-base practice provides the nurse with a set of empirically formed guidelines on how to approach each patient. Instinct such as that often relied upon so heavily in non-evidence-based practice, should be integrated with the understanding afforded by comprehensive research. Only then can the practicing nurse apply practical treatment decisions without falling into otherwise discredited customs or habits.