Research and Evidence based Practices in Nursing
In the recent past, healthcare delivery system has witnessed tremendous changes which requires more than just caring for the patients and promoting proper wellness to members of the public but adopting new medical practices. In light of these changes, nurses are required to go an extra mile and deliver the best possible quality of care but at the same time lower the costs of treatment. Thus, to obtain this noble objective, health care practitioners should use available research evidence and integrate them to daily routines .Consequently, this trend has led to extensive academic literature on this subject and how it affects nursing decision making process. It is important therefore to examine research and evidence – based practice in nursing and other healthcare practitioners.
Houser (2013), argues that research is a sound methodology that entails clinically relevant effectiveness and safety of nursing assessment measures and interventions. Also, it entails the process of accuracy, precision of assessment measures and cost effectiveness of nursing interventions. Thus, research evidence alone cannot make an important clinical decision. Nurses are required to weigh the risks and benefits with costs associated with alternative management strategies (Scott & McSherry, 2009). While, evidence based practice entails a situation where nurses use available literature to make important treatment and patient care decisions that are based on research evidence, preference of patients and clinical expertise. Thus, research and evidence based practice is like Siamese twins to nurses and other healthcare practitioners at large. But, there are glaring differences as research dwells on investigation on a new area to come up with new information on previous knowledge. While evidence based process is where nurses use available literature to make important clinical decisions.
Meanwhile, to achieve a clinically effective health care system nurses should engender a norm of evidence based practice where clinical decisions are usually underpinned by research findings (Grove, Burns & Gray, 2014). There is need for all medical schools to integrate evidence based practice into the curriculum. Concerted efforts should be put in place to change the beliefs and attitude of nurses in order to influence this noble practice on a mass scale.
References
Grove, S. K., Burns, N., & Gray, J. R. (2014). Understanding nursing research: Building an
evidence-based practice. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Houser, J. (2013). Nursing research: Reading, using and creating evidence. Jones & Bartlett
Publishers.
Scott, K., & McSherry, R. (2009). Evidence‐based nursing: clarifying the concepts for nurses in
practice. Journal of clinical nursing, 18(8), 1085-1095
