When nurses go about their everyday tasks, they have several opportunity to challenge the validity of current procedures in their health centers and to use evidence to improve the care they offer (Robert, 2010). They play an important role in strengthening evidence-based practice by compelling management to take action on how to incorporate research into their services. In recent years, there has been an upsurge in nurses' concern about developing a solid platform of evidence in health care, which has revolutionized and enhanced patient experience. For example, recent discoveries in the genetic basis of illnesses and behavior are likely to assist nurse scientists to come up with effective approaches to manage symptoms and tailor interventions.
Nurses contribute in EBP through identifying researched findings and implementing them in their practices (Robert, 2010). The new generation of nurse researchers is assisting to enhance the quality of health care through identifying evidence concerning different matters which affect the quality of healthcare, review the evidence and appraise it and change practices based on the findings. For example, a nurse can conduct research to provide evidence that lack of proper hygiene in wards lead to the increase of new infections among the patients, suggest intervention measures, and guide in implementing the interventions to change improve the level of hygiene in wards
According to Robert (2010), one of the most important roles played by nurses in EBP is undertaking clinical research which range from acute to chronic care experiences across the entire life span; health improvement and preventive healthcare to end-of-life care; and enhancing care for families, individual and communities in diverse setting. Nurse also contribute in EBP through researching how to help individuals and groups as they respond to health and illness experiences and minimize social as well as behavioral aspects of illness and quality of life. For example, through research, nurses can play a significant role in minimizing side effects of ailment and treatment.
Nurse can attain the goal of minimizing infection through focusing on hand hygiene by identifying scientific evidence, patient preferences and use their expertise to make decision on the interventions which can be put in place to address the issue. QI can be applied through using data to measure the impact of interventions identified. This may involve using QI framework to guide on the strategies which how the issue will be defined, measured, analyzed, interned and controlled. Research will be used by the nurse provide new knowledge concerning the manner in which hand hygiene can be used to minimize infections through hand hygiene. This can be attained through theorizing that if hand hygiene was improved through the use of disinfectants before handling patients, infections would reduce.
In such a case where nurses aim at attaining the goal of reducing infections through hand hygiene, EBP will be utilized to identify evidence to prove that hand hygiene can play a role in reducing infections or any other scientific evidence which show the relationship between hand hygiene and infections, while QI may be applied through receiving hospital data to determine the rate of infections which result from hand hygiene. This will help the nurse to determine how hand hygiene influences the rate of infections and also be able to measure the quality of interventions aimed to address the issue. Finally, research will be used through the process of seeking for new knowledge concerning the issue.
Reference
Robert. R, A. (2010). What's All This about Evidence-Based Practice? The Roots, the Controversies, and Why It Matters. Generations, 34(1), 123-145.
