This talk will focus on using evidence-based practice (EBP) to improve patient care. The most crucial feature that health care institutions strive for is patient care. Patients deserve the greatest possible care. It indicates that health care professionals should prioritize the needs of their patients in whatever they do or make. Evidence-based practice is a well-known technique. Unfortunately, it appears that health care practitioners lack comprehension of the ideas that support the practice. There is scant indication that nurses are giving EBP, according to McKenna et al (2004). In fact, knowledge and application of research in nursing health care has remained low. Many of the times, nurses do not have the required knowledge and skills for finding the evidence that will form the basis of their practice (Pravikoff, et al., 2005).
Improvement of patient care is an aspect that needs to be taken seriously in health care settings. Patients have stopped being viewed as recipients of care but consumers of services (Leufer & Cleary-Holdforth, 2009). In fact, they are now regarded as clients and not necessarily people in need of quality health care. Health care professionals are providing just health care without worrying much of its quality and whether the patients needs have been met. This is a problem that needs to be dealt with and advocacy for applying evidence-based practice in the clinical settings needs to be done to ensure that patients are well cared for and their needs are met. This paper aims at discussing evidence-based practice as the needed change to improve patient care, and how interprofessional teams can work together to drive change.
How Evidence-based practice (EBP) to improve patient care it impacts the organization, patients, and/or the nursing profession
Evidence-based practice is important for a health care setting since it provides an environment of working that supports evidence that supports practice. In the institution, evidence-based practice helps professionals deal with the fast changing technology, litigation, budgets, consumerism, accountability, and demand from knowledge that is always increasing. Without applying evidence-based practice, organizations will face the problems of accountability, budget deficits and inability to adhere to the rapid changing health care environment.
Nursing professionals have the best evidence that can be used when making clinical decisions. They use a systematic search as well as critical appraisal to base their decisions on how to provide quality care to patients (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2005). Nurses are able to apply their experience combined with the best evidence as well as patient preferences and values when providing care and when making decisions regarding care and treatment of patients. Failure of using evidence-based practice leads to nurses making clinical decisions and provision of care based on past experience and unreliable assumptions.
Evidence-based practice also impacts the patient because they receive the best care that is proven to be helpful and meeting their needs. Evidence-based practice allows patients to ask questions from practitioners and able to choose the best health care service that they prefer and value. Craig & Smyth (2007) says that evidence based practice helps in obtaining the best results for patients through the selection of interventions with the highest possibility of succeeding. Failure of using evidence-based practice results to poor care to patients. It increases their cost of treatment and hospital stay.
Describe possible evidence-based interventions for the problem
The evidence-based interventions to the failure of using evidence-based practice are to implement and apply the recognized set of principles, guidelines and protocols. There is the need for proper scrutiny and evaluation of research results by nurses before making a final decision in practice. This evidence is very important in the nursing practice and valued by patients who also want to understand the basis of care that they are receiving (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2005). Nurses should use the recommended results of randomized trials and apply in their practice. In this case, collated evidence is the most reliable type of evidence that nurses should use for evidence-based practice. Besides, nurses can utilize evidence from systematic reviews as interventions for best practice. They are widely recommended for reliable evidence in the nursing practice where improved patient outcome is guaranteed. The pursuit of clinical expertise, evidence and patient preferences are the effective interventions in achieving an evidence-based practice that informs and improves patient outcomes in nursing. There is the need for believing in practices that are evidence-based.
Analyze potential barriers and resistance to change that might come from the organization, patients, and/or colleagues
The barriers to implementing EBP to improve patient care related the organization, patient and nursing colleagues include fear of interprofessional erosion of roles, funding sources, influence of pharmaceutical organizations, and tradition. Poor power balance in the organization, lack of access to quality information, lack of leadership, vision and motivation in the organization, management strategy and direction are also among other barriers and resistance to change for EBP to improve patient outcome (Craig & Smyth 2007).
References
Craig, J., & Smyth, R. (2007). The Evidence-Based Practice Manual for Nurses. 2nd edition. Churchill Livingstone Elsevier, Edinburgh.
Leufer, T., & Cleary-Holdforth, J. (2009). Evidence-based practice: improving patient outcomes. Nursing Standard, 23, (32): 35-39.
McKenna, H., Ashton, S., & Keeney, S. (2004) Barriers to evidence-based practice in primary care. Journal of Advanced Nursing. 45, (2): 178-189.
Melnyk, B., & Fineout-Overholt, E. (2005). Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing and Healthcare: A Guide to Best Practice. Lippincott, Williams and Wilkins. Philadelphia PA.
Pravikoff, D., Tanner, A., & Pierce, S. (2005). Readiness of U.S. nurses for evidence-based practice. American Journal of Nursing, 105, (9): 40-51.
