Today, using reliable evidence is known to be an effective method to better both theoretical and practical aspects of a particular sphere. In particular, the notion of using evidence is actively promoted in nursing today, and it is shown that it allows for significantly increasing the quality of care that nurses provide (Melnyk, Gallagher‐Ford, Long, & Fineout‐Overholt, 2014). This paper discussed the concept of using evidence in nursing in more detail.
When discussing evidence-based pursuits, Hasseler (2006) states that the term “evidence” refers to the notion of being “based on vivid facts” (p. 217), meaning that these facts come from a verified, documented source. Therefore, the utilization of evidence-based practice means using hard, established facts to determine which actions should be taken to accomplish a certain goal. This often means basing one’s actions on a critical selection and appraisal of high-quality scientific literature (Hasseler, 2006).
It should be stressed that, according to Hasseler (2006), there existed a dearth of utilization of evidence-based practice in nursing. Even though the term “evidence-based practice” was used in medicine, it rarely was related to nursing specifically. Therefore, according to the author, evidence-based practice should be implemented not just in medicine in general, but specifically in nursing as well (Hasseler, 2006).
However, today it appears that evidence-based practice is a rather popular notion in nursing, at least in the U.S., and American nurses often tend to utilize evidence both in science and in practice nowadays (Melnyk et al., 2014), unlike what apparently took place in 2006, according to Hasseler (2006). Nevertheless, evidence-based practice is not widely used everywhere across the globe (Melnyk et al., 2014), and thus, it is paramount for the representatives of the nursing profession to promote the use of evidence in both their practical and scientific pursuits, and set relying on high-quality evidence as the standard in both the nursing research and nursing practice worldwide.
On the whole, it should be stressed that utilizing evidence has proven to be effective for bettering both the theoretical basis and the practical pursuits within a variety of spheres. In particular, the concept of evidence-based practice and research should be widely popularized so as to stimulate nurses to adopt them worldwide.
References
Hasseler, M. (2006). Chapter 13: Evidence-based nursing for practice and science. In H. S. Kim & I. Kollak (Eds.), Nursing theories: Conceptual and philosophical foundations (2nd ed.) (pp. 215-235). New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company.
Melnyk, B. M., Gallagher‐Ford, L., Long, L. E., & Fineout‐Overholt, E. (2014). The establishment of evidence‐based practice competencies for practicing registered nurses and advanced practice nurses in real‐world clinical settings: Proficiencies to improve healthcare quality, reliability, patient outcomes, and costs. Worldviews on Evidence‐Based Nursing, 11(1), 5-15.