Evidence-based practice (EBP) is discussed as an effective approach to integrating research into a practical setting related to nursing. As a result, many healthcare organizations try to apply the principles of EBP to the everyday work of nurses and healthcare providers in order to improve the quality of care (Black, Balneaves, Garossino, Puyat, & Qian, 2015). Therefore, it is important to discuss how the concrete agency can apply EBP to nursing practice in order to enhance decision-making and achieve positive patient outcomes.
In order to promote the use of evidence in the daily practice, the agency stimulates nurses to formulate research questions while utilizing the PICO (Patient, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome) model (Finkelman & Kenner, 2013). As a result, nurses receive an opportunity to look at a clinical problem from different perspectives and focus on finding the best solution to address it while analyzing the available evidence. The managers accentuate that evidence is necessary to prepare the solution to clinical problems, and they provide access to the required literature and studies while encouraging the use of the Internet and digital libraries. In addition, the principles of EBP are also reflected in the agency’s policies and protocols.
Still, it is also important to support the employees’ interest in using evidence in their daily practice. To address this goal, the administrators and managers demonstrate how EBP can change the practice and improve the quality of care. They accentuate the role of EBP in developing the nurses’ autonomy, improving their knowledge and skills, and promoting positive changes in practice (Maaskant, Knops, Ubbink, & Vermeulen, 2013). In this agency, managers focus on empowering nurses while allowing them to apply evidence to practice. In addition, the interest of employees in using evidence is increased with the help of inviting nurses to participate in professional conferences and share their knowledge regarding the best evidence-based approaches.
The agency also works to help nurses agree that the use of evidence in their practice is an important method, and the main focus is on conducting regular short meetings that are effective to discuss clinical problems. Nurses agree that EBP is important for their practice when they are involved in the discussion of available evidence and when they can analyze the research, paying attention to opinions of other members of the team (Finkelman & Kenner, 2013). In order to promote such activities and make nurses agree to use evidence in their practice, the authorities also propose articles that discuss the importance of EBP in the healthcare setting.
However, it is also possible to observe barriers in integrating evidence into the practice in the discussed agency. In spite of the fact that the employees have enough knowledge regarding EBP and its advantages, and they also have all necessary resources to access the required data, there are such barriers as the limited time to work with literature and nurse shortages that can influence the application of EBP in the organization. The problem is in the fact that nurse shortages create the situation when nurses cannot spend enough time to find and discuss evidence to solve a clinical problem. In order to overcome these barriers, the managers conduct regular meetings to provide nurses and healthcare professionals with opportunities to discuss the latest studies in different spheres and become ready to apply evidence to practice. From this point, it is possible to address barriers to EBP while organizing the work in a way to make the reference to evidence as the part of the working process.
References
Black, A. T., Balneaves, L. G., Garossino, C., Puyat, J. H., & Qian, H. (2015). Promoting evidence-based practice through a research training program for point-of-care clinicians. The Journal of Nursing Administration, 45(1), 14-20.
Finkelman, A., & Kenner, C. (2013). Professional nursing concepts. New York, NY: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Maaskant, J. M., Knops, A. M., Ubbink, D. T., & Vermeulen, H. (2013). Evidence-based practice: A survey among pediatric nurses and pediatricians. Journal of Pediatric Nursing, 28(2), 150-157.