Introduction
Evidence-based practice (EBP) is gaining in popularity in the health-care environment as it allows more opportunities to achieve a threefold purpose: It provides the most effective evidence, suggests clinical expertise, and makes it possible to take the best care of patient values. EBP allows for reducing costs, and at the same time, it leads to an increased level of patient satisfaction and improved quality of care.
It is necessary to understand that EBP is not only about employing evidence to create treatment plans. With its help, better communication can be forged between providers and their patients. Also, the clients of health-care facilities can express their opinions and desires about treatment and take part in the decision-making process. The advantage of EBP is that providers pay attention to their patients’ point of view, and they work together in determining the most effective treatment plan.
The Role of EBP in Achieving Better Clinical Decisions
The major beneficial function of EBP is that it allows providers to organize the decision-making process in the most productive way. Research affects existing knowledge greatly and can promote a better understanding of various medical conditions and cases. When existing knowledge and research are combined, the gap between research and practice disappears, and providers are more likely to find the best solution (Lewis, Bucher, McLean Heitkemper, & Harding, 2017).
The importance of accurate clinical decisions cannot be overstated. People’s health and sometimes even their lives depend on the resolutions reached by providers concerning patients’ health. Thus, it is crucial for doctors and nurses not to make medical errors. With the help of EBP, such mistakes are significantly reduced. Research results give providers an opportunity to make faster and more accurate decisions, which leads to better outcomes.
The following clinical strategies help to foster evidence-based nursing practice: empowering providers, organizing research training for doctors and nurses, federal funding of research, and engaging providers in clinical trials. By employing these strategies in health care, the government and hospital management will encourage health-care workers to participate in EBP and achieve the best results for their customers.
Better Patient Outcomes due to EBP
Not only does the application of EBP principles help clinicians to make better decisions, but it also leads to better patient outcomes. Several crucial issues can be enhanced with the help of EBP: mortality rate, readmission rate, and doctors’ performance, all of which significantly impact patient outcomes (Emparanza, Cabello, & Burls, 2015). According to Emparanza et al. (2015), results of an experiment performed at a hospital over nine years’ time indicate significant differences between clinicians’ efforts under the conditions of standard practice and those incorporating EBP.
In comparison to doctors using standard practices, their EBP colleagues reported a significant drop in mortality (Emparanza et al., 2015). Since minimizing the rate of this issue is an important factor in a health-care system, it is obvious that EBP is a more productive method of treatment than standard practice.
Another measure of the success of providers’ operations is the rate of readmissions. As Emparanza et al. (2015) report, this rate is much lower in EB practice than in standard practice. EBP patients are hospitalized for a shorter time, which means better outcomes for them and also leads to reductions in the cost of health care.
Finally, doctors’ performance is higher in EBP than in standard practice (Emparanza et al., 2015). These providers manage to take care of a greater number of patients, and in addition, their care leads to better patient outcomes.
The Improvement of Quality of Care through EBP
One of the most beneficial functions of EBP is that it makes it possible to enhance the quality of medical care. For instance, this approach uses nearly real-time data to make decisions concerning patient care. With the help of such innovations as electronic health records, medical employees can organize better care that is grounded in the most current data. The use of EBP can reduce the amount of time needed to make decisions and decrease ambiguity in this process.
Another crucial role of EBP is that it allows providers to remain informed about the newest EB protocols (Schaffer, Sandau, & Diedrick, 2012). Many scholarly papers are published daily, and clinicians cannot afford the time needed to be aware of the latest achievements in the sphere of medicine. However, EBP provides a way of remaining current with the most effective practices through standardized EB protocols.
Barriers to EBP in Nursing Practice
While EBP presents a considerable number of advantages for patients and their providers, some difficulties are caused by the need to employ it in practice. Melnyk, Fineout-Overholt, Gallagher-Ford, and Kaplan (2012) remark that nurses frequently feel overloaded with work and do not have enough time to acquaint themselves with the most current research results. In order to improve the situation, it is recommended not to overload nurses and to provide training opportunities under the supervision of nurses with EBP experience.
Conclusion
In spite of a few minor challenges, EBP is the most effective approach for providing the best care for patients. Using the help of EBP, doctors, and nurses can combine their experience with the most recent research results. EBP thus makes it possible to achieve better clinical decisions and improved patient outcomes.
References
Emparanza, J. I., Cabello, J. B., & Burls, A. J. (2015). Does evidence-based practice improve patient outcomes? An analysis of a natural experiment in a Spanish hospital. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, 21(6), 1059-1065.
Lewis, S. L., Bucher, L., McLean Heitkemper, M., & Harding, M. M. (2017). Medical-surgical nursing: Assessment and management of clinical problems (10th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier.
Melnyk, B. M., Fineout-Overholt, E., Gallagher-Ford, L., & Kaplan, L. (2012). The state of evidence-based practice in US nurses: Critical implications for nurse leaders and educators. JONA, 42(9), 410-417.
Schaffer, M. A., Sandau, K. E., & Diedrick, L. (2012). Evidence-based practice models for organizational change: Overview and practical applications. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 69(5), 1197-1209.