Effective Nursing Interventions

As a provider of care, professional nurses depend on research, theories, and evidence based practice to guide the care they provide to patients. Nurses deliver care to their patients based on information they have learned through many years of school and training. Training for nurses and other providers of care is founded on theories, research, and evidence based practice in the healthcare field. Theories, research, and evidence based practice are all important for providing care to patients and each can be used in a different manner depending on the situation. Clinicians often use research based evidence to design and implement care that is high-quality and cost effective for patients. Evidence based practice can be used to provide care to patients in a steadily changing clinical environment. (PDF page 8-9). Nursing theories are frequently used as frameworks for establishing nursing care interventions and assessing

Evidence based practice is an integral part of nursing care. According to the Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses, evidence based practice is defined as, “the conscientious use of current best evidence in making decisions about patient care.” (AMSN) The use of evidence based practice has drastically improved patient outcomes, increased quality and safety of healthcare, and reduced costs for facilities. (Melnyk, 2016) In this paper I will provide the history of evidence based practice, how it has already been incorporated and impacted healthcare, and why it is important to nursing and healthcare as a whole.

Nursing education is constantly evolving as new techniques are introduced within the medical profession. Thus, it is imperative nurses are kept updated, and continuously learning new methods to enhance and improve patient care. Over the last 150 years there has been a drastic change in nursing`s participation in research. Nursing research advanced initially from the investigations made by Nightingale in the nineteenth century of nursing education during the 1930`s. This further progressed to the research of nursing roles in 1950s following on to the 1990s where nurses began to focus on clinical problems and finding solutions to these problems which had a major impact within the nursing profession. As of today many health professionals are focusing on clinical research which in turn has helped to establish an evidence informed practice for nurses. (Burns and Grove 2003)

An annotated bibliography is a catalogue of citations to books, documents and articles with the purpose of the annotation being to inform the reader of the precision, relevance and quality of the sources cited (Davis, 2009). Evidence based practice enables health care professionals to effectively use current verification during the decision-making procedure (Sacket et al 2000). Healthcare professionals use a hierarchy of evidence as a guide to define the reliability and importance of the evidence based research; with the evidence that is founded further upon

One of the main barriers in using evidence-based practice is the lack of time in order to implement it into the nurse’s days. In one study, many respondents said that, both at work and outside of work hours, time was just not there (Brown, Wickline, Ecoff, & Glaser, 2009). In another study done many years later, time continued to be a main concern for nurses and that they just didn’t feel like it should be expected for them to keep up with the research (Tacia, Biskupski, Pheley, & Lehto, 2015). Many of these restraints on time can easily be addressed though. Some issues, such as, short staffing can be fixed, while others would take more work to address, such as, not having enough time at home to research due to familial obligations. Setting aside specific time in the workday for nurse’s to research or hiring more nurses in order to split the work load and allow more time in between tasks for research could also be solutions to this specific barrier.

Discovering new information applicable to the field of nursing begins by asking a focused clinical research question. According to Stone (2002), asking the appropriate question is essential for the research process that follows. Although there are countless nursing problems that are worth investigating, it is imperative to narrow the focus of the problems so they can be empirically tested (Adams, 2012). Personal clinical experience, professional literature, previous research, and current nursing theories are a few examples of sources where research questions can be identified (Adams, 2012). The purpose of this paper is to explain the connection between research and evidence-based practice, discuss how

Nursing improves when Evidence Based Research findings can be utilized and implemented by nurses in their daily practice. J. Dracup (2006) stated what some nurses had identified as barriers to Evidence Based Research, namely: “accessibility of research findings, anticipated outcomes of using research, organizational support to use research, and support from others to use research.” Dracup believed that “evidence-based practice must include an assessment of the available resources” since the cost of implementation is yet another barrier and “will not be adopted if resources are insufficient to incorporate them into the daily routine” nursing care. G. Mitchell (1999) raised “ the lack of sufficient meaningful research” as an additional barrier.

This paper will discuss how evidence based practice effects nursing practice and how nurses can apply what they learn to their practice. Evidence based practice is a great way to improve the quality of care we provide. “Evidence based practice means using the best available research findings to make clinical decisions that are most effective and beneficial for patients” (Chitty & Black, 2011, p.258). By allowing nurses to participate in research and development, we are able to see firsthand how effective our intervention can be. Nurses run into all kinds of problems on a daily basis and they are able to share their experience and expertise to help develop a better way to solve a problem.

The John Hopkins Nursing Evidence-Based Practice Model describes how practice, education and research are the foundation for professional nursing. Practice is first, nurses need to question the basis of their practice and utilize an evidenced based approach to validate or change their current practice. Next is education, nurses’ education is basic in the beginning however with ongoing education nurses are able to gain new knowledge and skills throughout their careers. Finally is research, research generates new information for the nursing profession and allows for improvement of practice based on scientific evidence and research. (Dearholt & Dang 2012, p. 34-40).

As the health care environment is becoming more complex, and technology is developing rapidly, the expectations of nurses has increased more than ever before. Times are rapidly changing and to keep up with these changes, nurses are moving away from providing care based on the ways it’s always been done towards research- and evidence-based practice. The purpose of this paper is to define the importance of Evidence Based Practice (EBP). It will give examples of research in practice. And finally, will examine the barriers that prevent research utilization.

In order to do this, we need to understand how the research process works, so we can better understand the results. Conducting evidence-based practice or promoting evidence-based practice is important for the graduate level nurse, in my opinion. Providing the best evidence for clinical decisions is essential in delivering appropriate patient interventions.

Nursing research has been a part of nursing practice for many years, consisting of both qualitative and quantitative research; it is essential in guiding nursing practice. Many nurses have a baseline understanding of research in general, but it is important for the researcher to understand their own values and beliefs when determining the type of research they will be performing. By understanding the differences between epistemology, methodology, and methods, the researcher can confidently conduct a valid research project.

Implement a program of evidence-based nursing where research serves as basis for all nursing practice

Houser, J. (2012). Nursing research: reading, using, and creating evidence. (2nd ed.). Boston: Jones & Bartlett.

The harmony among clinical and research orientation is essential to professional nurses as they dynamically enhance the nursing’s scientific knowledge by way of research. Evidence facilitates advancements in nursing and inhibits the usage of unjustified nursing errors and practices. Finally, evidence-based practice substitutes usage of trial and error and improves development, evaluation, and professional progression. Evidence-based practice is used by professional nurses for the sake of influencing the standard of care and for encouraging a self-directed nursing environment.