EBP

Evidence Based Practice in Nursing

Evidence Based Practice in Nursing

Introduction

There has been an increasingly greater stress, since the last decade, to base health promotion, preventive policies and practice decisions on evidence. This is mainly because it allows decisions related to health and other areas to be taken on the basis of a combined view from research findings, clinical knowledge and expert opinion (Youngblut & Brooten, 2001). Evidence based practice also helps in ending the dependence on out-of-date or traditional practices since it uses literature and patient values to solve the problems of the patient (Bhargava et.al. 2012, p.185). This combined view provides opportunities to nurses to be more individualised, effective and dynamic and thus by using evidence, nurses are able to employ the latest technological advances and make use of the new knowledge that surfaces and define their practice accordingly for best practice, while they can also critically analyse the gathered research to answer clinical questions. In this manner they also comply with the NMC Standards of conduct, performance and ethics for nurses and midwives that require nurses to be updated to maintain their performance and competence and use the best available evidence (p. 6). Evidence based practice is the need of the hour for all corners of the world and it is equally important for nurses in Oman for which protocols need to be introduced so that it can help in decision making and in improving clinical outcomes (Bhargava et.al. 2012, p. 189).

Assignment Topic

Keeping in view the importance associated with Evidence Based Practice (EBP) in various health prevention and health promoting interventions, the assignment focuses on the illustration of EBP with a topic that will highlight the application of EBP to clinical practice in Oman. In this regard, one of the most common injuries is burn injury which can be looked at for the Evidence Based Practice. Burn injuries are a major problem in low-income countries like Oman (Othman & Kendrick, 2010). Superficial burns are the most common type of burns that occur to people with many thousands of people coming to hospitals with such injuries regularly. Superficial burns or first degree burns affect only the outer layer of the skin i.e. the epidermis making the burn site red, dry and painful. The injury is though caused to the outer layer of skin but the severity and depth can increase over the days especially in areas of poor circulation (ACC, 2007, p. 43). Furthermore, some superficial burns such as those of extensive sunburns may also cause restlessness, headaches, and fever. Hence it is needed for using best practice based on evidence to heal the wounds in the shortest possible time to avoid any complications from developing and for preventing from infection. The paper will thus focus on patients with superficial burns and compare two treatments i.e. of honey dressing or that of silver sulfadiazine to find out whether honey is better in terms of low infection rate and faster healing for superficial ...