NURSING

Importance of Evidence Based Practice in Nursing

Importance of Evidence Based Practice in Nursing

Introduction

There are many definitions of nursing, but some do not properly reflect the knowledge and skills of the professional nurse. The common dictionary definitions refer to the nurse as a person generally .However, at present, there are also men preparing to become nurses and care for healthy people through prevention and education on health. Nursing as a profession has been built up over the centuries and more rapidly in recent decades as medicine, these developments demand a quality education with human, scientific, technical and ethical, to meet all human responses of patient family and community, that have been modified by biotechnology developments, new lifestyles, socio-economic changes, new family structures due to migration, the environment polluted by the same man, minimizing appearance of the traditional cultures, especially in health aspects. This reality demands nurses to follow the evidence based practice in order to follow the standards in providing care services.

Evidence Based Practice

During the past 2 decades, researchers and health care professionals, including nurses, have become increasingly aware of the importance of using evidence-based practice (EBP) in health care settings. Prior to this, nurses commonly complained of the irrelevancy of research to nursing practice and generally regarded research in a negative light (Chorpita, 2003). Emerging from evidence-based medicine, EBP in nursing finds its answers in the recommendations and findings of research-based literature as a primary source of information. This paper in connection to EBP will discuss the importance of utilization of EBP by nurses, how EBP are being utilized all over the world and why nurses need to understand research methods in order to implement evidence-based practice.

Importance of utilization of EBP for Nurses

The introduction regarding evidence-based practice gives a definite impression, that it is a development of up to date scientific facts about the patient's treatment. EBP will help clinical nurses attain greater knowledge and understanding of research and its implementation. In addition, it will help nurses become confident in their ability to use appropriate research findings in practice and contribute to their professional responsibility of providing high-quality care for nursing home residents (Hoagwood and Schoenwald, 2001). There is also a pressing need for in service education to increase nurses' knowledge and awareness of research and its utilization (Henggeler and Smith, 2002; Gutkin, 2002). Evidence based practice are important to be followed in the profession of nursing, because by not following the evidence-based practice guidelines refer putting the life and health of a patient at stake. In order to minimize the risk to patients, standard guidelines were introduced in nursing to be followed so that certain complexities associated with pain management can be avoided (Chorpita, 2003). Evidence based guidelines are developed to guide nurses to follow a standard procedure because if everyone is allowed to follow what s/he perceives best for the patient may increase the level of dissatisfaction among patients (Henggeler and Smith, 2002; Gutkin, 2002).

Why nurses need to understand research methods in order to implement evidence-based practice?

Unfortunately, research ...