Research/EBP/Global Health Essay Position Paper
Abstract
Evidence-based practice (EBP) has become exceedingly popular in health care settings, thus, this study will focus on how nurses can utilize EBP in enhancing quality in patient care, and how EBP has transformed global health care. Nurses should strive to embrace EBP because it assists them in answering numerous questions from patients. Efficient understanding of research methods is vital in the implementation of EBP because it assists in the assessment of new evidence. EBP has the potential to improve global health care, thus, nurses should be trained continuous on new evidences that emerge during their practices. EBP in Singapore is still a new trend, although nurses have shown a great support on the practice.
Key words: Evidence-based practice (EBP), Patient Care, Research Methods, Clinical Decision Making
Research/EBP/Global Health Essay Position Paper
Evidence-based practice (EBP) involves the application of a life-long approach to offer clinical decisions that incorporate a careful utilization of the best existing evidence, accompanied by clinical expertise, to facilitate outcomes for individuals, groups, as well as systems. To enhance better patient outcomes, nurses should engage in seeking new knowledge that can be transformed into effective and systematic use across the entire health care. Understanding research methods can assist nurses in improving EBP, as nursing practice is changing. EBP has rapidly gained popularity globally owing to its capacity to deal effectively with clinical issues and offering an assurance of better patient care. Thus, nurses should strive to acquire satisfactory knowledge and skills to enable them apply EBP effectively in clinical settings.
Part A: Why Nurses Should Utilize EBP
Historically, patient care was influence by the knowledge of individuals involved in offering treatment in the health care facilities. This practice led to poorly informed decision making, as health care facilities were unable to establish an optimal way of delivering quality patient care. The U.S., through the Institute of Medicine (IOM), has persisted in optimizing care delivery system by focusing on the quality of patient care based on the six aims, which include safety, effectiveness, efficiency, timeliness, patient-centered, and equitable services (Perry, Potter & Ostendorf, 2016). EBP is vital in nursing to ensure that the desirable outcomes are achieved through improving the quality of care.
Nurses have a significant role in the handling of patients, as they are always at the forefront in offering direct care to patients, as well as dealing with the family caregivers. Thus, they should understand the implications of offering care based on EBP. Nurses are expected to apply the current knowledge, gathered from research and clinical proficiency, to enhance their practice, with regard to individual patient values. The environment of nursing has not been constant, thus, embracing EBP can assist nurses to keep their practice current and pertinent. Additionally, EBP minimizes the possibilities of encountering errors and encourages new practices to be utilized as evidence.
Nurses should utilize EBP because it increases the effectiveness in treatment and offers the rationale for any practice. According to Perry, Potter and Ostendorf (2016), patients usually engage nurses with questions regarding the choice of action; therefore, nurses should always have solutions that are logical and evidence-based. Hain and Haras (2015) acknowledged that the strive to become leaders as well as active participants on matters of health care improvement necessitate nurses to possess knowledge and skills to utilize EBP. Patients are assured of their safety during operations when nurses optimize clinical care. EBP is quite useful to nurses because it enables them to account to all patients as to how they have resulted to certain decisions.
Part B: Understanding Research Methods
Research is a fundamental part in nursing because it assists in generating information necessary for nursing investigations. All knowledge that nurses use to make decisions can be termed as evidence. However, how to validate such knowledge is the key to improving quality of care. Understanding the research methods is essential in the implementation of EBP because research assist in understanding relationships and behaviors, which can be improved through evidence. Research-based practices are better than routine practices in assuring improved patient outcomes (Doody, C. & Doody, O., 2011).
A nursing research is a systematic inquest that enables nursing professionals to implement new changes in the handling of individuals seeking health care services through research methods. Research methods are categorized into two groups: quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative methods focus on the numbers while qualitative methods involve evaluating the nature of activities under investigation. Both methods complement each other since they breed different type of knowledge necessary in nursing practice (Burns, Grove & Gray, 2015). Nurses should understand the quantitative method of research because it offers objective and systematic process to obtain information concerning the world and relationship among variables.
Knowing the qualitative method of research is vital for nurses because it enables them to describe life experiences, behaviors, and situations, with an aim to infer meanings. Some of the qualitative research methods that benefit nurses include phenomenological research, which enable nurses to understand the experience of patients with chronic pain; and ethnographic research, which focuses on culture, thus, assisting in enhancing care to patients and families (Burns, Grove & Gray, 2015). Nurses can implement EBP if they understand how to relate behaviors and life experiences effectively.
Part C: Utilization of EBP in Global Health Care
In the pursuit for quality and improved access to health care, health care professionals should strive to utilize EBP to attain the Millennium Development Goals as outlined by the United Nation. The use of evidence in directing clinical decision-making activities is critical as it implies improved health system performance. All over the globe, nurses have expressed their satisfaction in scientific evidence that guides their practice. In a study carried out at National University Hospital in Singapore concerning evidence-based practice, many nurses expressed positive attitude towards its use. According to Foo, Majid, Mokhtar, Zhang, Luyt, Chang and Theng (2011), EBP seemed to be a new thing in Singapore when compared with other developed countries. Although several surveys have been undertaken all over the globe since the 1990s, nurses in Singapore have not been keen in embracing the practice.
Most studies on EBP done in many countries demonstrated that nursing practitioners and managers have shown positive support to the practice due to its potential in offering high-quality health care and assistance in decision-making, leading to high satisfaction among patients. Most nurses indicate that EBP is necessary for enhancing patient outcome, but regular trainings should be carried out to enhance the practice. Most health care professionals are aware of EBP, even though they do not exploit available databases and sources to enhance their competencies.
Singapore’s National University Hospital is a 935-bed acute care facility, which offers advanced medical care services, in addition to acting as a referral center that attends to various medical and dental specialties (Foo, et al., 2011). The study involved 1,140 personnel from different nursing departments. Most respondents stated that they had adopted EBP because it enhanced clinical decision making with regard to the patient’s subjective and objective information, although a few of them admitted that EBP incorporates both experience and research findings.
The findings indicated that most nurses in Singapore lacked formal training on EBP despite a great number of them having postgraduate degrees. Time seemed to be an issue with most nurses, who claimed to have little time for studying EBP. Some nurses claimed that their workload was too big to allocate any time for seeking new evidence. A few nurses wanted a status quo in approaching clinical decisions while others claimed that most research articles did not correspond with their responsibilities. Such responses implied that the nursing care system in Singapore did not offer incentives to nurses to encourage adoption of EBP.
Some of the factors that registered nurses in Singapore deemed imperative for adopting EBP included having adequate training on EBP, mentorship by nurses who have already gained experience in EBP, and allocation of adequate time to carry out EBP. The study concluded that EBP could succeed in Singapore if nurses are offered proper education and training concerning the same. The authors emphasized that senior nurses should mentor other nurses by explaining the importance of adopting the practice. Besides, more time is required to carry out proper EBP among nurses, who claimed to lack time for reading articles and reports that would enhance their competence in the practice.
Conclusion
Evidence-based practice (EBP) should be embraced in the nursing profession because it has the potential to advance health care services in addition to enhancing patient outcome. Nurses are usually in direct contact with patient; hence, whatever decisions they make concerning patients must be scientifically proven and should be applicable even in the future. Health care services are changing, and having competent nurses would help in improving healthcare outcomes. Nurses need to understand various research methods in order to utilize EBP effectively in clinical decision-making. Most countries have managed to adopt EBP although at different levels. For instance, in Singapore, most nurses are aware of EBP and its importance, but hardly do they get time to expand knowledge on the same. As a problem-solving approach, EBP should be replicated in the global arena to enhance competency in addressing various issues posed by patients.
References
Burns, N., Grove, S. K., & Gray, J. (2015). Understanding nursing research: Building an evidence-based practice.
Doody, C.M., & Doody, O. (2011). Introducing evidence into nursing practice: using the Iowa model. British Journal of Nursing, 20(11), 661-664.
Foo, S., Majid, S., Mokhtar, I. A., Zhang, X., Luyt, B., Chang, Y., & Theng, Y. (2011). Nurses Perception on Evidence-Based Practice at the National University Hospital in Singapore. Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 42(11), 522-528. Doi: 3928/00220124-20110516-04
Hain, D., & Haras, S. (2015). Continuing Nursing Education. Changing Nephrology Nurses’ Beliefs about the Value of Evidence-Based Practice and Their Ability to Implement in Clinical Practice. Nephrology Nursing Journal, 42(6), 563-567.
Perry, A. G., Potter, P. A., & Ostendorf, W. (2016). Nursing interventions & clinical skills. St. Louis, Missouri: Elsevier.