Why evidence based research is important

This specialization covers the diagnosis and treatment of critical medical conditions in adults in an acute care setting. Adult gerontology acute care nurse practitioners AGACNPs employ advanced diagnostics and an understanding of the effects of illness or injury.

They could rely on EBP to determine best approaches to treat acute medical conditions such as strokes. Adult gerontology primary care nurse practitioners AGPCNPs provide primary care related to chronic illness and aging, including the management of several types of medication to treat a single condition.

Students in the family nurse practitioner FNP specialization develop skills and knowledge to work with patients of all ages in a family practice environment. FNPs may use EBP to better understand research behind hereditary illnesses and treatment solutions for family members of different ages. This specialization focuses on various health needs and issues of children.

Pediatric nurse practitioners PNPs may use EBP to uncover data about innate illnesses or illnesses that develop in young patients, and how they can receive the least invasive care. Students in this specialization train to provide care to mental health clients across the lifespan using contemporary psychotherapy modalities and knowledge of psychopharmacology.

Psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners PMHNPs may use EBP to make data-backed diagnoses for patients, taking into account past evidence of related illnesses and patient preferences for treatment. For example, WHNPs may use EBP to consult current research about the risk of breast cancer in young women and decide on the most effective screening solutions for individual patients. In a review of EBP in long-term care facilities, a article in American Nurse noted that inadequate training in EBP and lack of administrative and staff buy-in are among the obstacles to successfully implementing evidence-based practice.

Other challenges include lack of understanding by leadership about why evidence-based practice is important, lack of resources, and regulations in a health care facility that may hinder the practice. The American Nurse article recommended that nursing leaders set the tone for encouraging evidence-based practice by fostering staff participation and sharing clinical expertise.

Nurses need a range of skills to effectively implement and govern EBP strategies in a health care environment. They should have strong leadership skills in creating and proposing new solutions for patients. They need to be able to analyze research, solve problems, and make complex decisions based on large quantities of evidence and data. Nurses must also be adept at communicating their findings and ideas to patients, families, and colleagues in the health care facility.

Students work with active nursing professionals to learn current medical practices and techniques, and learn ways to improve patient outcomes across a range of specialties. Discover what the Regis College online Master of Science in Nursing program has to offer, and start building your advanced nursing career today. Nurse Administrator vs. Examining Advanced Practice Nursing Paths. Wherever you are in your career and wherever you want to be, look to Regis for a direct path, no matter your education level.

Fill out the form to learn more about our program options or get started on your application today. Skip to main content. Discover Regis. What degree program are you most interested in? Next Step We value your privacy. Defining Evidence-Based Practice EBP combines clinical expertise, scientific evidence, and the patient-professional perspective to build well-rounded health care strategies that can optimize care delivery on a patient-by-patient basis.

Ask a question about clinical care. Obtain current, high-quality research and evidence related to this question. Analyze and evaluate this evidence. Combine this evidence with clinical expertise and patient values to make a care decision. Supporting your practice: Evidence-Based Medicine. The goals of the tutorial are to clearly outline the theory of EBP and to explain how that theory can be put to practice in the day-to-day work of caring for patients.

The cycle begins again with an assessment of the patient and the patient's care. The tutorial focuses largely on efficient literature searching and therefore on asking questions and acquiring the best evidence. In particular, it suggests specific strategies for finding evidence from primary studies, systematic reviews and meta-analyses using EBP tools. Appraisal is also touched upon, with suggestions for scanning search results to identify articles more likely to yield robust, applicable evidence.

This tutorial assumes you already have some familiarity with basic and advanced PubMed search techniques, as well as with MeSH searching. There are many excellent on-line and print guides that address the critical appraisal of a research report and the application of evidence to an individual patient's care.

You will find links to selected resources that provide especially rich content in these areas in the Appraise and Apply modules of this tutorial. It is best to work systematically through the various modules, starting with Introduction: About Evidence-Based Practice, and then the five modules.

EBP has developed over time to now integrate the best research evidence, clinical expertise, the patient's individual values and circumstances, and the characteristics of the practice in which the health professional works. So, EBP is not only about applying the best research evidence to your decision-making, but also using the experience, skills and training that you have as a health professional and taking into account the patient's situation and values e. The process of integrating all of this information is known as clinical reasoning.

When you consider all of these four elements in a way that allows you to make decisions about the care of a patient, you are engaging in EBP. EBP is important because it aims to provide the most effective care that is available, with the aim of improving patient outcomes. Patients expect to receive the most effective care based on the best available evidence. EBP promotes an attitude of inquiry in health professionals and starts us thinking about: Why am I doing this in this way?

Is there evidence that can guide me to do this in a more effective way? As health professionals, part of providing a professional service is ensuring that our practice is informed by the best available evidence. EBP also plays a role in ensuring that finite health resources are used wisely and that relevant evidence is considered when decisions are made about funding health services. Before EBP health professionals relied on the advice of more experienced colleagues, often taken at face value, their intuition, and on what they were taught as students.

Experience is subject to flaws of bias and what we learn as students can quickly become outdated. Relying on older, more knowledgeable colleagues as a sole information source can provide dated, biased and incorrect information. This is not to say that clinical experience is not important - it is in fact part of the definition of EBP. However, rather than relying on clinical experience alone for decision making, health professionals need to use clinical experience together with other types of evidence-based information.

Not all research is of sufficient quality to inform clinical decision making. Therefore you need to critically appraise evidence before using it to inform your clinical decision making. The three major aspects of evidence that you need to critically appraise are:. Guyatt, G.