Is Care Quality Improved Through Evidence-Based Practice?

This article explores the impact of evidence-based practice on care quality in nursing. It discusses the benefits, barriers, and how it is used in nursing. The article also provides examples of evidence-based practice and how it has influenced nursing education and research. The subject is nursing, and the course code and college/university are not mentioned.

Is Care Quality Improved Through Evidence-Based Practice? 1
IS CARE QUALITY IMPROVED THROUGH EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICE?
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Is Care Quality Improved Through Evidence-Based Practice?
Introduction
Evidence-based practice is not a new concept in the field of nursing. With its application
continuing to grow steadily across the globe, not many can argue against the idea that it has
positively impacted the quality of care. The principles of evidence-based practice formally came
into limelight in 1992 in medicine where it was referred to as evidence-based medicine before
spreading to fields like nursing, dentistry, and psychology. Evidence-based practice in nursing
encompasses infection control, oxygen use in patients with COPD, measuring blood pressure
noninvasively in children, intravenous catheter size, and blood administration, among other
examples. In the United States, evidence-based practice has been identified as a key factor in
fulfilling Berwick et.al (2008) Triple Aim in healthcare which entails improving patient care
experience, improving population health, and reducing the healthcare per capita cost. The Triple
Aim currently entails a fourth goal which involves increasing work life and decreasing burnout
in clinicians. What is evidence-based practice?
Evidence-based practice refers to the process of coming up with clinical decisions based
on evidence, alongside clinical experience and expectations of the patient (Kirschbaum and Short
2018). It can also be defined as a clinical decision-making framework that inspires clinical
practitioners to incorporate data from a high quality qualitative and quantitative research with the
client's values and background alongside clinical expertise. This practice entails evidence
assessment using a hierarchy of various types of evidence (Sellman et al, 2016). To obtain an
evidence upon which you can base your decision, you begin by phrasing your case as a specific
answerable question. This may be done through PICO where P stands for your patient or

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population group. I stand for you intervention or indicator. C stands for your comparison or
control. While O stands for the outcome you are looking for (Kirschbaum and Short 2018).
How is Evidence-Based Practice Used in Nursing?
Evidence-based practice encompasses the following components. These are best available
evidence, clinician's knowledge, and skills, and patients want and need (Hall and Roussel, 2016).
When all these three components are fully integrated into clinical decisions, the prospect for
optimal clinical outcomes and quality of life become greatly enhanced.
The transition to evidence-based practice has influenced nursing in a number of ways.
One area affected by this transition is the nursing education (Schmidt et al, 2014) . Nursing
program curricula have been altered by universities and colleges to create room for incorporation
of the evidence-based practice. Currently, students who seek to pursue a nursing degree will
encounter coursework that includes the significance of professional accountability alongside
nurse's overall knowledge base (Grove et al, 2014). These new programs put a lot of emphasis on
critical thinking skills and advise the practitioner to look into the clinical, religious, cultural and
socioeconomic background of the patient and apply related scientific research in their practice.
The increasing use of evidence-based practice has also attracted more interest in nursing
research as well as an emphasis on the same. Although nursing programs may have a few
courses detailing research, students find it beneficial honing their research skills further. Through
nursing research, they become accustomed to new scientific data that may have a more direct
influence on their nursing career.
Various research methodologies in evidence-based practiced may prepare nurses for
careers outside the bedside. Nurses become exposed to diverse openings in the field of research
upon completion of Master of Science Degree and ascend to more independent roles that require

Is Care Quality Improved Through Evidence-Based Practice? 4
less patient contact (Cunningham et al., 2014). Nurse researchers may come up studies, conduct
data collection, and author and publish whatever they find from their research.
Benefits of Evidence-Based Practice
The application of evidence-based practice in the clinical setting has been proven to have
several benefits for patients, healthcare, and nurses. Some of the general benefits of evidence-
based practice to nursing practice include the following. EEvidence--based practice has resulted
in better patient outcomes. It has helped keep practice current and relevant. It has contributed to
the science of nursing. It has also increased confidence in making nursing decisions.
Benefits for Patients
The hallmark of nursing practice lies in the provision of the best possible patient care.
With the use of evidence based practice, nurses are able to direct nursing care in accordance with
scientific research. This in turn results into more consistent clinical interventions and improved
clinical outcomes to patients and families (Brownson et al., 2015). This will enable the patient to
enjoy great treat from the expert hence good health.
Benefits for Health Care
The use of evidence based practice (EBP) has potentially lowered the cost of healthcare
as EBP requires only a few heath care resources. The cost of care based on tradition and outdated
policies has been very high as it not requires a lot of healthcare resources, but has also been
wasted in the process of establishing modes of delivery competent client (Greenhalgh, 2014).
Implementation of EBP would ensure available resources are managed properly as they would be
utilized in an effective and efficient manner. When the cost is law, people will be able to have a
great health care from the experts thus improving their health.

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Benefits for Nurses
The use of evidence based practice also works to benefit the nurses. One way in which
EBP has benefited the nurses is by increasing the nurse’s skills, adaptability, confidence, critical
thinking and decision making as they are constantly required to assess the relevant research to
their practice. Increase in nurse skill will also benefit the patient since the patient will get a
proper health care. In addition to enhancing the clinical performance of nurses, EBP has also
resulted into higher job satisfaction among nurses as well as creating better group cohesion
leading to job retention in the healthcare.
Evidence Based Practice and Quality Care
The goal of adopting evidence based practiced in healthcare was to take current
knowledge and link it to standardize care so as to enhance care processes and patient outcomes
(Kirschbaum and Short 2018). Nurses came to understand that to achieve better patient
outcomes, it was necessary that new knowledge was converted into clinically useful forms that
could be easily applied across the entire care team and gaged based on the impact it has on the
performance and health outcomes care (Mihalic and Elliot, 2015). The evidence based practiced
enable health systems to achieve gains on all of the following three aims at a go. These are care,
health, and cost. Evidence based practice has improved care quality in the following ways.
It updates clinicians on standardized, evidence based protocols. With many scientific
knowledge published daily, clinicians need to read several articles on a daily basis to stay current
on medical best practices. According to Nilsen et al. (2018), clinicians need to read at least 16
articles every day so as to stay up to date with the ongoing medical practices. This looks like an
uphill task. However with evidence based practice, clinicians find a way through which they can
stay up to date with the best practices making use of standardized evidence based protocols.

Is Care Quality Improved Through Evidence-Based Practice? 6
Utilizes near real time data in making care decisions. Advancements in health system has
seen more advanced technology like electrical medical records, built in protocols, sophisticated
analytics, data warehouses, and decision support systems being used in healthcare to access data
and gain more knowledge. Incorporation of evidence based practice here enables health care staff
to deliver improved patient care based near real-time data. As outlined by ….(), this help fill
cracks in the evidence base and lower the uncertainty that may arise in the process of decision
making.
Evidence-based practice has enhanced transparency, accountability, and value in care
(Mutters et al. 2018). Transparency, accountability, and value have been a major problem in the
past few years with employers, payers and patients all advocating for them to be displayed in
health care. For instance, people want to acquire care that is of high quality and the lowest
possible cost. Incorporation of evidence-based healthcare has helped the healthcare sector
achieve the goals. According to Shelton (2018), EBP has helped enhance transparency of
reasoning behind policies, justifies the decision on the need for valid data that can withstand
scrutiny thus increasing accountability, test the uncertainty by clarifying the strength of the
policy used to support evidence, and coming up with policy decisions motivated by healthcare
dollar outcome.
Improved quality of care. A lot of money has been spent in healthcare in many nations
across the world. Unfortunately, no major quality improvements have been witnessed despite the
big spending as evidence shows that people do not often get the care they need (Melnyk et al.,
2014). The evidence-based practice has improved care as clinicians now have access to
previously untapped data and best practices that have been reviewed and accepted by clinical
associates.

Is Care Quality Improved Through Evidence-Based Practice? 7
Improved outcome. The most important thing about evidence-based practice is that it
works. Information has it that if the best clinical evidence and expertise are diligently used by
health systems, with consist treatments, better outcomes can be realized in whichever way.
Barriers to implementation of Evidence-Based Practice
Several studies have cited a number of barriers that hinder nurses from effectively using
research in their everyday practice. The following are some of the barriers that are often reported
by nurses (Kirschbaum and Short 2018). Lack of value for research in practice. Little time on the
job to read the research. Lack of education about the research process. The complexity of
research reports. Unavailability of research articles. Challenges associated with changing
practice. Lack of awareness about evidence-based practice (Wong et al., 2015). Little time to
carry out research. Lack of knowledgeable mentors. Lack of administrative support. Feeling
overwhelmed by the entire process.
In spite of these barriers, nurses find evidence-based practice effective in improving
patient outcomes. This has led to many nurses engaging in EBP (Harvey and Kitson, 2015). Most
of the barriers highlighted by nurses can easily be overcome through organization efforts that
places emphasis on integrating research in practice and making use of strategies like nursing
grand rounds, journal clubs as well as having research articles ready for review.
Success with evidence-based practice requires one to be willing to challenge their own
assumptions and show the will to collaborate with others to improve the entire process of care
and patient outcomes. EBP makes use of time, effort, resources, as well as work. However, the
outcome is worth it (Rousseau and Gunia, 2016). Each and every patient deserves to be provided
with care that is of high quality and low cost and that which is based on the best scientific
knowledge.

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Conclusion
Evidence-based practice has had enormous impacts on the quality of care. Some of the
benefits that EBP has had on nursing practice includes better patient outcomes, has helped keep
practice current and relevant, and has contributed to the science of nursing as well as increase
confidence in making nursing decisions. Evidence-based practice has been beneficial to nurses,
patients as well as healthcare. Despite the few challenges that have been experienced in
implementing the practice in a clinical setting, it has helped address three main goals which
include care, health, and cost. Most of the barriers highlighted by nurses can easily be overcome
through organization efforts that places emphasis on integrating research in practice and making
use of strategies like nursing grand rounds, journal clubs as well as having research articles ready
for review. To conclude, evidence-based practice has helped improve the quality of care.

Is Care Quality Improved Through Evidence-Based Practice? 9
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