WEEK 10

• Evidence-based practice (EBP)


  The conscientious use of current best practice evidence in making decisions about patient care. It is a lifelong problem-solving approach to clinical practice that integrates the most relevant and best research, one's own clinical expertise and patient preferences and values.

  
• One of the major goals in doing health education is to educate clients on how they can improve their current health
• All information provided to clients should be evidence-based, from the latest trends and research on nursing that proves the information is correct, factual and improves the client's current health
• Evidence-based medicine, evidence-generated from systematic reviews of clinically randomized trials, has been acknowledged as the strongest evidence upon which practice decisions are made
• EBP


  • Helps nurses determine an effective course of action for care delivery
• EBP involves

  1. Form a clinical question to identify a problem

  2. Gather the best evidence

  3. Analyze the evidence

  4. Apply the evidence to clinical practice

  5. Assess the result
• Outdated practices may have included supplies, equipment or products that are no longer necessary for certain procedures or techniques
• EBP is an essential component of safe, quality patient care. Nurses must be aware of current practices to provide care to patients with complicated and debilitating conditions
• Evidence-based medicine is credited as one of the greatest medical advances of the 20th century and has influenced spheres far beyond health, from 'evidence based policy' to 'evidence-based conservation'
• The incorporation of quality improvement into daily clinical practice, and comparison of quality improvement with evidence-based medicine, may provide insights to inform the future progress of the quality improvement movement