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- Role of Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing (5 Benefits)
By Indeed Editorial Team
Updated February 23, 2022 | Published June 22, 2021
Updated February 23, 2022
Published June 22, 2021
Evidence-based practice in nursing can help patients receive better care and a more accurate diagnosis. This approach uses risk assessment to find the best treatment plans and offers patients and medical staff many benefits.
In this article, we explain what evidence-based practice is and list its benefits, and share tips for implementing this practice.
What is evidence-based practice in nursing?
Evidence-based practice in nursing is an approach to patient care that uses problem-solving, research and clinical expertise to plan treatment. Evidence-based practice is unique in the way it involves patients and requires nurses to consider each patient's preferences. With this technique, nurses and other medical professionals create individualized care plans for patients.
How nurses use evidence-based practices
Using these five steps, nurses can determine how to provide the best care to a patient:
1. Identify the problem
The first step is to identify a problem to solve. Nurses do this by collecting medical history from the patients and taking vital signs such as heart rate and blood pressure. This includes asking the patient about their symptoms, concerns and lifestyle. After collecting information about how the patient feels, they form a question for research. For example, if a patient has back pain with normal vital signs, the nurse would question the internal causes of back pain.
2. Gather evidence
Using resources such as medical research studies, the hospital database and their colleagues, nurses can gather evidence using the patient's symptoms to find probable cause and potential treatments. When researching and gathering evidence, nurses use their initial questions as topics for research. To continue the previous example, the nurse investigating internal causes for back pain may check each possible diagnosis and compare it with the patient's history to eliminate potential causes.
It is useful to organize research so that it is easy to analyze facts later. Professionals also often take personal notes while researching in order to have a record of their initial thoughts and observations.
Related: Everything You Need To Know About Note-Taking Skills
3. Analyze the evidence
After gathering information relating to the patient's case, it's important to re-evaluate and consider what is most useful. Some nursing interventions may not be relevant considering all the facts. For example, if an internal condition that causes back pain usually only presents with both back pain and an elevated heart rate, a patient with normal vital signs likely doesn't have this condition. To analyze the evidence, a nurse must also evaluate their sources for validity.
Related: 6 Ways to Improve Critical Thinking at Work
4. Apply findings to clinical practice
Evidence-based practice in nursing requires the use of the nurse's own clinical experience to determine how to proceed with a specific patient. They share their findings and ideas with the physician and follow the treatments the doctor recommends. Considering the treatment plan, nurses provide care to patients with nursing interventions, such as administering medication, checking vital signs and assisting with mobility during the patient's stay in the hospital.
Related: What Are Nursing Interventions? Definitions and Examples
5. Assess the result
In evidence-based practice, it is helpful to assess the process of gathering information and the result of applying research to clinical practice. This helps improve research methods and adds experience for a nurse to draw from on their next case. Assessing the result is especially important in the case of a misdiagnosis or if the patient's condition progresses, as nurses can use their previous experience with the patient and their research to improve the treatment plan.
What are the benefits of evidence-based practice in nursing?
Ultimately, evidence-based practice in nursing improves patient care and the patient's chances of a full recovery. Here are other ways an evidence-based practice can benefit nurses and patients:
1. Stays up to date with medical protocol
Evidence-based practice requires research that can help nurses learn more about medical protocols for a variety of situations. There are new discoveries in medicine as technology advances and as researchers conduct more studies on illness and treatments so it is important for medical professionals to stay up-to-date and learn about innovations. Staying up-to-date with medical protocol is an essential part of a nurse's primary duties.
2. Improves the decision-making process
Thorough research helps nurses make informed decisions and the evidence-based practice method requires nurses to gather information and analyze it to assess the best option to proceed with. This offers confidence in nursing and benefits the patients who receive better treatment plans as a result of this approach. Developing strong research skills is often essential to a professional's nursing career and is transferable should they want to advance their career later.
3. Increases patient recovery
By combining research and clinical experience and expertise, evidence-based practice helps nurses find effective treatment techniques. For example, nurses can research a patient's symptoms and learn of effective interventions for their condition. Finding proven treatments helps increase patient recovery and allows patients to get a diagnosis and recover more quickly.
Related: Patient-Centered Care: Elements and Examples
4. Understands risks of treatments
Researching symptoms and previous cases of a patient's condition can reveal potential outcomes and guide medical professionals to take preventative measures when treating a patient. For example, research on medicine that doctors recommend for an illness may inform you of side effects for patients. If a certain medicine or treatment has a side effect that would negatively impact an at-risk patient, such as a patient of a certain age, you can use this information to guide you to find an alternative for your patient.
5. Gives patients a role in planning their care
Evidence-based practices include patients in the treatment planning. Nurses talk to patients about options and allow them to make decisions about their health. Giving patients a role in their recovery can provide independence and make them feel more confident about the care they receive. It also allows patients to advocate for themselves in situations regarding personal issues that a professional may not realize initially.
Related: 10 Ways To Advocate for Patients
Tips for implementing evidence-based practices
Follow these tips to help implement evidence-based practices in nursing:
Identify and organize resources for research
It can be helpful for the nursing team to have books and an online database available for research purposes. This reduces time spent verifying sources and searching for a resource to collect evidence from. Encouraging senior nursing staff to act as mentors and share their experience and expertise with their colleagues also provides an excellent resource to nurses.
Establish goals that focus on the patient
The patient is the center of all nursing practices. Establishing goals that focus on patients helps provide personalized care and is helpful in achieving proper diagnosis and treatments. In evidence-based practice, nurses create patient-centered goals by performing research on a case-by-case basis. This also allows patients to feel more involved in their own care.
Provide education and training
Providing education courses and training exercises is a service some hospitals and medical clinics offer to give staff experience with different types of treatment, exposure to patient conditions and help to understand roles on the medical team. This also encourages collaboration among all members of the medical staff, which helps in evidence-based practice by providing nurses with additional resources in the form of experts.