Nursing Research and EBP
Caring for different types of patients is both challenging and interesting. Having grown up with a relative suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, I developed the desire to care for ailing persons. Bachelor of Science in Nursing is a degree that I believe will equip me with the necessary knowledge and skills to help people go through what is often one of the most difficult times in life.
According to Conner (2018), nursing research is an activity that is carried out to develop knowledge that can enhance health promotions over the full lifespan. This knowledge enables individuals to respond effectively to both actual and potential health issues. Evidence-based practices involve the judicious application of the best and most recent evidence in making decisions on how to go about an individual’s patient care. The difference between nursing research and evidence-based practices is that nursing research applies qualitative and/ or quantitative methodologies to develop new knowledge on a particular clinical subject whereas evidence-based practice applies individual’s clinical expertise, patient’s values and preferences and best clinical evidence often from systematic external researches.
In my daily work as a registered nurse, I always use evidence-based practice especially to control infections in the hospital. Among other practices, I wash my hand correctly before and after handling every patient, isolate patients with infectious diseases, wear clean protective clothing while handling patients, and use barrier precautions while caring for patients. Though I have not participated in an evidence-based practice project yet, I look forward to undertaking any project that can improve people’s health.
Registered nurses should never exclusively rely on their intuitions to make practice decisions. This is because intuitions often lead to variations in clinical practices which results to variation in patient’s outcomes. It is also easy to err when dealing with diseases with similar signs and symptoms or when a lot of data is involved. Practice decisions made solely on intuitions can, however, be excused in the event of time limitation when a patient’s life is at stake or when the available evidence-based practices have failed to produce positive outcomes (University of Minnesota, n.d.). For example, in an emergency situation where a patient’s bleeding could lead to death and all the evidence-based practices have failed, any intuitive practice is welcome for use since unlike doing nothing, it could save the patient’s life.