Barriers to Applying Evidence Based Practice in Nursing

The Context of Barriers to Applying Evidence Based Practice in Nursing

Evidence-based practice is one fundamental standard for ensuring provision of quality, safe and compassionate healthcare to the public. In many healthcare facilities, there are often barriers to achieving the implementation of evidence-based practice in nursing. Consequently, Healthcare organizations are challenged to foster an environment conducive for provision of care based on evidence rather than based on ritualized practice.

Problem Description

Yoder, Kirkley, McFall, Kirksey, StalBaum, and Sellers, (2014) details: in many health care organizations, Nurses often rely mostly on experiential knowledge they have acquired through interactions colleagues, other medical staff as well as patients in decision making regarding their practice.  Lack of time for the nursing practitioners, inadequate resources in addition to perceived authority of an individual to change practice has had a huge influence on the extent to which nursing professionals make use of formal sources of evidence. Despite being well skilled, and able to access and review research evidence, many of the nurses often have less confidence in their ability to change practice.

Malik, McKenna, and Plummer, (2015) points out that within the health care organizations, nurses majorly rely on their personal experience and the organization policies as their formal knowledge sources. Malik, et.al, (2015) adds that, although such nurses may have a positive attitude towards evidence based practice, they often lack the skills and knowledge both for upraising as well as making use of the evidence practices. Such nurses indicated training as a solution for up-skilling to use evidence based practices.

Impact of Evidence Based Practice on Environment, the Quality of Care Provided by Staff, and Patient Outcomes.

According to Johansen, and O’brien, (2016, January), in nurse practice, decision making is a very dynamic fundamental process that affect the patient outcome. Keers, Williams, Cooke, and Ashcroft, (2013), Identifies that crucial contributors to patient medical errors are underlying system factors within the organization. Keers, et.al, (2013) points out knowledge based mistakes as one of the contributors of errors in medication. Among the error provoking conditions are inadequate written communication like prescription. Studies show that the care provided to patients in the healthcare organizations are not appropriate thus exposing them to harm (Keers, et.al, 2013). Evidence based practice has also proven to improve both patient care and patient outcomes (Black, Balneaves, Garossino, Puyat, and Qian, 2015).

Significance of the Evidence Based Practice and Its Implications to Nursing.

Evidence based practice is critical in health care since it helps provide the means through which current best evidence obtained from studies can be applied in the healthcare in a judicious and conscientious manner to prevent, detect, provide care for diseases. Use of Evidence based practice in nursing practice enables the integration of evidence from research with policies and practice (Larouche d’Entremont, Thompson Mulpuri 2016).

In nursing practice, evidence based practice enables unlocking of information that can be applied in changing the process and adjusting the health organization protocols enabling both individual and patient adjustments with both family values and expertise (Baker, 2017).

Proposed Solution

Evidence based practice among nurses is clinically useful. For health organizations to overcome barriers to evidence based practice, it is prudent for training and education intervention targeting nursing parctioners. Theofanidis, (2015) identifies training approach that teaches nurses to enable them explore the fundamental concepts within the scientific paradigm required for appraisal and use of research evidence in clinical practice. That way, the barriers to evidence based practice like knowledge gap and nurses’ attitude can be overcome thereby enabling use of evidence to innovate and improve nursing care.