Evidence-based
practice (EBP) has been defined as the conscientious, explicit, and judicious
use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual
patients. Evidence-based practice integrates all the knowledge that the
health professional has attained through
- formal education
- personal
experience
- the experience
of mentors and other colleagues
- the results
of relevant clinical studies that have been reported in the literature.
Another important
component of evidence-based practice is that it takes into account the
preferences and wishes of the patient.
Nurses
generally do not have the same level of autonomy as physicians in making
decisions about patient care. Therefore, nurses may use the evidence-based
approach more as a way to determine certain areas of care that might be
good candidates for research, or for a change of treatment protocol.
In many ways,
evidence-based practice is really an extension of the idea of critically
evaluating resources, as discussed in Section 5. A health professional
who is able to search for relevant studies in the literature, critically
appraise those studies, and apply the results of that appraisal in the
treatment of a patient, is practicing evidence-based health care.
