Evidence-based practice (EBP) is a fundamental aspect of the nursing profession as it enables practitioners to continue learning and developing efficient decision-making approaches for situations in their organizations. In nursing homes, EBP is performed by healthcare providers’ deliberate selection of medical assistance approaches based on the current research and optimal usage of available recourses (Perruchoud et al., 2021). Indeed, working with diverse patients requires continuous quality improvement and safety addressing; thus, nurses are responsible for maintaining progress. This paper aims to discuss how the EBP can be applied in the nursing home practice and describe examples of effective approach implementation.
In a nursing home setting, patients need daily supportive medical care rather than emergency assistance or acute pain management; thus, practitioners can make long-term observations to identify the issues to address. EBP requires compelling theoretical and practical research, while the latter might be achieved by collaborative work with colleagues or experienced nurses, the former is based on an individual attempt to explore valid sources (Perruchoud et al., 2021). Nursing home operations can be significantly improved by integrating evidence-based findings into daily activities.
For instance, EBP should be performed in a nursing home to address client safety issues, such as the risk of falling or factors that worsen their conditions. A nurse gathered sufficient information to understand the causes of threatening situations, researched similar cases, and selected the most appropriate decision for clients and current needs. Another example of EBP in nursing is when a practitioner develops a strategy to optimize recourses’ utilization to help an organization maintain beneficial patient outcomes under challenging times (Perruchoud et al., 2021). Evidence-based approaches are efficient in healthcare organizations when nurses identify the goal to achieve and have sufficient time and sources to research and develop an intervention strategy.
A nursing home is an organization where EBP implementation can result in significant quality and safety improvements. The approach enables nurses to observe their work and patient outcomes crucially to identify the issues and then use research, communication, and practical intervention to integrate novel, more efficient strategies. In a nursing home, EBP is performed to decrease the range of factors that threaten the safety and to optimize the use of recourses, such as tools, equipment, finances, and employees’ schedule.
Reference
Perruchoud, E., Fernandes, S., Verloo, H., & Pereira, F. (2021). Beliefs and implementation of evidence‐based practice among nurses in the nursing homes of a Swiss canton: An observational cross‐sectional study. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 30(21-22), 3218-3229.