When I think of the word “research” in the field of nursing, what initially comes to mind is determining what some of the best nursing practices available are and if they are effective in providing quality patient care. Since I graduated from my master’s of nursing program, research in nursing has been a vital part of that journey and has introduced me to many different nursing evidenced based practices that I did not know existed. Also, research has served as an important aspect in determining my final research project for my MSN course. According to American Association of College of Nursing (2020), nursing research can be defined as a rigorous scientific study that provides a significant body of knowledge to advance nursing practice, shape health policy, and impact the health of people in all countries.
Overall, it provides the scientific bases for the practice of nursing profession, using multiple philosophical and theory based as well as diverse methodology to understand the ease of acute and chronic care illnesses; prevent or delay onset of disease or disability, finding approaches to achieve and sustain optimal health and improvement of clinical setting. Working as a critical care nurse in the intensive care unit and acquiring my masters in nursing the last two years, our unit is subjected to many unit changes accompanied by policies and procedures that require research and translation of EBP into clinical expertise. The last DNP class that I finished as well as the MSN courses that I previously took has provided me with the fundamentals of exploring evidenced based practice research and has helped me research and evaluate EBP interventions that would help in our healthcare facility. Also, it has assisted me in conducting research to generate new knowledge (towards my project practice problem) and validate existing knowledge based off theories.
Research is the start of promoting evidenced based practices and is now widely recognized as the key to improving healthcare quality and patient outcomes. Nursing science comes from all manners of research from discovery to translation, from bench to bedside, from mechanistic to holistic (Chien, 2019). Like many other healthcare hospitals, our hospital is open to educational processes that would help enhance learning and effective approaches to technology and leadership. Because of this, I am familiar with evidenced based practices and our educational processes are often tied with quality improvement performance improvement assessments. According to Chrisman, Jordan, Davis & Williams (2014), EBP is the collecting, processing, and implementing research findings to improve clinical practices, work environment, and patient outcomes. EBP measures are meant to help provide high quality patient care and most efficient patient care (p.9). In my current experience with EBP measures in my healthcare facility, one of the examples of how our current organization supports EBP includes the research of new healthcare practices that are being implemented in our battle with the healthcare management of Covid-19 and its core care measures. The current research that comes with tackling new practice problems with the Covid-19 and the sepsis management; understanding EBP assists in translating evidence apply them to the constant change in clinical decision making. EBP goes beyond research and takes into the consideration that sometimes the best evidence comes from leaders, experts, and knowledge where it exists (Conner, 2014). Therefore, everything we do in clinical practice should be guided by clinical by best research evidence, rather than just opinions alone. Being the a critical care nurse in a hospital that lacks many resources, our interdisciplinary team are in the position for an opportunity to be involved in the multiple stages of EBP continuum by being actively involved in continuing education updated on expected competencies for our specialty areas.
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