Evidence Based Practice Reflection Paper

Research utilization and Evidenced Based Practice (EBP) have been discussed in many areas of care throughout my nursing career. I set out to discover how research is collaborated where I work and found out some eye-opening results. I asked different staff nurses about how they felt about EBP and if where they worked based current practice on research. The nurses felt that they were using EBP, but couldn’t give examples of specific research. None of the staff nurses, knew what resources where available to facilitate research in their facility. I interviewed members of the practice council to determine how current practices were influenced by research. Research was only utilized in a defense manner. In other words, if a problem in patient care or satisfaction was noted, the practice council looked at ways to keep the problem from happening again. The solution was not based on research, but collected from “brain-storming” or “borrowing” ideas from other facilities. I also interviewed the night clinical educator and found out that the educator position was recently created because of new research. Lastly, I visited with members of management and found out that evidence based practice in leadership was heard of, but not readily discussed. Nursing research should be the forefront of the nursing profession in all …show more content…
Most managers in healthcare today are required to have a Master’s degree and have had a class, such as this one, that addresses EBP in leadership. The tide is changing in leadership. The use of research based practice and its effectiveness are determinate on nurse managers and administration (Gifford et al, 2007). As more nurses get a higher education, the more prevalence of EBP will be in nursing leadership. This education will help nursing leadership will see the importance of better patient outcomes and help transform findings in research into useful forms for staff nurses (Stevens,