Why is a Focus on Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) Important? If you’ve searched my posts, you may have noticed that two of my biggest focus areas are nursing research and EBP. I taught these two courses to undergraduate and graduate nursing students and nurses for most of my faculty career. I
I frequently emphasize in this blog that to use research and evidence in practice the nurse must be able to critically appraise a research study to ensure that the research methods were strong so, therefore, the results can be trusted. Threats to internal validity can erode confidence in the research
Undergraduate and graduate nursing students learn about the research process and research design. The purpose of learning about research is so that the professional nurse can evaluate and interpret the importance and meaning of research findings to their individual practices. This post reviews the steps of the research process and
Ever think about how much you used to read in school? As a registered nurse (RN), you’re working at caring for patients. How much time do you read now? And I mean reading scientific literature so that you can keep up with the rapid changes in medicine and in your
One main difference between research-based practice and evidence-based practice (EBP) is that EBP may rely on additional forms of evidence besides research findings to answer the question-at-hand. Which evidence sources are acceptable for EBP? In this post, I’ll define evidence, explain the types of evidence sources that are used in
Evidence-based practice (EBP) and nursing research are intertwined. Research knowledge is important to EBP because EBP is predicated on research concepts. In EBP, we are trying to choose the best evidence, integrated with our clinical expertise and patient preferences, to provide the best care for our patients that we can. But
It’s not too hard to come up with questions about our clinical or professional practice if you put your mind to it; many come from our day-to-day observations. In fact, asking questions is a minimal expectation of a nurse, regardless of nursing degree. For undergraduate or graduate nursing students, a course
This month’s posts have all been about the existence and persistence of the research-practice gap in nursing — that is, the gap between the publication or dissemination of research and the use of those findings in practice. In this post, I’ll discuss some of the ways that the research-practice gap
In a previous post, I talked about the research-practice gap, also known as the evidence-practice gap. This phenomenon is not a figment of our past but is still a problem struggled with today (Agbedia, Okoronkwo, Onokayeigho, & Agbo, 2014; Curtis, Fry, Shaban, & Considine, 2016; Middlebrooks, Carter-Templeton, & Mund, 2016). Of course,
Mind the Gap! That’s a sign you’ll see in the London underground (AKA subway). The point is to watch where you are walking and not misstep into the gap between the train and platform. If you mind the gap, you’ll have a good outcome and get on the train safely.