Mary Courtney - Using Evidence to Guide Nursing Practice

Through the utilisation of EBP, finite resources are not wasted on the delivery of ineffective interventions. Additionally, EBP limits the amount of disability and suffering throughout the community by ensuring the most current and effective care is provided.

You may be wondering how nurses made decisions about their practice before the relatively recent EBP movement, or even what the alternatives to EBP are. If we are honest, for most of our working life we function on automatic pilot; that is, we ritualistically do things the way we have always done them, the way we were taught as a student or graduate nurse, or just in the accepted way of doing things in our current workplace.

However, at times our comfort zone is challenged, and we identify a knowledge deficit when confronting an unusual or challenging problem. At times like these, practitioners may guide their practice by asking the opinion of colleagues or senior practitioners, reviewing employer policies, reading textbooks or lecture notes, leafing through nursing or other journals, and listening to speakers at professional conferences or other education forums. Can you think of some benefits and limitations to these methods of guiding practice? For example, if a decision needs to be made immediately, guidance from an experienced colleague or organisational manual provides a quick and easy reference tool. However, on the downside, even well-meaning and senior practitioners may not have the latest knowledge, and policy manuals are frequently out-of-date, even if they were prepared using the best evidence at the time of policy development.