NursingLink

How does the nursing profession feel about evidence based practice? Will it help or hurt nursing?

How could it hurt?

Nursing has a strong tradition of focusing on various ways of knowing to provide excellent care. There are four fundamental patterns of knowing in nursing: empiric, ethics, personal, and aesthetic patterns.  Empirical knowing relates to factual descriptions, explanations, and predictions. Ethics refers to moral obligations, values, and desired ends. Personal knowing pertains to the genuine transpersonal relation between each nurse and each patient. Aesthetic knowing shows the nurse's perception of what is significant in the patient's behavior and also addresses the artful performance of nursing skills and ways of being. All these ways of acquiring, processing, reflecting, and evaluating nursing knowledge are important in developing a comprehensive clinical perspective. Evidence-based practice explores the empiric way of knowing, focusing on Methods of critically appraising and applying available data and research to understand and inform clinical decision-making better. Although it clearly is not the only way of knowing, evidence-based practice provides a way to frame and address questions about how to provide the best patient care. Evidence-based practice is ultimately defined as "the integration of best research evidence with clinical expertise, and patient values"  This definition highlights the importance of combining the best available evidence with clinical judgment, and emphasizes a pivotal role for patient-centered care.

Evidence based practice is going to be medicare monitoring a pt from admit to a hospital for any complications that may occur. For example, if  a patient aquires an infection in the hospital, medicare will not pay the bill for that stay. Therefore, nursing will be scrutinized for the care they give. If anything happens during hospitilization, an unforseen event, payment will be denied. Some nurses are saying this is a good thing and wil prove to administrators how important nurses jobs are. Others say this will only cause a finger pointing atmosphere and nursing will be blamed rather than supported. What do you think? 

Yeah, Martini, that's why I'm aggravated that articles in my nursing advance are trying to say otherwise. They think we're like clueless right?