Be an Expert: Take Action with Evidence-Based Practice

Abstract

The Pediatric Endocrinology Nursing Society (PENS) is committed to the development and advancement of nurses in the art and science of pediatric endocrinology nursing and to improve the care of all children Evidence-based practice (EBP) is a problem-solving approach to clinical decision-making that integrates the best available evidence with one’s own clinical expertise. As well, it incorporates patient values and preferences to improve health outcomes (Melnyk, Fineout-Overholt, Gallagher-Ford, & Kaplan, 2012). The Institute of Medicine Roundtable on Evidence-Based Medicine (2009) set a goal that by the year 2020, 90% of clinical decisions will be supported by accurate, timely, and up-to-date clinical information, reflecting the best available evidence. Melnyk et al. (2014) established nursing competencies for EBP, highlighting the importance of EBP skills for practicing nurses. Despite these directives, the use of EBP remains inconsistent in the practice setting. Significant obstacles to EBP include lack of time, lack of knowledge and skills, the inability to access research evidence, and the lack of support from colleagues and administration (Dogherty, Harrison, Graham, Vandyk, & Keeping-Burke, 2013). Many nurses, however, wish to learn and refine their EBP skills to optimize health care for their patients (Melnyk et al., 2012). This column focuses on four essential EBP skills: 1) asking a practice question using the PICO method, 2) retrieving evidence from the literature, 3) appraising the evidence, and 4) synthesizing the evidence. Although there are several models of EBP in the literature (Schaffer, Sandau, & Diedrick, 2013), the Johns Hopkins Nursing EBP (JHNEBP) model offers a practical guide to the EBP process. The JHNEBP textbook by Dearholt and Dang