Evidence-based nursing clinical practice

Abstract

Basing clinical decision making on solid scientific evidence is a requirement and a necessity for all scientific disciplines, not only for nursing, in modern developed societies such as ours.
In recent years, the management and attention to the health care of the population has become more complex due to various factors such as the continuous advance of science, the influence of social changes in the configuration of populations or the continuous access to information indiscriminately through new technologies, social networks and the Internet, which has led to the desire to take a more active role in decision making in relation to health.
Health sciences are constantly changing, so health professionals need to update their knowledge to adequately meet the health and disease care needs of the population they serve, in an effective and safe manner.
Therefore, nurses must use Evidence-Based Nursing (EBN) as a tool to improve the effectiveness of our practices.
EBE arises from the need for nurses to know the degree of certainty or uncertainty on which the care they provide to their population is based and the extent to which new quality research can increase the evidence for clinical nursing practice.
However, to achieve and maintain with the appropriate standards of quality the effective and complete fulfillment of the clinical practice of Nursing based on scientific evidence, especially because in its achievement it is necessary to contemplate 4 basic interrelated elements that constitute the links or phases of the chain or cycle of quality in the use of scientific evidence in the clinical practice of Nursing:

1. Scientific production: Clinical research studies in Nursing.
2. Generation of clinical recommendations: Research works for the generation of recommendations for the clinical practice of Nursing based on catalogued scientific evidence.
3. Dissemination of scientific evidence and recommendations for clinical practice: Through clinical practice guidelines (CPG), summaries and evidence compilation documents.
4. Application of clinical evidence in clinical practice: Elaboration, revision and updating of clinical protocols, establishment of quality standards, etc.
CLINICAL RESEARCH IN NURSING consists of works and research studies specifically designed to deepen the knowledge of specific issues directly related to the clinical practice of nursing. They try to provide answers to doubts and specific questions raised in relation to the clinical practice of nursing.
The results of research studies constitute the basis, the essential raw material for the generation of scientific evidence in Nursing.

Clinical research in Nursing provides the essential raw material for the generation of scientific evidence in Nursing.

In this regard, the progressive increase in the participation of nurses in research studies and groups in recent years should be highlighted, although this is not enough. It is necessary to continue promoting the participation of nurses in research studies, but it is also necessary to go one step further in terms of the characteristics of the research studies in which nurses participate, especially in relation to their quality and approach:
- The quality of research studies, understood in terms of the conditions and characteristics associated with the study design. These are the ones that will serve to endorse the level of confidence of the results obtained and, therefore, their impact on clinical practice. Conducting research studies of high methodological quality, well designed and executed, will make it possible to obtain useful results to generate evidence with a high degree of recommendation.
- The focus and objectives of research studies. It is essential that research studies be focused on the scope of nursing practice. It is necessary for nurses to design, develop and participate in research studies in nursing. The participation of nurses in multidisciplinary research teams with a biomedical approach is necessary, both because the results obtained will be beneficial for the health of the person, and therefore the nurse must collaborate in this sense, and because of the need for nurses to make their contribution within the multidisciplinary team. However, these studies, like clinical drug trials, do not provide useful results for nursing practice, but for that of other professionals.

Antonio Arribas Cachá