Effective Decision-Making in Nursing: Evidence-Based Treatment for Improved Patient Care

Introduction

Decision-making in nursing is an essential activity that can be considered the foundation of the entire profession. Decisions taken in the industry are centered on pieces of information applicable to the subject being addressed; therefore, they are accurate and up to date. In the decision-making process, the evidence-based treatment uses the best-backed data of how a particular patient should be handled. It is used to provide clinicians with up-to-date reports on improving a patient's treatment and improving their quality of life and safety. This essay addresses the vitality of EBP in the nursing profession and the various methods in which its importance can be applied.

Relevance and Effectiveness of Evidence in Decision Making

Reflection on the Most Relevant and Useful Evidence

Evidence in decision-making is vital as it aims to provide the best set of skills, experience, and decision-making as a health professional while considering the patient's situations, such as finances, while considering the context of practice that a professional is working. This sort of clinical reasoning as a means of providing the best care for a patient in response to the available evidence of assessment is vital in administering care (Watkins, 2020). The validity of the information being passed on is important. Is this appropriate for the kind of knowledge one may need? Does the origin have the details needed in detail, or is it flawless? Credible sources should provide enough knowledge about the subject being researched to cover a broader spectrum of what is needed.

Furthermore, the authority which produces a piece of research is important in determining the information's credibility. What experience does the author have in addressing the subject inside the industry? What credentials does the person who leaked, uploaded, or released the information have? In any piece of information, the content's validity is linked to the experience level and qualifications an individual has on the industry. Knowledge accuracy is also key to ensuring that information is reliable (Watkins, 2020). The information author should include reliable sources to back up his work that the information users can easily identify and check. Lastly, the intent of the information provided by an information source can be used to assess its reliability. Who is the Knowledge target audience? The author publishes the knowledge for what reason. Does the information address alternative points in the information?

Application of An EBP Model to Address A Practice Issue

Uses of EBP Model in Developing the Care Plan

Various evidence-based models can be integrated into nurses' everyday practices to ensure that the latest and best practices are quickly absorbed into the patient care routine. One of the models is the John Hopkins evidence-based practice model. This model is designed so as to cater to the needs of a practicing nurse by use of a three-step process that is referred to as PET. It can be broken down to Practice question, which is routinely asked the patients when they are placed under the nurses' care to assess the treatment level. Evidence is the clarity that the nurse gets from assessing the patient about the profession's requirements and the patient (Dang & Dearholt, 2017). Translation can be referred to as what the nurse understands from the patient's assessment and analysis of its dictations. These three directive tools can be used by individual clinicians or those in a group to address clinical inquiries.

A patient that visits the hospital would not want to acquire any form of infection from the hospital. Hospital-acquired infections are a practice issue that is experienced in the hospitals, and the Johns Hopkins Nursing Evidence-Based Practice model helps clinicians to follow the best practices to avoid such. The nurses are major players in preventing hospital-acquired infections through the adherence of evidence-based control policies (Dang & Dearholt, 2017). The nurses use the model to ensure that the safety procedures are followed to the latter to reduce the cases of patients acquiring infections from the hospitals.

Plan Care Based on the Best Available Evidence

Evidence-Based Care Plan to Improve Safety and Outcomes for a Patient

A care plan can be addressed as a written statement of a person's individual care needs identified during the community care assessment. It is a clear rubric to the type of support that a person is entitled to, the reasons for receiving the care, and who is responsible for offering them care. The best care plan that can be used on a patient under the nurse's care to prevent any form of infection is the having of individual goals that a clinician must achieve with the patient each day until the end of the care period (Birken et al., 2018). The clinician is supposed to write down the best methods that ought to be followed by both the patient and the caregiver in ensuring that they stay free of hospital-acquired infections. The development of a flow chart of things to be done before addressing a patient like keeping the environment clean, using barrier protection, wearing personal protective clothing, and the correct practice of handwashing should be paramount. Such a care plan will help both the patient and the nurse stay clear of hospital-acquired infections.

Application of Professional and Scholarly Communication Strategies

Benefits and Strategies to Mitigate the Challenges of Interdisciplinary Collaboration

Strategies that tend to impact encouraging the use of EBPs positively include monitoring and recommendations, the use of clinical reminders and prompts for practice, community leaders, reform advocates, digital education, broadcast media, educational community engagement / academic documentation, and the context of care delivery. Various research has suggested that communication channels used to communicate to health professionals on matters of evidence-based practices tend to determine how they engage with the information provided. Many practitioners tend to be for the idea that information should be communicated through peers, professional bodies, and government departments (Potancok & Voríšek, 2016). Most clinicians term credible sources of information and are bent to believe that information on evidence-based practice from these resources is true and well researched compared to other unverified sources.

Conclusion

Decision making for clinicians is among the challenging things that they go through since it determines the type of healthcare that a patient receives. The type of healthcare that a person receives should be geared toward the use of an evidence-based approach. A care plan is the best method of ensuring quality healthcare as it ensures the patients receive the best type of care. The means of information used to pass the information on EBP determines how the professionals perceive it.

References

Birken, S. A., et al. (2018). Strategies for successful survivorship care plan implementation: results from a qualitative study. Journal of oncology practice, 14(8), e462-e483.https://ascopubs.org/doi/pdfdirect/10.1200/JOP.17.00054

Dang, D., & Dearholt, S. L. (2017). Johns Hopkins nursing evidence-based practice: Model and guidelines. Sigma Theta Tau.https://sigma.nursingrepository.org/bitstream/handle/10755/17100/InstructorsGuideJohnsHopkinsNursingEBPModelGuidelines3E.pdf?sequence=

Potancok, M., & Voríšek, J. (2016). Specific factors influencing information system/information and communication technology sourcing strategies in healthcare facilities. Health informatics journal, 22(3), 536-547.https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1460458215571644

Watkins, S. (2020). Effective decision-making: applying the theories to nursing practice. British Journal of Nursing, 29(2), 98-101https://www.magonlinelibrary.com/doi/pdf/10.12968/bjon.2020.29.2.98