Effect of Evidence-Based Practice on Nursing Baccalaureate Curriculum

Effect of Evidence-Based Practice on Nursing Baccalaureate Curriculum Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Abstract The issue of effectively teaching EBP to nursing students is widely recognized. Learning institutions lack the appropriate strategies and methods to teach nursing students the importance of EBP and how to implement it in the workplace. As a result, a large number of graduates do not have the necessary skills essential in applying research-based practices. The concept of EBP requires practicing nurses to develop queries and carry out research to answer these queries in an effort to continually build their knowledge and positively contribute to the nursing profession. There are specific strategies that can be applied to effectively teach EBP in baccalaureate programs. The three-level hierarchy is among the list of effective strategies and involves using interactive clinical practices, classroom didactics and interactive activities, and stand-alone teaching. Collaborations between librarians and clinical experts is also a proposed means of effectively teaching EBP in class since it helps build the student’s research skills. Keywords: Evidence-Based-Practice, Three-level hierarchy, Baccalaureate programs. Effect of Evidence-Based Practice on Nursing Baccalaureate Curriculum Evidence-based practice is essential in healthcare to improve patient safety. Evidence-based practice demands the use of several sources of information, including proven research together with clinical expertise, preferences, and patient values. The entire nursing profession demands that practitioners deliver quality healthcare to every client (Davidson & Chan, 2014). Nursing education is critical in preparing nurses with the ability to offer effective practice in a constantly changing healthcare system. Baccalaureate-prepared health care providers should be equipped with enough knowledge and skills to practice EBP. The nursing curricula should be able to prepare nurses to engage in these EBP practices in a complex environment by generating graduates who portray sufficient skills in identifying practice issues, applying evidence, and evaluating outcomes. Quality health care involves up-to-date health care practices, which require nurses to use interventions that optimize patient outcomes. Despite the importance of EBP, nurses lack the capabilities to use evidence guided care to improve outcomes and advance the overall nursing science. When employed, evidence-based practices can help bridge the gap between practice and training, thus enabling health providers to effectively cope with the demands in a constantly changing social environment. Currently, a majority of practicing nurses lack a proper understanding of evidence-based practice (Horntvedt, Nordsteien, Fermann, & Severinsson, 2018). My current working environment also presents a similar situation, whereby a majority of the health care providers do not have sufficient knowledge on how to implement EBP, while a few have little information about EBP. Also, there are a number of misconceptions about the implementation of EBP, which has been brought about by a large number of information and models that have been developed over the years. The confusion can be attributed to the lack of proper elements of research that guide the research processes together with a large number of skeptics, which create a misunderstanding of the EBP process models. The nursing profession is well known for using research in practice. By emphasizing on EBP, hospitals will be able to increase the nurses’ expectations about using research findings to guide their clinical decisions and actions as well as their interactions with patients (Parrish, 2018). It is therefore imperative that nursing graduates are competent in EBP. This means that the graduates should have the proper attitudes, skills, and knowledge to help them differentiate between the broad levels of scientific evidence and clinical opinions, and positively contribute to the continuous improvement of clinical knowledge. By introducing the concepts of EBP in baccalaureate programs, the graduates would be able to appreciate EBP as more than evidence and appreciate patient values and preferences as well as the clinical expertise required in the entire nursing practice. This indicates that introducing EBP in school is essential in ensuring that nurses do not deviate from clinical practices that are backed up by research. Nonetheless, there is a current issue of student’s ability to apply EBP knowledge in practice. If the nursing profession is to meet its social responsibility of providing effective and efficient health care that is founded on EBP, then it would be necessary to ensure that baccalaureate students have enough knowl...