Research Evidence in Nursing Practice

RESEARCH EVIDENCE: NURSING PRACTICE
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Research Evidence: Nursing Practice
What Is Research and Why Is It Important?
Research is a diligent systematic inquiry or study that validates and refines existing knowledge and develops new knowledge. It can also be defined as a systematic, rigorous, critical investigation that aims to answer questions about phenomena. There are two types of research: qualitative research and quantitative research. Qualitative research is characterized by a desire to capture the ideas that come up from paying attention to study participants. The researcher applies the relationship between themselves and study participants to better understand the topic under investigation. Qualitative research is also characterized by a willingness by the research to consider the context in which the participants’ responses are framed, the experiences may be framed within a cultural or social context. On the other hand, quantitative research is deductive in that the investigator is interest in objective facts and numbers derived from the use of scientific research methods. There is also little interaction between the researcher and the study participant: in quantitative research, the investigator strives to be objective and removed.
Moreover, quantitative research is reductionist in nature and participants’ experiences are rarely considered in the study. The importance of research to evidence-based practice relates to the need to provide care based on empirically founded clinical research instead of traditional assumptions or years of experience (Nursing Times, 2004). Clinical effectiveness has become increasingly important in health care within Scotland with health care leaders urging for a framework for clinical problem solving that ensures clinicians are always informed of current best practices within their field (Scottish Qualifications Authority, 2018). Research is not only useful in collecting critical health information from human participants but is also useful in identifying best practices from latest medical literature. The results from clinical research are what underpin changes in clinical practice for the better (Abou Hashish and Alsayed, 2020). Clinically relevant research is therefore critical to evidence-based practice: without research, it is impossible for nursing practice to be empirically founded and result in the best and patient outcomes. My selected area of practice is nursing: evidence-based practice is essential to nurses pinpointing the effective course of action for care delivery in their daily interactions with patients (Majid et al., 2011). For this reason, improving the ability of nurses to utilize the most current research to improve patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes will result in improvement in public health outcomes as well as reduction in overall health care costs.
How Can Research Help Improve the Care of People Within the Nursing Practice
The need to base clinical decisions on research evidence is expanding as a consequence of the health care pressure exerted by an expanding ageing population, rising patient expectations, and rapid technological development. These three trends have heightened the need to concentrate NHS resources on services and treatments that provide the most health gains (Munten et al. 2010). In order to develop services and treatments that result in most health gains, research must be conducted to guide the development of clinical guidelines and effective practice statements (Finucane et al., 2018). Without the evidence from randomized controlled trials (RCTs), observational studies, meta-analyses, consensus statements, and surveys of patient views among other types of research studies, it is impossible to collect or even arrive at the best current evidence to base performance or quality improvement initiatives (Campbell and Moore, 2018). Qualitative and quantitative research studies are essential to identifying effective services and treatments, patient preferences, and emerging trends in the field of health care.
Evidence-based practice rather than personal opinion or professional experience is what ensures that best practices are employed in a standard manner in all clinical areas to improve patient safety, enhance quality of care, and heighten patient satisfaction all while reducing overall health care costs (Scottish Government, 2018). One critical resource in ensuring research-evidence practice is the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC), which provides recommendations on the clinical and cost-effectiveness of new medications by renewing all current best evidence based on research studies. Another critical resource is the NHS Scotland Knowledge Network, the national online library and knowledge administration platform for clinicians and social care staff within NHS Scotland. It is an example of a research resource critical to supporting evidence-based practice. The database contains a variety of online journals and books, over and above, a broad variety of NHS professional subject-based portals for students and professionals in the health care sector to conduct research on the best current evidence for performance or quality improvement in any area of interest.
Supporting research by providing access to a variety of clinical research studies is the best way to ensure that health professionals and health care organizations are able to redesign and continuously improve the health services they provide. At the same time, training nurses on how to conduct critical appraisal is essential, Critical appraisal refers to the structured process of evaluating a piece of evidence in order to ascertain its strengths and shortcomings and therefore the importance it should be given in addressing the particular research focus or question. The first example of a primary research study that illustrates the practical importance of research is the article “The Adoption and Implementation of Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) amongst Allied Health Professions (AHP)” by Upton et al. (2012). The study aimed to evaluate and characterize the adoption of evidence-based practice among AHP’s clinical practice. A questionnaire entailing the Evidence-Based Practice Questionnaire was administered to 154 respondents who were newly qualified clinicians from NHS Scotland.
The study results showed moderate scores for the clinicians’ ability to adopt evidence-based practice in terms of implementation, knowledge, and attitudes towards clinical research. Consequently, the study determined that the majority of nurses have a comprehensive knowledge of the importance of implementing evidence-based practice. However, they require additional training and support in overcoming the barriers to evidence-based practice implementation (Upton et al., 2012). The second example of a primary research study that illustrates the practical importance of research is the article is Debbie Tolson’s article “Progressive evidence-based practice: An effective nursing model? The study aimed to explore how participation enhanced achievement of evidence-based practice where the link nurses worked. Tolson used a volunteer sample of link nurses to conduct telephone interviews where she explored their experiences in implementing the virtual college and the extent to which clinical research and guidelines on gerontological nursing as well as the first best practice statements on nutrition had impacted their work.
She determined that implementing the virtual college and the extent to which clinical research and guidelines on gerontological nursing as well as the first best practice statements on nutrition improved the confidence level of nurses. The study also found that the virtual college also strengthened sense of professional identity and motivated nurses to implement best practices in the workplace. The third example of a primary research study that illustrates the practical importance of research is the article is “Achieving evidence-based nursing practice: Impact of the Caledonian Development Model” by Tolson et al. (2008). The study aimed to determine the effect of the Caledonian Development Mo...