Advanced Practice Nurses (APNs) have to deal with the evolving nature of healthcare. In modern healthcare, APNs are the most prominent caregivers who provide top-quality patient care. Healthcare is constantly evolving, and incorporating evidence-based practice (EBP) into the APN role is becoming increasingly indispensable daily. This paper examines the importance of EBP in guiding clinical decisions, improving health outcomes, and creating a culture of ongoing improvement in the healthcare setting. Through analyzing actual situations of APNs promoting EBP, particularly in improving triage effectiveness in the emergency wards and reducing the number of readmissions occurring in cardiac care units, this paper intends to highlight the practical implications of the evidence-based approach in healthcare services. With APNs providing practical healthcare solutions ahead of the latest research, their primary duties include elevating the standard of care and enabling practitioners to handle challenges competently. This paper will shed light on the EBP projects accomplished by APNS to explore the strength emerging from the evidence-based practice approach, as this is the future of Advanced Practice Nursing and the way forward to the best possible patient care.
EBP is a hallmark of the APNs’ approach to health service delivery. The standard creates a framework for best evidence-based medicine that maximizes results, enhances patients’ living conditions, and contributes to improved care. As described by Abu-Baker et al. (2021), evidence-based practice (EBP) may be the key to this through attaining fundamental knowledge, standardizing practice, and improving the health outcomes of the patients. The approach of EBP including the situation of the patient with CHF symptoms, can be done by integrating another staff, APN, in the cardiac care unit. Thus, the APN will assist the patients through evidence-based interventions and guidelines and form the patient’s direct care plans to detect early signs of deterioration, thereby showing that EBP is a guide to implementing a change in the APN practices with the common goal of improving patient care and outcomes.
In the clinical area of cardiac care, Advanced Practice Nurses (APNs) are the vital people who practice Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) and tailor their interventions to address the challenges specific to the cardiac population. In addition, they help to improve the cardiac outcomes. Thus, Anne, a nurse in the cardiac care unit, continues to be tasked with continually lowering the readmission rate among patients with CHF. In addition, Abu-Baker et al. (2021) remind healthcare workers of the importance of EBP in a team setting, explaining that EBP is a point of reference for nurses to have a common ground for practice and learn more about their scope of practice. In refined EBP delivery, an APN could integrate evidence-based methods, for instance, personalized care plans and early warning signs, and develop collaboration between inpatient and outpatient settings, among others. The evidence provided vividly highlights the significant contribution of nurses who utilize evidence-based interventions in reducing cardiac failure readmissions and improving the level of care that patients receive in cardiac units.
EBP is a strategy that utilizes evidence and the latest research to overcome challenges in an alternative healthcare setting like an ER. APNs play a vital role in such units. For example, an APN working in the ER department would put together their practice based on an evidence-based article to deal with patient triage and ER waiting time issues. Triage processes can be improved by blending applicable guidelines, thus decreasing patient waiting time and improving care in emergency departments. According to Ylimäki et al. (2022), the participation of APNs in activities enhances both practices with evidence-based demonstrations of which nurses will do something to improve clients’ health care by adapting to individual clients’ needs. This eye-opening study highlighted some key factors essential for successful EBP implementation: implementation of evidence-demonstrated activities, efficient team leadership, and organizational strength if needed. With the chaos of the emergency room, APNs are using EBP to do excellent practices and also make substantial contributions to patient care through effective interventions and streamlined processes. Their severity and stressful nature distinguish enterprise and mobile healthcare environments. Hence, nurse managers employ effective strategies for patient care delivery. The APNs empowered with their knowledge of the EBP are there to provide essential care in a crisis setting where the facility could be overwhelmed. The expertise of clinical nurses spans not only from making necessary adjustments for each patient but also from building evidence through evidence-based interventions, thus refining emergency care protocols. Nursing students have to be initiated not only into the fundamentals of EBP but also into nursing professions, systems, and theories, as specialized in the study of older people or the provision of primary health care (Abu-Baker et al. 2021). The ER is a place where important decisions are supposed to be made fast, and this has a significant impact on the related treatment. Being mentors, APNs have the advantage of symbolizing that to the next generation of nurses and ensuring that they use EBP effectively.
In conclusion, EBP is a fundamental part of the APN’s role, as illustrated in a deep analysis of their practice and priorities and the determinants of an EBP environment in healthcare settings. Numerous qualitative data collected during their practice illustrate the difficulty they go through in implementing BCIP ideas, again underscoring the imperative of leadership development and organizational strategies. The data provided calls for carefully designing effective programs to enhance EBP competencies among APNs, resulting in a culture characterized by evidence-based decision-making. Exploring the determinants that control the local situation in EBP illustrates critical issues, including integrating healthcare providers at various educational and knowledge support levels based on teamwork and leadership. The organizational approach that fosters a culture that favors EBP musts should always be one of high priority and a commitment to this. The synthesis of such aspects underscores the importance of workplace exchanges, practice, and learning about EBP. This knowledge should be incorporated at the individual and organizational levels to realize its full potential fully.
References
Abu-Baker, N. N., AbuAlrub, S., Obeidat, R. F., & Assmairan, K. (2021). Evidence-based practice beliefs and implementations: a cross-sectional study among undergraduate nursing students. BMC Nursing, 20(1), 1-8. https://bmcnurs.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12912-020-00522-x
Ylimäki, S., Oikarinen, A., Kääriäinen, M., Holopainen, A., Oikarainen, A., Pölkki, T., … & Tuomikoski, A. M. (2022). Advanced practice nurses’ experiences of evidence-based practice: A qualitative study. Nordic Journal of Nursing Research, 42(4), 227-235. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/20571585221097658
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