What is Evidence-Based Practice?
What Is Evidence-Based Practice?
Evidence-based practice or EBP involves the conscientious use of current best evidence in making decisions about patient care. The EBP principles allow the practitioner to assess research, clinical guidelines, and other information resources based on high quality findings and apply the results to guide nursing care and improve patient outcomes.
The principles of evidence-based practice stem from this seminal article about evidence-based medicine (EBM):
Rosenberg, W., & Donald, A. (1995). Evidence Based Medicine: An Approach To Clinical Problem-Solving. BMJ: British Medical Journal, 310(6987), 1122–1126.
EBM is a problem-solving approach to clinical practice and administrative issues that integrates three factors sometimes called the EBM Triad:
- A systematic search for and critical appraisal of the most relevant evidence to answer a burning clinical question
- One's own clinical expertise
- Patient preferences and values
This article is one of the significant sources of the concepts underlying the EBM Triad:
Mazurek Melnyk, B., Gallagher-Ford, L., & Fineout-Overholt, E. (2016). Improving healthcare quality, patient outcomes, and costs with evidence-based practice. Reflections on Nursing Leadership, 42(3), 1–8.
Johns Hopkins Evidence-Based Practice
Johns Hopkins Evidence-Based Practice
One of the most important and widely used textbooks about evidence-based practice in nursing is:
Dang, D., Dearholt, S.L., Bissett, K., Ascenzi, J. & Whalen, M. (2022). Johns Hopkins evidence-based practice for nurses and healthcare professionals: Models and guidelines (4th ed.) Sigma Theta Tau International.
This foundational work was developed by Johns Hopkins University faculty and published by the Johns Hopkins University Press; hence, the name-association.
Piedmont University Library owns an ebook copy that can be accessed by an unlimited number of concurrent users.
