For medical and nursing professionals struggling with how to most effectively adopt evidence-based practices in their clinical settings, researchers in the nursing field have come up with an answer. In a new study, the researchers developed a list of 24 evidence-based practice competencies, including both knowledge and skills, for registered and advanced-practice nurses in real-world clinical settings.
In order to properly execute evidence based care in a variety of settings, the authors recommend that health care institutions interested in the execution of evidence based care build these skills into their employment expectations, evaluations, and promotion system.
All competencies point towards nurses becoming an active part of shifting care from how things have always been done, to care that is research-based and more effective. The competencies for RNS range from questioning clinical practices and critically appraising published research, to collecting and tracking outcomes of data that can support the use of newly adopted practices.
Evidence based care, or the act of making decisions about patient care that are based on the best evidence produced through clinical research combined with a clinician’s expertise, can improve the quality of care, reduce medical complications, and decrease health-care costs by up to 30%.