Question

What do you feel is your biggest barrier to implementing evidence base practice in your workplace? What is your professional responsibility in terms of evidence base practice? Outline a plan, including one goal ( with time frame) for addressing and overcoming this barrier.

Answer 1

Ans. The questionnaire of barriers to implementation of EBP consists of 27 statements which was distributed among 280 nurses. More than half of the participants agreed that 56% and 57% of barriers to implementation of evidence based practice are related to organizational and individual aspects, respectively.

Participants identified barriers at organizational level included the lack of human resources , lack of internet access at work , and heavy workload .

Barrier at individual level included lack of time to read literature , lack of ability to work with computer, and insufficient proficiency in English language.

Age, educational level, job experience, and employment status were associated with organizational barriers to implementation of EBP. At the individual level only education was associated with barriers to implementation of EBP. Barriers to implementation of EBP occur at both individual and organizational levels.

Professional nurses' association roles in the promotion of evidence-based practice need to be viewed in relation to the tasks to be accomplished, especially those of selecting and distributing evidence. Although many organizations expressed motivation, professional nurses' associations have a long way to go in the promotion of evidence-based practice among their members.

The inclusion of EBP in nursing provides nurses with the scientific research to make well-founded decisions. Through EBP, nurses can stay updated about new medical protocols for patient care. By searching for documented interventions that fit the profiles of their patients, nurses can increase their patients' chances for recovery.

With the application of EBP comes better patient outcomes, which can decrease the demand for healthcare resources. Thus, healthcare organizations can reduce expenses. For example, outdated practices may have included supplies, equipment or products that are no longer necessary for certain procedures or techniques.

Overcoming barriers for EBP.

Administration support: Similarly, having support from your administration from the beginning is a key factor in success. Administration may be able to inform you about other projects that used similar implementation techniques and how they worked. Also, administration plays a key role in developing an organizational culture that supports EBP.

Changing the way we practice is really changing a behavior, but behavior change isn’t easy. It takes persistence, perseverance, and a willingness to be open to new options along the way. You will hit barriers, but you will also learn strategies that will help you to overcome them. Working together, we can ensure an EBP environment that will lead to better outcomes for our patients and ourselves.

5 steps of Evidence Based Practice
Ask a question
Converting the need for information (about prevention, diagnosis, prognosis, therapy, causation, etc) into an answerable question

Find information/evidence to answer question
Tracking down the best evidence with which to answer that question

Critically appraise the information/evidence
Critically appraising that evidence for its validity (closeness to the truth), impact (size of the effect), and applicability (usefulness in our clinical practice)

Integrate appraised evidence with own clinical expertise and patient’s preferences
Integrating the critical appraisal with our clinical expertise and with our patient's unique biology, values and circumstances

Evaluate
Evaluating our effectiveness and efficiency in executing Steps 1-4 and seeking ways to improve them both for next time