The most common definition of Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) is from Dr. David Sackett. EBP is “the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of the individual patient. It means integrating individual clinical expertise with the best available external clinical evidence from systematic research.” (Sackett D, 1996)
Research - how do you define it?
Evidence based practice defines 'research' as the creation of new knowledge through studies or trials.
Looking up studies and trials is defined as a 'literature review'. It is what we do when we want to find out what is already known.
When practicing evidence based nursing, you usually have to perform a literature review.
Evidence based practice is answering clinical questions using a combination of information from existing research, your clinical expertise, your patient's values, and the local resources.
Evidence based practice can be broken down into the following steps.
1. You ask a question about patient care, prognosis, harm, or diagnosis.
P=patient/problem I=intervention C=comparison O=outcomes
3. You search for an existing answer in research studies or summaries
4. You evaluate the answer that you find - does it fit with your patient's values and with the resources at hand?
5. You carry out the answer