The Institute of Medicine has stated a goal that 90% of practice be evidence-based by 2020. According to HealthyPeople.gov, the United States is currently at approximately 15%. Discuss two barriers that might hold nursing practice from achieving this goal and suggest ways in which identified barriers may be addressed.

Barriers to Evidence-Based Practice

Barriers to Evidence-Based Practice

From when nursing research endeavors commenced, nurses have been interested in using research findings to impact the care of aggregate groups and individuals effectively. Cherry and Jacob (2019) state that the most powerful incentive for the conduct of research is the betterment of health and differences made in the lives of individuals. Evidence-based practice (EBP) refers to integrating the best current evidence with clinical expertise and patient preferences and values to deliver optimal health care (Marquis & Huston, 2017). Despite EBP being the golden standard for nursing practice, many nurses still lack the skills to recognize the best methods to inform patient care and the confidence in knowing when and how to use research. Many people fail to implement EBP or follow the given guidelines consistently. This paper discusses two barriers hindering nursing practice from achieving 90% of evidence-based practice and strategies to mitigate the barriers.

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Nursing Shortages

Nursing shortages and high turnover rates (lack of human resources) are barriers that hinder evidence-based practice in nursing. First, the nursing profession faces shortages due to inequitable workforce distribution, an aging population, high turnover, violence in healthcare settings, and nurse burnout (Haddad & Toney-Butler, 2020). High nurse turnover rates have negative consequences on the operations of an organization. The patients may perceive nurses as lacking necessary skills, lose trust in them, and increase dissatisfaction with the nursing services. The shortage created increases the workload on the nurses.

Moreover, a high turnover rate will disturb the staffing practices of an institution, the managerial processes, hospital costs, services, and significant challenges in recruiting to replace the workforce. Lastly, the nursing shortage negatively affects the wellbeing of the nurses by increasing overtime and workload, with the consequential fatigue, reducing the quality of care, lowering the nurses’ morale which is likely to cause more turnover, thus burdening a hospital further. Therefore, a nursing shortage will lead to poor patient experience, inferior clinical outcomes, compromised care, and undesirable adverse outcomes. Moreover, the effects of the nursing shortage,as earlier mentioned,make it difficult for nurses to utilize research findings. They have little or no time to read or use research findings at places of work.

Nursing shortage can be addressed in various ways to promote evidence-based practice. Institutions should aspire to achieve safe staffing. Healthcare sectors should adopt delivery models that enable nurses to practice to their optimum scope, adopt excellent human resource practices that promote recruitment and retainment of nurses, and proper planning that ensures that the supply of nurses meets the patients’ needs(International Council of Nurses, 2020). Nursing staffing must constantlyrespond to the clients’ needs in competent, safe, ethical, evidence-informed, and quality care.

Addressing Barriers

Supervision and support are necessary elements that inspire purpose and value for EBP and motivate nurses to use an evidence-based approach in care delivery. Insufficient support from managers, lack of leadership skills, direction, and knowledge reduce the implementation of EBP (Alatawi et al., 2020). Managers play essential roles in facilitating EBP(Birken et al., 2018). Managers should set clear expectations, motivate staff members, provide adequate information, and set good examples as utilizers of EBP. These strategies would counteract the barrier of insufficient supervision and support. Consequently, it would promote the goal of 90% practice to be evidence-based.

Conclusion

EBP is a major driving force among nurses and other health care providers.EBP is necessary to ensure all clients get the best possible services, update one’s knowledge as an essential component of lifelong learning, and provide clinical judgment and care provided to clients. It has been established to improve clinical outcomes. Several challenges hinder the realization of 90% of practice that is evidence-based. Managers and different stakeholders should take different mitigatory strategies to overcome these barriers.

References

Alatawi, M., Aljuhani, E., Alsufiany, F., &Banakhar, M. (2020). Barriers of Implementing Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing Profession: A Literature Review. ResearchGate; Science Publishing Group. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342896986_Barriers_of_Implementing_Evidence-Based_Practice_in_Nursing_Profession_A_Literature_Review

Birken, S., Clary, A., Tabriz, A. A., Turner, K., Meza, R., Zizzi, A., Larson, M., Walker, J., &Charns, M. (2018). Middle managers’ role in implementing evidence-based practices in healthcare: a systematic review. Implementation Science, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13012-018-0843-5

Cherry, B., & Jacob, S. R. (2019). Contemporary Nursing: Issues, Trends, & Management (8th ed.). Mosby.

Haddad, L. M., & Toney-Butler, T. J. (2020). Nursing shortage. NCBI; StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK493175/

International Council of Nurses. (2020). Evidence-based safe nurse staffing. https://www.icn.ch/sites/default/files/inline-files/ICN%20PS%20Evidence%20based%20safe%20nurse%20staffing_0.pdf

Marquis, B. L., & Huston, C. J. (2017). Leadership Roles and Management Functions in Nursing: Theory and Application (9th ed.). Wolters Kluwer Health.

 

The Institute of Medicine has stated a goal that 90% of practice be evidence-based by 2020. According to HealthyPeople.gov, the United States is currently at approximately 15%. Discuss two barriers that might hold nursing practice from achieving this goal and suggest ways in which identified barriers may be addressed.