The essay aims to explore the concept of Evidence Based Practice (EBP) and its importance to nursing practice. Different definitions and development of EBP will be discussed and sources of evidence available in health care. Its importance to care practice will be discussed and relevance to clinical decision making in nursing care. It will also look at depot Risperidone as EBP in treating patients with Schizophrenia in mental health nursing by comparing current practice witnessed at my placement area with evidence available and national guidelines on the use of depot Risperidone. Rational for choosing Risperidone as EBP will be discussed and will highlight some of the factors that facilitate or hinder the implementation of EBP in this practice will be outlined.
Like many other nursing terms, there is a spate of definitions given to evidence based practice. Roseburg and Donald (1995) defined EBP “as an approach to problem-solving in clinical practice” or “the systematic interconnecting of scientifically generated evidence with the tacit knowledge of the expert practitioner to achieve a change in a particular practice for the benefit of a well defined client group”. McKibbon KA (1998) also defined EBP as an approach to health care wherein health professionals use the best evidence possible based on appropriate information available, to make clinical decisions for individual patients.
EBP originated from evidence based medicine (EBM), which is defined by Sackett et al (1996) as the “conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients” the term ‘EBM’ was developed to teach medical students while EBP is generally applicable within healthcare .
EBP is more wide-ranging and has been growing steadily since its development in the 1970s. It is being promoted both by government and academies as it is essential to the well-being of patients (Trinder and Reynold, 2003). EBP uses the best...