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Finding and implementing study findings into clinical practice is the evidence based practice process, or EBP. The procedure begins when a clinical issue or query about the patient’s treatment comes up; the EBP process’s phases are shown below in chronological sequence.
Evidence Based Practice Process
The method of using the best available evidence—both internal and external scientific evidence, as well as patient viewpoints and professional knowledge to inform choices regarding the treatment of patients is known as the evidence-based practice process, or EBP.
This article will teach you these flexible steps so that, regardless of the clinical questions that may come up, you can be sure that you’re giving the finest treatment possible by knowing several important phases in this procedure.
Steps of Evidence Based Practice process
The five main steps of the Evidence-Based practice process:
1. Create a question that can be answered
The ability to formulate thoughtful clinical questions is one of the core competencies needed for EBP. You may concentrate your attention on the things that matter by creating a question that can be answered. Questions concerning the diagnosis, treatment, prognosis, or aetiology are typically raised during patient contacts.
2. Locate the strongest evidence available
Finding pertinent evidence is the second phase in the evidence-based practice methodology.
Choosing search sites, such as the Cochrane Library and PubMed, and figuring out the search phrases that will show up in your carefully constructed query from step one are the tasks involved in this phase, and creating an efficient search plan that combines MESH terms with the results’ limitations.
3. Examine the supporting data
To further weed out research that could appear intriguing but is flawed, it is crucial to have critical assessment skills. Employ a straightforward critical evaluation technique to provide answers to the following queries:
- Which question was answered by the study?
- Were the techniques sound?
- What are the outcomes?
- What relevance do the findings have for your work?
4. Put the evidence into practice
Then, you may use your clinical skills, your patients’ values, and the best available data to make individual care decisions. Following that, you should incorporate these clinical judgments into your practice, which may then be supported by data.
5. The Last Evidence-Based practice process depends on assessing the result
Assessing the decision’s effectiveness and efficacy concerning your patient is the process’s last phase. Was the updated information applied successfully? Is it OK to keep using this new information in practice? The next time a question is posed, how may any one of the five steps in the clinical decision-making process be enhanced?
If these stages are recalled as follows, they could be easier to remember:
- Inquire
- Obtain
- Evaluate
- Apply
- Examine
One expert suggested two additional phases be added to the procedure in 2010:
Develop an inquisitive mindset; without this mindset, the EBP process’s subsequent phases are unlikely to occur.
Step 6: Communicate EBP Results:
Even though evidence-based practice process may help clinicians accomplish amazing results for their patients, they frequently neglect to share their experiences with their peers and other healthcare organizations.
This results in unnecessary effort duplication and maintains clinical methods that lack empirical support.
EBP rounds within your organization, presentations at regional, national, and local conferences, reporting in peer-reviewed journals or professional newsletters and publications for general audiences, and publishing findings in Physiopedia are a few strategies to share successful efforts!
Conclusion
There are several EBP models and frameworks available today that offer a variety of guidance on how to apply EBP effectively. Nonetheless, it is imperative that EBP models and frameworks better include patient values and preferences.
When selecting a model or framework, it is also necessary to take into account the concerns of evidence-based practice process expertise and knowledge to evaluate evidence.
