Integration of Evidence-Based Practice into Clinical Environment (Research Paper Sample)

Integration of Evidence-Based Practice into Clinical Environment
Name
Insitution
Introduction
Evidence-based practice (EBP) involves using scientific research and available evidence to make decisions and provide efficient patient care in health settings. Although EBP is one of the fundamental paradigm shifts in healthcare globally, its application in the clinical environment is limited primarily due to the lack of expertise and the various potential barriers. Nevertheless, integrating EBP into the clinical setting is a crucial intervention for patient care needs, efficient and effective decision-making, and problem-solving. According to Alzaatreh et al., this practice helps health professionals identify problems, search for and evaluate alternatives, and link evidence based on experimental research to policies, improving patient outcomes and healthcare quality (Alzaatreh et al., 2021). While EBP implementation has positive clinical outcomes for the clinical professionals, staff, patients, and the organization, it is a long-term and gradual process that requires various strategies. It requires considering a range of factors within the different stakeholders. This paper aims to discuss the eight steps of integrating evidence-based practice into the clinical settings or environment and highlight potential implementation barriers and strategies for overcoming such barriers. The second part of the paper will focus on the internal evidence sources that can provide data to demonstrate improvement in outcomes after EBP implementation.
Steps to integrating evidence-based practice into the clinical environment
Integrating evidence-based practice into the clinical environment involves eight steps, each of which is vital for the success of the program as described below:
1 Establishment of implementation teams and culture
It is important to have people directly responsible for implementing EBP to ensure proactiveness and accountability. This may require training health professionals such as nurses to equip them with the right skills and knowledge to use research evidence in all their operations. This will also create an evidence-based