Evidence-Based Nursing (EBN) is developing a plan of care based on patient values and medical expertise, including information from science-based research on best practices, to provide the best care possible.

Why is Evidence-Based nursing important?

According to the Academy of Medical/Surgical Nurses, Evidence-Based Practice is important because it:

• Moves research findings into the actual care of a patient
• Uses science-based nursing instead of tradition
• Makes patient care more individualized and with fewer complications
• Leads to the best decision making
• Recommended health professionals’ competency from the Institute of Medicine

Five steps to Evidence-Based Medicine

• Evaluate your patient’s progress based on clinical expertise and ask questions if something is not working or could be working better. Use PICOT (population, intervention, comparison, outcomes, time) to develop a specific question to research and define search terms to use to locate results of multiple studies or systematic reviews.
• Search for the best evidence available within your available resources.  Use CINAHL Plus with Full Text, Health Source Nursing Academic, Academic Search Complete, Psych Info or Google Scholar to search for systematic reviews, meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials, cohort studies, case studies or case reports. If unsure about terminology, ask for help from a librarian.
• Think about the information you found and if it makes sense for your patient.
• Apply results to patient.
• Reevaluate your patient’s progress and your decision making.

 Resources

Reference Books

Johns Hopkins Nursing Evidence-Based Practice [electronic resource] : Models and Guidelines (Ebsco ebook)

 Streaming Media

Evidence-Based Practice : What It Is and What It Is Not

Books to Check Out

Evidence-Based Review in Policy and Practice

Integrating Evidence into Practice for Impact 

Nursing-Sensitive Innovations in Patient Care 

Finding Books in the Library

Sauk (like most academic libraries) organizes books according to the Library of Congress Classification scheme. This is how it works:

• Major subjects are assigned to letters of the alphabet
• A book has a call number that starts with the letter(s) that denotes its subject
• Books are shelved alphabetically by call number

Medicine is assigned to Library of Congress Class R and topics are broken down as follows:

•  Books about Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing usually have call numbers that start with RA, RC, or RT

Magazines and Journals in the LRC

American Journal of Nursing   (Online in OVID) Click on Journals tab

Home Healthcare Now (Online in OVID) Click on Journals tab

Home Healthcare Nurse (Online in OVID) Click on Journals tab

Journal of Pediatric Nursing (January/February 2013 to present)

Med/Surg Insider Supplement (Online in OVID) Click on Journals tab

Men in Nursing (Online in OVID) Click on Journals tab

Nurse Educator (January/February 2013 to present)

Nursing   (January 2013 to September 2016) (Online in OVID) Click on Journals tab

Nursing Critical Care (Online in OVID) Click on Journals tab

Nursing Made Incredibly Easy  ( Online in OVID) Click on Journals tab

Nursing Times (December 2, 2008 to present)

Suggested Terminology for Online Searching

Academic Search Complete
Search tip: Use the Advanced Search – Type in your search term and add “Systematic review” as an additional search term in a new search box.

CINAHL Plus with Full Text
Search tip: Use the Advanced Search – Type in your search term and use limiters -check box for Evidence-Based Practice; select all within Clinical Queries; select Systematic review or Meta-analysis from Publication Type, and select age of patient.                                                        

Or

Use Advanced Search – Type in your search term and type in Systematic review or Meta-analysis or Case study as an additional search term in another search box. If the common term doesn’t yield results, try using the medical term.

Health Source Nursing/Academic Edition
Search tip: Use the Advanced Search – Type in your search term and type in Systematic review or Meta-analysis or Case study as an additional search term in a separate box. If the common term doesn’t yield results, try using the medical term.

Ovid  Click on Journals tab

PsycINFO
Search tip: Use the Advanced Search – Type in your search term and type in Systematic review or Meta-analysis or Case study as an additional search term in a separate box. Also, usually results found within this database will need to be requested from another library.

Websites

Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
Search tip: Click on the link for Research. Next, click on Evidence-Based Practice.

Google Scholar
Search tip: Type in your search term, add AND in all capital letters, then also type in systematic review.            Example: Type in knee arthroplasty AND systematic review, then hit enter.

Evidence-Based Practice
University of Minnesota Health Sciences Libraries’ guide to Evidence-Based Practice. Gives ways to practice formulating PICO or PICOT questions.

Innerbody.com
An award winning site offering hundreds of human anatomy pictures.

National Guideline Clearinghouse
Search tip: Use Advanced Search; type in your search term(s), scroll all the way to the bottom and select either “Systematic Review” or “Systematic Review with Evidence Tables” from the area entitled “Methods Used to Analyze the Evidence”.

Pub Med
Search tip: Use the Clinical Queries area to type your search term. Example: Type in “knee arthroplasty” and hit enter. Then look at the middle column which will be systematic reviews.