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Determining the Credibility of Evidence and Resources

Maureen

Determining the Credibility of Evidence and Resources

Description of the Safety Issue That Can Benefit from EBP

Nursing interventions are capable of having significant impacts on patient care. Nurses have the unique position of being on the front line and, thus, able to witness risky behavior firsthand. This allows nurses to craft care plans that focus on patients at risk of falls and even prevent potentially life-threatening incidents (Boye, 2017).

Wexler & D’Amico (2015) add that multimember teams can plan interventions that promote safer environments for patients against falls. Falls have multifactorial causes; hence, a team comprising various professionals should form collaborations in the comprehensive assessment of falls. A standard assessment is often a combination of systematic assessments alongside care planning, targeted interventions, communication, and clinical decision-making with other professionals in the healthcare field.

Several aspects of healthcare utilize evidence-based practice. When EBPs are combined with other research methods, they have been proven to reduce fall incidences among patients. EBP also provides nurses, as well as other professionals in the healthcare field, with accessible improvements to protect patients as well as mitigate any falls. This, in turn, results in enhanced overall care for patients served by healthcare providers (Boye, 2017).

Criteria to Use When Determining Credibility of Resources

According to Mileham (2017), several parameters need to be assessed in determining the credibility of resources. The first is the author(s) of the study and their qualifications, including educational background, experience, and occupation. The subject matter expertise of the authors should also be checked on whether the study is in line with the said expertise. The work should be assessed on whether it is a journal and published and whether it is peer-reviewed. The thoroughness of the research is also important, including checking whether the references and sources are cited to support the claims made in the study. Verifying when the information was published should be easy by checking the publication date. Lastly, the study should be objective and unbiased; the content should be factual, not the authors’ opinion.

Credibility and Relevance of Evidence and Resource within Patient Falls

Evidence-based practice has a significant impact on patient care quality as it enhances the care quality while helping to control the costs of healthcare. There are many EBP models that assist nurses, as well as other professionals in the healthcare field, to integrate the best evidence in their respective practices. Two such models are the ACE Star model and the Iowa Model.

The Iowa Model of Evidence-Based Practice to Promote Quality Care (2017) can effectively implement actual practice change at the organizational and unit levels. A study by McCarty et al. (2018) sought to identify and later implement an assessment tool for fall risk. The evidence-based tool was to be implemented in 12 emergency departments of a healthcare facility. The Iowa Model guided the process, while the Memorial Emergency Department Fall-Risk Assessment Tool (MEDFRAT) was programmed into the healthcare facility’s EMR alongside interventions. The said interventions were those which could be chosen for 2 levels of fall risk. Emergency nurses also were involved in education sessions covering MEDFRAT and patient falls, with time allocated to discuss their implementation concerns regarding MEDFRAT. The study concluded that the Iowa Model was a useful framework for selecting an evidence-based tool. It also involved nurses in the implementation process of the evidence-based changes in the 12 emergency departments. The results are reproducible for other healthcare settings.

The ACE STAR Model of Knowledge Transformation by Stevens (2004) is a framework used in systematically integrating evidence in healthcare practice. There are 5 major stages involved: discovery, a summary of evidence, practice recommendations’ translation, integration into practice, and evaluation. The ACE STAR model has been used in several studies. One such study is by Orta et al. (2016), whose project was the development of EBP educational resources. These would aim at increasing the competency and knowledge of the nursing faculty in a southeastern college. A pre- and post-survey design showed that the effectiveness of education intervention could be determined. The results showed that the faculty member’s confidence increased significantly post-EBP competency.

Importance of Incorporating Credible Evidence into an EBP Model Used to Address Patient Falls

A fall prevention intervention that is evidence-based is one that has been tested through a rigorous research design and has successfully shown a decline in patient fall incidences. The intervention is then made into a program prior to its implementation in a community setting. For an evidence-based program to remain effective, it is expected to retain fidelity to the initial intervention. This means the program must retain the main elements that contributed to the effectiveness of the intervention. When the program is being adopted, it needs to fit the implementation setting’s requirements, such as a community center or a senior center where most patient falls occur. Different audiences will attract different fall prevention programs based on factors such as program support, access, cost, familiarity, and format. The implementation combines previous planning activities with communication, education, and complementary outreach strategies. It also involves how well the different staff execute the delivery of the program in the program and the adaptation extent of the program (Boye, 2017). It is also important to develop a quality assurance plan. This is an ongoing system that describes, measures and evaluates the delivery of the program to ensure that the participants access quality and effective services and that the goals of the program are met. Additionally, having a quality assurance plan provides the stakeholders and funders with credibility and also helps in building a case for the prevention program as worthy of support (Wexler & D’Amico, 2015).

Conclusion

Falls are a major contributor to death and injury among the elderly population. Older persons are prone to falling for several reasons, their residence notwithstanding. Patient falls are costly to the patient, their care providers, and the healthcare industry. Preventing falls is necessary for better patient outcomes. Strategies to mitigate the risks of falls need to be implemented based on evidence-based practices. Therefore, healthcare facilities need to utilize any available EBP tools, such as the ACE STAR and Iowa Model, to implement policies and strategies for better patient safety.

References

Boye-Doe, S. B. (2017). Improving fall prevention strategies in an acute-care setting.

Iowa Model Collaborative, Buckwalter, K. C., Cullen, L., Hanrahan, K., Kleiber, C., McCarthy, A. M., … & Authored on behalf of the Iowa Model Collaborative. (2017). Iowa model of evidence‐based practice: Revisions and validation. Worldviews on Evidence‐Based Nursing, 14(3), 175-182.

McCarty, C. A., Woehrle, T. A., Waring, S. C., Taran, A. M., & Kitch, L. A. (2018). Implementation of the MEDFRAT to promote quality care and decrease falls in community hospital emergency rooms. Journal of Emergency Nursing, 44(3), 280-284.

Mileham, P. (2017). Finding sources of evidence. Evidence-Based Practice for Nurses: Appraisal and Application of Research, 93.

Orta, R., Messmer, P. R., Valdes, G. R., Turkel, M., Fields, S. D., & Wei, C. C. (2016). Knowledge and competency of nursing faculty regarding evidence-based practice. The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 47(9), 409-419.

Stevens, K. R. (2004). ACE star model of knowledge transformation. Academic Center for Evidence-based Practice. University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio. www.acestar.Uthscsa.edu.

Wexler, S. S., & D’Amico, C. O. N. (2015). Creating an environment of fall prevention. American Nurse Today, 10(7), 34-35.

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Question 

Determining the Credibility of Evidence and Resources

Develop a 2-4 page scholarly paper in which you describe a quality or safety issue or a chosen diagnosis, and then identify and analyze credible evidence that could be used as the basis for applying EBP to the issue.

Introduction

The goal of using evidence-based research findings is to enhance the safety and quality of patient care and ensure optimal outcomes are achieved. It is not uncommon to hear a nurse say, “Why change it as we’ve always done it this way.” However, this is no longer acceptable in today’s practice environment. The profession of nursing has evolved, and the expectation is that the professional nurse has a scientific foundation to support the care that is provided. As the profession of nursing continues to evolve and engage in healthcare transformation, baccalaureate-prepared nurses are expanding, taking on leadership roles that include incorporating EBPs. To be able to do this, the nurse needs to understand the criteria and make a resource credible, as this is crucial when deciding if the research is valid and reliable for implementation in healthcare settings. The nurse will need to incorporate the use of evidence-based practice models. EBP models are designed to assist the nurse in developing a plan to gather evidence to answer a practice problem or question. It is a systematic approach that directs the user to incorporate scholarly findings into current practice. These EBP models lead the nurse through the decision-making process of evaluating the literature to determine the best practice evidence for the practice issue or question.

It would be an excellent choice to complete the Vila Health Determining the Credibility of Evidence activity prior to developing the report. The activity is a media simulation that offers an opportunity to review a scenario and work on determining the credibility of the presented evidence. These skills will be necessary to complete Assessment 2 successfully. This media simulation is one potential source of context on which to base your assessment submission. This will take just a few minutes of your time and is not graded.

Professional Context

As a baccalaureate-prepared nurse, you will be responsible for locating and identifying credible and scholarly resources to incorporate the best available evidence for the purposes of enhancing clinical reasoning and judgment skills. When reliable and relevant evidence-based findings are utilized, outcomes for patients, health care systems, and nursing practice are positively impacted.

Determining the Credibility of Evidence and Resources

Scenario

For this assessment, you may choose from the following options as the context for the quality or safety issue or chosen diagnosis/health issue for researching and completing this assessment:

Instructions

The purpose of this analysis is to better understand what constitutes credibility of journal articles as well as websites. The role of the baccalaureate-prepared nurse in incorporating evidence-based research continues to grow in clinical practice. As quality improvement (QI) measures to reduce safety risks continue to be emphasized, the need for evidence-based models and evidence-based templates is growing. This type of systematic approach to incorporating evidence-based findings allows nurses to make clinical and operational decisions based on the best available evidence. When the most up-to-date evidence-based findings are utilized, patient-centered care improves outcomes and enhances the patient experience.

For this assessment:

Be sure to address the following in this assessment, which corresponds to the grading criteria in the scoring guide. Please study the scoring guide carefully so that you will know what is needed for a distinguished score.

Additional Requirements
Your assessment should meet the following requirements:

Portfolio Prompt: Remember to save the final assessment to your ePortfolio so that you may refer to it as you complete the final capstone course.

Determining the Credibility of Evidence and Resources

Competencies Measured
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the course competencies through the following assessment scoring guide criteria:

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