Nursing Informatics

Evidence-Based Practice
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Institutional Affiliation

Evidence-Based Practice
One of the most common barriers to implementing evidence-based practice (EBP) is lacking of an organizational culture that encourages it. Nursing staff receives a lot of resistance from their leaders and managers (Tacia et al., 2015). This is a significant problem as nurse leaders play a critical role in providing the support needed to implement EBP and to act as role models. Another problem is the lack of enough skills / knowledge to implement EBP. In this light, education is a critical factor in the employment of evidence-based practice. People who were educated several decades ago did not learn the EBP method of care and therefore they need to be inculcated with such kind of skills. Nurse leaders or managers who wish to support sustainable EBP approaches among their staff need to understand that a 2-day workshop is not enough to cause behavior change (Tacia et al., 2015). Therefore they should embark on more EBP mentorship to ensure successful implementation of the approach. Other obstacles that hinder the successful adoption of EBP include deficiency of resources, limited time to study EBP, poor internet access and heavy workload among others (Khammarnia et al., 2015).
The future of patient education seems promising with the continued advancement in technology. For instance, today, various hospitals have adopted modern forms of patient education such as centralized computer networks and different mobile applications for patient education (del Carmen Ortega-Navas, 2017).

Besides these advances, hospitals are also adopting patient portals as a new method of patient education. In the past, these portals were only used to view a patient’s medical results, communication, and scheduling. However, today, new features have been introduced to enhance patient education including video chats, and instructional videos for patients. As such, the continued application of modern technology in patient education is likely to impact with positive changes in the healthcare sector including the improvement of the quality of care and better patient outcomes.
References
del Carmen Ortega-Navas, M. (2017). The use of new technologies as a tool for the promotion of health education. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 237, 23-29.
Khammarnia, M., Haj Mohammadi, M., Amani, Z., Rezaeian, S., & Setoodehzadeh, F. (2015). Barriers to implementation of evidence-based practice in Zahedan teaching hospitals, Iran, 2014. Nursing research and practice, 2015.
Tacia, L., Biskupski, K., Pheley, A., & Lehto, R. H. (2015). Identifying barriers to evidence-based practice adoption: A focus group study. Clinical Nursing Studies, 3(2), 90.