9.4 Evidence-Based Practice and Research
The ANA’s Standard of Professional Practice called Scholarly Inquiry contains competencies related to evidence-based practice and research. The ANA Standards of Professional Practice are “authoritative statements of the actions and behaviors that all registered nurses, regardless of role, population, specialty, and setting are expected to perform competently.” See the following box for a list of competencies included in the ANA’s Scholarly Inquiry Standard of Professional Practice.[1]
Scholarly Inquiry Competencies in ANA’s Standard of Professional Practice[2]
- Identifies questions in the health care or practice setting that can be answered by scholarly inquiry.
- Uses current evidence-based knowledge, combined with clinical expertise and health care consumer values and preferences, to guide practice in all settings.
- Participates in the formulation of evidence-based practice.
- Uses evidence to expand knowledge, skills, abilities, and judgement; to enhance role performance; and to increase knowledge of professional issues for themselves and others.
- Shares peer-reviewed, evidence-based findings with colleagues to integrate knowledge into nursing practice.
- Incorporates evidence and nursing research when initiating changes and improving quality in nursing practice.
- Articulates the value of research and scholarly inquiry and their application to one’s practice and health care setting.
- Promotes ethical principles of research in practice and the health care setting.
- Reviews nursing research for application in practice and the health care setting.
Reflective Questions
- What Scholarly Inquiry competencies have you already demonstrated during your nursing education?
- What Scholarly Inquiry competencies are you most interested in performing next?
- What questions do you have about the ANA’s Scholarly Inquiry competencies?
Nursing practice should be based on solid evidence to inform care actions and ensure quality. Evidence-based practice (EBP) is the foundation for providing effective and efficient health care that promotes improved patient outcomes. Evidence-based practice is defined by the American Nurses Association as, “A lifelong problem-solving approach that integrates the best evidence from well-designed research studies and evidence-based theories; clinical expertise and evidence from assessment of the health care consumer’s history and condition, as well as health care resources; and patient, family, group, community, and population preferences and values.”[3] See Figure 9.6[4] for an illustration of evidence-based practice.
Evidence-based practice is the foundation nurses rely on to ensure their interventions, policies, and procedures are based on data supporting positive patient outcomes. EBP relies on scholarly research that generates new nursing knowledge, along with systematic review of patient outcomes resulting from current nursing practices, to continually promote quality care. EBP en