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How Healthcare Professionals can use EBP in

Assessment & Diagnosis

Dr. Nancy Agnes, Head, Technical Operations, Pubrica, sales@pubrica.com

Keywords: clinical research, quantitative

research, Clinical research work, data collection,

EBP reports, purpose of EBP.

I. INTRODUCTION

Evidence Based Practice (EBP) is the

promising practice that interlinks the information

collected after clinical expertise and proven

research studies, so that, vital information for better

healthcare management can be set and followed.

The most seen purpose of EBP is assistance to

clinical healthcare professionals in making

decisions for better treatment of patients.

The history of EBP starts in 1970. Before

the EBP, the health professionals mostly tended to

rely on other experienced health professionals.

Though the required information is easily

accessible and based, there can be mistakes or

prone to incorrect leads, pertaining to the age and

memory of the health professionals. Similar to the

EBP, there are Evidence Based Management,

Evidence Based Medicine, Evidence Based

Decision making, etc.

II. REGULAR STEPS IN EBP

Healthcare professionals cannot easily get

the sources and find the necessary data. It takes

more steps and time to do so.

1. Firstly, based upon the patient conditions, they design a ‘need’ and start collecting the data

related to that from every possible and reliable

source. The data are checked for the quality of

the research work.

2. Later, after collecting the data, their relevance pertaining to the situations are analyzed.

3. In the end, the cases are treated well and the report from the treated case is also recorded as

an additional information or update of the

existing information.

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III. MEDICAL VITALITY

Diagnosis is the most important step

before going to treat the patient. A health

professional has to hold various medical

examinations and assess based upon the results.

There comes a situation, where the professional has

to determine the tests to be performed for the

patient. Here comes, EBP in assessments and

diagnosis.

Getting through uncertain medical

situations, there needs an immediate measure to

tackle the irregular conditions of patients. Based

upon the clinical expertise alone, one cannot

determine the appropriate treatment to be provided

to the patient. The care plan needs to be altered

according to the patients' conditions. The handling

of unexpected Covid 19 pandemic is the great

example in EBP. It was a unprecedented type of

disease and no researcher could able to make

instant researchers upon that. All the data related to

its symptoms are collected and treatment was

given. Drugs used for TB and Malaria in their

altered forms are used to treat the patients and

recorded for future clinical research.

In this instance, let us consider the

situation of a patient who met with a road accident.

It is more likely to determine what exact diagnostic

measures to be taken. But there can be

circumstances like the patient could have had brain

injury earlier. So, the patient must be diagnosed in

deep for brain damage, if not that may lead to brain

death.

IV. BARRIERS IN ADOPTING EBP

According to the reports, a random set of

nurses were asked about the barriers on their way

towards adopting the EBP, in that, most of them

agreed that lack of time searches for articles, at

their workplace. Other reasons are– poor

understandability, fear of failure, technical issues in

reaching the correct resources.

EBP reports are not always completely

commendable especially in the cases of severe and

chronic cases. It is more important to update the

knowledge not only with data based on the cases,

but also through research and other studies.

Sometimes, the clinical experience would even be

biased based upon the varying past of the

professionals.

Around the world, discussions upon EBP

are yet controversial owing to the hidden fact that

more of its reliability over the quantitative research.

Perception of the healthcare professional varies, so

the evidence. Also the bias of the professionals

makes the evidence to be questioned for certainty.

V. ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES OF

EBP

EBP ensures the quality of information

that is provided to the professionals. The

professionals can provide the appropriate treatment

and balance the other critical conditions of the

patients. The decisions made on the EBP can be

believed with more confidence.

Though EBP promises to be the better

reliable method while comparing with others, there

also exist certain disadvantages within it. EBP

needs more accurate information and proven

evidence which may consume more time.

Considering the unexpected situations with

patients, a professional may not start the Clinical

research work to tackle the issues immediately.

VI. CONCLUSION

Creating the evidence and connecting

them to the appropriate situations is not a one-day

matter. There involved a lot of difficulties in

experimentation, collection of data from various

sources, and bringing them to the right situation at

right time. Apart from all, it keeps on updating

itself based on the new situations that arise after

new cases.

REFERENCES

1. Guyatt, G.H., Haynes, R.B., Jaeschke, R.Z., & Cook, D.J. (2000). Users' guides to the medical

literature: XXV. evidence-based medicine:

principles for applying the users' guides to

patient care. JAMA, 284, 1290-1296. doi:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.284.10.1290

2. B Jensen, I., BjörkBrämberg, E., Wåhlin, C., Björklund, C., Hermansson, U.,

LohelaKarlson, M., SchäferElinder, L.,

MunckAfRosenschöld, P., Nevala, T., Carter,

N., Mellblom, B., &Kwak, L. (2020).

Promoting Evidence-Based Practice for

Improved Occupational Safety and Health at

Workplaces in Sweden. Report on a Practice-

Based Research Network Approach.

International journal of environmental research

and public health, 17(15), 5283.

https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17155283.

3. Hoffman, T., Bennett, S., & Del Mar, C. (2013). Evidence-based practice: across the

health professions (2nd ed.). Chatswood,

NSW: Elsevier.

4. Hasanpoor, E., Janati, A., Arab-Zozani, M., &Haghgoshayie, E. (2018). Using the

evidence-based medicine and evidence-based

management to minimize overuse and

maximize quality in healthcare: a hybrid

https://pubrica.com/sevices/research-services/https://pubrica.com/academy/latest-topics/how-to-extract-quantitative-data-for-systematic-review-and-meta-analysis/https://pubrica.com/sevices/research-services/https://pubrica.com/sevices/research-services/https://pubrica.com/services/medical-data-collection/

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perspective. BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine,

bmjebm–2018–110957. doi:10.1136/bmjebm-

2018-110957