Interviewing Nurse Manager - Essay Example

Interview with Nurse Manager Interview with Nurse Manager Introduction The interview focused on a nurse working in the local community hospital. The hospital is a general medical and surgical public hospital that has been providing care to the residents of since its inception. The hospital offers inpatient and outpatient care, an expertly staffed state of the art emergency center, rehabilitation and physiotherapy and surgical services. Background The interview revealed that significant emphasis has been directed towards the utilization of the evidence-based practice in the quest to improve health care. The increased focus on evidence-based care is attributed to the numerous advantages of the evidence on the competency levels of nurses. For example, the interviewee revealed that evidence based care enhances patient care, improves outcome, provide sufficient evidence for clinical, administrative and educational decision-making processes. Because of improved health care, the patients have been able to save significant cost that could purchase medication. Evidence based practice is known to consider the influences, whether external or internal, on the nursing practice and implores critical thinking during its application. Practitioners who utilize the evidence gathered can accurately judge and diagnose a patient. The process improves the quality of health care offered to the patients (Mantzoukas, 2007). Interview The interview involved answering preset questions that focused on assessing the willingness of nurses in applying evidence-based practice. After vigorous consultations with the Hospital Review Board, permission was granted to the manager nurse and the selected nurse to participate in the interview. The first contact with the nurse was made during her weekly staff meetings. In this meeting, the institution review board’s permission was conveyed to the manager nurse to facilitate the interview. The privacy of the participating nurse was protected throughout the duration of the interview. The results from the interview showed that nurses were reluctant to adopt evidence-based practice. The situation was attributed to the inability to conceptualize the information provided by research. Evidence based practice was designed to provide the health practitioners with numerous relevant information that would enable them make effective clinical decisions since its inception. The approach was beneficial because it allowed the discarding of the previously adhered traditional practice with an aim of improving the quality of clinical services. Due to the rising numbers of nurses in the decision making process, it is critical for them to access and utilize evidence in the provision of care. The interview reveled that nurses are the predominant health care providers in numerous health facilities. It is necessary to ensure that the evidence generated is availed to them in order for them to carry out their mandated responsibility. The approach will give them an opportunity to assess its viability and eventual integration in their practice. Subsequently, it is necessary to address the gap between knowledge generation leading to evidence and the eventual utilization of the knowledge to enhance better health care. It is highly recommended that a continuous evidence searching process be conducted to ensure the nurses access the latest evidence. In the event that multiple evidences are presented regarding a single issue, the nurses are required to utilize their rational judgmental capabilities and expertise to single out the most appropriate evidence that would yield the desired outcome. The interview revealed that the inability of nurses to incorporate evidence-based practice in their activities is because of two major factors. Firstly, the busy schedule due to the increasing number of individual seeking health care services has been a limiting factor in the acquiring, evaluation and eventual incorporation of the evidence in their practice. This is usually common in most large public health care facilities. Secondly, their inability to comprehend research findings and adequately utilize them has been a limiting factor. The situation is usually because of their limited knowledge in research. Nurse Managers should play a fundamental role in acquiring and adoption of the evidence gathered. For instance, they can lessen the schedule burden of these nurses so that they have ample time to review the evidence provided. Secondly, they can facilitate training programs to equip these nurses with the relevant research knowledge on how to analyze research findings (Aurora, 2011). A study was conducted in 2005 to assess the willingness of nurses to adopt the evidence-based practice (Aurora, 2011). Its findings showed that most nurses only utilize the knowledge obtained in nursing school in their practice rather than seeking reference materials that will equip them with the latest advancements in their practice. Consequently, the nurse manager should insist on discarding of the traditional practice and adoption of the evidence based practice (Aurora, 2011). Four known factors influence the adoption of evidence based practice including nurse’s awareness, needs, implementation skills and source of practice knowledge. Awareness is responsible for the urge of the nurse to seek evidence and appropriate utilize the information. The situation is driven by the assumption of a better practice method. When the nurse encounters numerous unsatisfactory outcomes, she develops the need to adopt new practices. It is evident that such practices can be availed by the evidence-based practice. Implementation skill involve expertise that allows a nurse to gather the evidence and appropriate utilize the resultant information. In case one encounters a problem during implementation, he or she resolves it amicably. Nurses acquire knowledge in their day-to-day practice, especially from reliable peers. When these peers base their knowledge from the evidence-based practice, chances are the nurse would adopt the practice (Suwanraj, 2010). There are several recommendations that should be utilized to further improve evidence based practice and its adoption. The local health care facilities that have successfully adopted and implemented this practice should collaborate with the numerous nursing institutions in order to equip them with the latest nursing practices (Pryse, 2012). As earlier noted, many nurses still utilize the practice knowledge they acquired in school and are reluctant to adopt new practices associated with evidence-based practice. Instead of waiting for them to decide whether they will adopt these new practices, such collaborations would ensure that these nurses are exposed to the new practices while still in nursing school. An update to the nursing course work would be a consequence of this collaboration. Introduction of research units in these nursing school would ensure that the nurses are equipped with the necessary research knowledge that enable them to interpret and analyze the research findings necessary in the evidence based practice (Stevens, 2013). As the world embraces technological advancements, it is highly recommended that these technological advancements should be adopted in the research work and distribution of results. Creation of a website where the nurses can access information would be vital in the adoption of the evidence-based practice. A website would ease access to information. The website can also facilitate the sharing of success stories of the evidence-based practice in a quest to encourage others to adopt this practice. Health care facility should create a common email address where the nurses can send their numerous clinical questions. These questions would form the basis of the next research question and its results should further enhance the adoption of the best nursing practice. Patient Outcome Data The patient outcome data that will be accessed within a month pertains to the number of nurses in percentage within the unit using evidence base when treating bedsores. The second patient outcome data is the number of nurses in percentage within the unit who do not use evidence base when treating bedsores. The third patient outcome data is the number of patients suffering from bedsores before the introduction of evidence based care. The fourth patient outcome data is number of patients not suffering from bedsores before the introduction of evidence based care. The fifth outcome data are the number of evidence-based strategies that address bedsores and the percentage application for each method. The last outcome data are the challenges patients face in adopting or accepting the evidence based care and rank them starting with most to least important.  References Aurora, C. (2011). Nurse Managers Play Key Role in Adoption of Evidence-Based Practice. Retrieved from American Sentinel University: www.americansentinel.ed/about-american-sentinel-university/newsroom/nurse-manager-play-key-role-in-adoption-of-evidence-based-practice-2 Mantzoukas, S. (2007). A review of evidence based practice, nursing research and reflection: levelling the hierarchy. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 17 214 - 223. Pryse, Y. M. (2012). Using Evidence Based Practice: The Relationship Between Work Environment, Nursing Leadership and Nurses at the Bedside. Indiana University, School of Nursing. Stevens, K. R. (2013, 05 31). The Impact of Evidence Based Practice in Nursing and the Next Big Ideas. The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 18 (2), Manuscript 4. Suwanraj, M. (2010). Current practice, perceived barriers and perceived facilitators of Thai nurses on using evidence based practice on pain assessment and pain management in older adults. University of Iowa. Iowa Research Online. Retrieved from http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/747 Read More