Importance of Nursing Research and Relevance of Research Findings - Report Example

Running Head: Nursing Research Importance of Nursing Research and Relevance of Research Findings Student’s Name: Professor’s Name: Subject Code and Name: Date Submitted: Importance of Nursing Research and Relevance of Research Findings Abstract This paper aims at explaining the importance of nursing research and the relevance of research findings to evidence based practice for wounds dressing. The paper will review different research articles and methodologies that will be highlighted in a brief summary. The paper will examine research evidence from different sources of evidence and considering the models of research evidence practice and utilization. A descriptive review of research will help us understand the translated evidence based practice in hospitals and developed strategies in the real nursing practice. The paper will analyze the importance of the nursing research from the nursing center point of view and how successful the initiative has been. Research Strategy The research will review already done studies on nursing research and be able to come up with practical reasons why the research in nursing is important. This will involve how relevant the evidence based practices have been influenced by these researches and how much the recommendations of the researches have been implemented. The paper will make a selection of two case studies in which evidence based practice has been done in the field of nursing. The first being the wounds care on abrasions among pre-scholars up to those in the twelfth grade. The paper will also feature the evidence based practice for long term wound care and will also try to gather empirical evidence on the care of surgical wounds using gauze packing. The paper is meant to promote research utilization in nursing and use of replication research methodology to come up with the best approach in implementing research findings. The nursing research has to follow specific guidelines that appertain to the research ethics in issues of the data collection, research design, and recruitment of respondents and are to be subjected to scrutiny and approval. Importance of the Nursing Research Due to changes made in the nursing education in the recent years, there is an inevitable importance of the nursing research. Nurses have become more oriented to research and some have been recognized in this field due to their research contributions. The ultimate goal however is not to get this recognition but rather to improve the quality of health care among patients since the nursing research is meant that nurses raise questions on their practice, find answers to them and implement the findings of this research (Mitchell et al, 2007). In research, nurses need to be objective, purposeful and reflective in questioning while in the evidence based practice, they ought to balance the clinical subject of research and the information derived from the patient. The nursing research critique should involve the critical appraisal of the research and should be objective about the validity and significance of the study. According to Weber’s functionalism, the research is an important part of the practitioner’s role which involves proper research and its application to the nursing practice. The nursing researcher should be able to communicate, evaluate and explain the relevant research findings to other staff which should be implemented in the ward policy guidelines with an aim of having evidence based care to patients. The research should be able to help the patients within the effectiveness and standards of practice and also advance knowledge in the nursing field. The roles of the nursing profession have steadily evolved from clinical aspects to sharing an important part of the larger health care team. This profession owes this evolvement to the milestones achieved in research. Data acquired from rigorous research procedures has been vital for best clinical practices called the evidence based practices. It is true that nursing creates a positive difference every day in the lives of patients and also significant contributions to the nursing field. The Centre for Nursing Research (CNR) was created to guide research in nursing and evidence based nursing initiatives. The centre will be in a position to disseminate nursing research findings and utilize them to guide evidence based practice and promote excellence in nursing care while it ushers in a next generation of nursing scientists. The center that was established in 2008 has seven goals; to indentify priorities in the nursing research; to strengthen research infrastructure and resource base; to implement nurse studies researched by the nurses themselves; to promote collaborative and interdisciplinary research partnerships; to provide knowledge on research methodology, evidence based practice and critical thinking strategies; advancement of quality care through scientific research ; and increasing scientific research visibility (Goode, 2006). Research Utilization in Nursing Profession Wounds management is a challenging field in the nursing profession and will require sufficient research to deal with different kinds of wounds. Evidence based practice integrates clinical expertise, existing resources and patient preferences in making decisions about the individual care of patients. From the many publications available, nurses can extract relevant information on effective strategies for evidence based nursing. Patients’ outcomes and nurses contribution to healthcare depends on the quality of information nurses demand, their evaluation and use of the information for making clinical decisions. In practice, nursing depends immensely on information and as a result nurses must constantly update themselves on the practice and not rely only on classroom information (Blythe & Royle, 2008). Nurses can access patients’ databases for their health information, clinical guidelines, research databases and care protocols. When research has finally been seen as integral to professional nursing, researchers have raised concern on barriers to utilization of research. They have used variables to study diffusion of information across organizations. Nurses have also been surveyed on their attitudes, experiences and resources that relate to research utilization and made experiments on different approaches to enable research utilization. A study conducted by Royle and Blythe (2008) entitled ‘Do nurses have the information resources and skills for research utilization?’ found that, in comparison with small hospitals of less than 500 bed capacity, the more than 500 bed capacity hospitals were more likely to have access to nursing research experts, nurse research coordinators, nursing faculty, libraries with nursing research journals and research committees (Royle& Blythe, 2008). They were more likely to have active programs for research utilization unlike the small hospitals. The survey also came up with findings that most nurses do not read research journals and read more of clinical and technical journals. Nurses have also been found to use information only if it is specific to certain patients and is relevant. The nurses used online information for various which included; answering questions relating to diagnosis, preparation of care plans, learning about disease processes and drugs, obtaining patients’ information, validation of knowledge, investigation of new nursing interests and priorities, and promoting professional development. Inexperienced users used the online research databases at night shifts and in quiet times. Individual research utilization is influenced by the commitment by an organization to use the research evidence. A systematic review of literature show that variance of 80-90% in research utilization can be explained by organizational factors. 5-10 % variance was explained by environmental factors, and 1-3% variance explained by individual characteristics (Dobbins, 2005). Any interventions directed at individuals, the environment or organization is likely to lead to a change of practice. Some studies investigated the cause of research utilization gap and came up with solutions. On the basis of literature reviews by Funk (2006), barriers to research utilization included quality of research, individual nurse, the organization, and the means of communicating research results. There are possibilities of future researches to suggest strategies to overcome these barriers. Specific organizational characteristics can promote decision making that relates to research utilization. On the other hand, a nurse’s prioritization of research findings can help promote research utilization. This includes being able to network information to other colleagues and having accessibility to research sources such as the internet at workplace. A research friendly environment such as health science libraries helps nurses to review health care literature and develop tools for evidence based practice. Research evidence is important for providing nurses with information on clinical practice to address the complex issues. Evidence Based Practice for Wounds dressing A case study of wounds dressing for school age children showed that nursing research was implemented in the wounds assessment and its follow up assessment. The Bates Jansen Wood Assessment Tool (BWAT) used by school nurses only. The characteristic of each wound is evaluated and graded. The school nurses in question are registered nurses trained to meet the clinical needs of school age kids (Adams & McCarthy, 2005). Excerpts from the Emergency guidelines for Schools can be used in evaluation of wounds. The tools suggest that those who sustain partial abrasions should receive partial wounds dressing. The wound’s dressing can be hydrocolloid or hydrogel dressing. Instructions ought to be given on wound care that the dressing should not exceed seven days. If healing has occurred, no clinical practice should be administered otherwise, further consultations with the doctor should take place. The clinical guidelines adequately differentiate between lacerations, abrasions, partially and fully thick wounds. Full thickness wounds and bleeding injuries are referred as emergencies that need further evaluation. The partial thickness lacerations are healed by first intention while partial thickness abrasion care will need the nurse’s grading to be able to come up with proper treatment. It’s a requirement by these guidelines that the patient visits the nurse each day for change of dressings and evaluation of wound. In long term care on wounds, the nursing research is vital in setting standards, protocols, and programs for infections control on wounds. Some nursing researchers have developed programs on wound care practice to face the challenges of long term care for wounds. This is based on the research utilization and the researched standards of practice. The use of clinical products must be evidence based in order to have custodial care and skilled nursing for patients with long term wounds. Research has helped to standardize the product selection and treatment of wounds. Products are to be chosen on the basis of prevention and treatment while the treatment of a patient should be consistent as she moves from one medical facility to another. Wound care, nutritional products and support should be formulated by research and if either of them deviates from the recommendations of research, there has to be basis for acceptance or rejection of the product. Unless there is deficiency, no direct evidence shows that nutritional supplements promote healing in any way neither does it affect the clinical outcomes. The current clinical guidelines on prevention and treatment need to be improved to meet the standards of health care. If standards are to be met, this may influence clinical outcomes since nursing research ultimate goal is to achieve positive outcomes. Treatment of surgical wounds has devolved from long term care to outpatient setting where the initial wound dressing is done in operating theatre. However, the surgeons have little knowledge on the discipline of wound care unlike the nurses. According to nursing research, there are modern alternatives that take care of surgical wounds and there is evidence of positive patient outcomes when these wounds have received frequent changes of dressings. Specialist nurses have favored modern dressings for both chronic and acute surgical wounds; however it is difficult to choose appropriate dressing due to the minimal evidence in this issue. There are few conducted trials and standardized outcomes on appropriate dressing. Comparative studies have shown that in dressing chronic wounds, gauze dressings are not conducive due to the uncomfortable feeling they have on the patient while changing therefore there have been negative outcomes on these dressings (Thomson, 2008). Research has recommended modern alternatives that are infrequent to changing therefore having less discomfort for the patient and can be applied at all stages of healing. In acute wounds, clinical studies show that modern hydrofibre dressings are better than proflavine soaked gauze in terms of cost effectiveness and pain at dressing stages. Clinical guidelines show that modern dressings may reduce pain from chronic wounds where the tissue viability nurse is present to advice on how to manage complex wounds. This means that prior research is important for them to make indications on the limitations and advantages of the modern dressings alternatives over the traditional surgical gauze. Conclusion The best clinical practice for the evidence based nursing must involve application of research findings along with the patients’ information. The nursing research has proved important especially in assistance in dressing of wound and the choice of the dressing. Unless there is researched evidence on the best choice of the dressings, it is obvious that the nurses will not be of much help to surgeons and patients who rely on them for healthcare. There is also immense need for research to cop with the challenges of long term wound care. The best practice can be achieved if nurses are able to plan treatment of patients with prior knowledge of the care of wounds. The best practice can also be practiced if there are developmental tools for evidence based nursing with the collaboration of nursing institutions and health care providers. Due to the improved communication across countries on healthcare, centre for the evidence based nursing have continually grown to make materials for healthcare more accessible to nurses and their respective health organizations. Information resources in hospitals can help nurses master the skills of handling different kinds of wounds and use technology to filter information for making decisions on clinical issues and care of the patients. References Funk, S.P. (2006). Barriers to using research findings in practice: the clinician's perspective. Nursing Studies, 4: 90–5. Goode, J.D. (2006). Use of research-based knowledge in clinical practice. Journal of Nursing Administration, 17:11–18. Royle, J., & Blythe J. (2008). Literature search and retrieval in the workplace. Computing Nursing, 13:25–31. Mitchell, A.K. (2007). Assessment of nursing research utilization needs in Ontario health agencies. Journal of Nursing Administration, 8:77–91. Royle J.A. & Blythe J. (2008). Do nurses have the information resources and skills for research utilization? Journal of Nursing Administration, 10: 9–30 Dobbins M.A. (2005). Dissemination and use of research evidence for policy and practice: a framework for developing, implementing, and evaluating strategies. Canadian Nurses Association Report. Thomson, M.A. (2008). Closing the gap between nursing research and practice: Implementation forum. Evidence-Based Nursing, 1:7–8. Read More