Application of Research-Based Practice in Nursing Decisions and Interactions with Clients

Nursing research generates knowledge on nursing, the characteristics of nurses, and nursing roles and influences nursing practice by adding empirical knowledge (Grove & Gray, 2019). The current health needs of various patients globally have been complicated due to the current COVID-19 Pandemic. The Pandemic has placed nurses in the front most in the battle against the virus, with high patient acuity and deaths. Nurses have been tasked with the duty to detect COVID-19 cases, offer primary care to save lives and be available as comforters to patients and families in their end-of-life moments (Turale et al., 2020). The Pandemic has forced nurses to work for long hours and make complex ethical and moral decisions between care delivery and their own health. The virus has also been noted to have fatal outcomes on patients with already existing acute health conditions such as diabetes and obesity. This further complicates the current nursing practices.

Managing COVID-19 patients with existing health conditions requires empirical knowledge of disease complications, safety protocols, prevention, and its interactions with other diseases (Nicola et al., 2020). There is also a need to understand COVID-19’s health impacts based on age, gender, chronic disease, and other demographic factors such as pregnancies. Research-based nursing practice is currently being applied in my workplace during the current COVID-19 Pandemic. Nurses continuously review studies about the COVID-19 virus to keep updated on the management of patients. The nursing practice in the workplace is changing gradually as more empirical evidence on the virus emerges. The nursing research knowledge during the Pandemic is allowing advanced nurses to provide urgent care autonomously without a medical doctor’s supervision. Despite the challenges and care delivery complications due to research, nurses in our facilities have utilized evidence from emerging COVID-19 research to provide patient bedside care based on safety protocols.

References

Grove, S. K., & Gray, J. R. (2019). Understanding Nursing Research – eBook: Building an Evidence-Based Practice. Elsevier.

Nicola, M., O’Neill, N., Sohrabi, C., Khan, M., Agha, M., & Agha, R. (2020). Evidence-based management guideline for the COVID-19 Pandemic – Review article. International Journal of Surgery, 77, 206–216. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijsu.2020.04.001