Even as patient care evolves and the healthcare transformation is visible, change is a constant factor. With the evolution of disease processes and ingenuity in the mechanisms of some diseases, such as cancer, it is critical and prudent to embrace new practice methods. This calls for the incorporation of evidence-based research findings into nursing practice in the hopes of improving patient care quality and safety.
As the nursing profession evolves and healthcare transforms, more opportunities for nurses to engage in leadership roles that include incorporating evidence-based research findings into practice become available (Kim and colleagues, 2020). To do so, nurses must understand the criteria used to certify the credibility of resources, which is critical in deciding which to use in practice.
As a result, using evidence-based practice models to help nurses incorporate scholarly findings into practice is vital. This analysis aims to determine what factors contribute to the credibility of resources obtained to assist in solving a practical nursing scenario.
Quality, Safety, or a Chosen Diagnosis that could benefit from an Evidence-Based Approach
The chosen diagnosis, diabetes mellitus (DM), serves as the foundation for the subsequent discussion. Diabetes is a chronic metabolic condition characterized by high blood sugar levels caused by a lack of insulin secretion, action, or both. Type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes are the most common types of diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is caused by a lack of insulin secretion, which usually occurs due to autoimmune destruction of the beta cells of the islet of Langerhans. Contrarily, while it can also result from insulin deficiency, the vast majority of type 2 DM cases are caused by insulin resistance in the peripheral cells (American Diabetes Association, ADA, 2020).
Diabetes epidemiology, in terms of morbidity, mortality, and treatment costs, reveals the disease’s gravity and the need for evidence-based practice to solve it. According to Sapra and Bhandari (2022), one in every eleven people worldwide has diabetes, with the vast majority (90%) having type 2 diabetes. While type 1 diabetes affects children, adolescents, and young adults, type 2 diabetes primarily affects adults. To account for the predisposition of type 1 diabetes in childhood, Sapra and Bhandari (2022) state that 45% of children with type 1 diabetes present before age ten.
The incidence of type 1 diabetes has been increasing by 2-5 percent per year in Europe, Australia, and the Middle East, and by about 2% per year in most age and ethnic groups in the United States (Sapra & Bhandari, 2022). Type 2 diabetes is estimated to affect approximately 9% of the US population, with a higher prevalence of 25% among those aged 65 and older (Sapra & Bhandari, 2022). Despite the troubling statistics, it is expected that the prevalence of diabetes will rise, with higher-income individuals being disproportionately affected.
According to the World Health Organization, diabetes is the ninth leading cause of death worldwide. Diabetes accounted for 1.37 million deaths from 1990 to 2025, according to a review by Lin et al. (2020), with the number expected to rise to 1.59 million by 2025. Furthermore, on March 22, 2018, the ADA (2018) published new research stating that the total cost of diagnosed diabetes increased to $327 billion in 2017, up from $245 billion in 2012. According to this discovery, diabetes imposes a significant economic burden on society.
In addition to the complications that diabetes causes, both acute and long-term, it is only logical that an evidence-based approach is developed to reduce its burden. The good news is that most DM risk factors are avoidable and can be significantly reduced when preventive measures are implemented using evidence-based strategies. Besides being useful tools for comparing and contrasting health events and populations, analyzing diabetes morbidity, mortality, and cost trends can help determine the most appropriate health interventions for a
