Running head: EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICE COURSE SUMMARY

Evidence-Based Practice Course Summary

Krista Caprio
University of South Florida

EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICE COURSE SUMMARY

Evidence-Based Practice Course Summary

In this course I gained more of an understanding of what evidence based practice is and
how it applies to clinical practice. I spoke with stakeholders at my assigned hospital to find out
potential issues in current nursing practice. From the information acquired, a clinical question
was formed and evidence based research was done in order to develop solutions for the issue. I
did my research on how Chlorhexidine bathing compared to standard bathing with soap and
water affects the incidence of MRSA in critical care settings. Then, the research findings were
synthesized. I compared the studies, evaluating their similarities and differences and how each
study related to my clinical problem. Gaps in the studies were identified, and I examined how the
research findings would affect patient care. Given the research synthesis, I made a clinical
recommendation on how practice can be changed in order to improve patient outcomes. Lastly, I
presented a mechanism of how the proposed practice change would be sustained in my clinical
setting.
The knowledge from the course that I applied was the importance of looking at many
studies in order to resolve discrepancies between clinical practices and find the best evidence.
Doing this will ensure the best practice is being implemented which will improve patient
outcomes. In clinical practice, it is important to know the most recent evidence in order to ensure
you are providing the best care to your patients. In addition, I learned the importance of
establishing a question in order to measure outcomes and establish interventions. A nurses role
in evidence- based practice is to generate questions related to current practice and participate in
evidence-based research to formulate best practice. Nurses also use evidence-based practice as
their foundation of care and collaborate with other members of the healthcare team to provide
quality care to their patients. This is something that I will be doing in clinical practice.