What is Evidence-Based Practice?
Evidence-based practice (EBP) is a problem solving approach to clinical practice and decision making within healthcare. EBP integrates a systematic search for and critical appraisal of the most relevant evidence to answer a clinical question, personal clinical expertise, and patient preferences and values (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2014). The EBP process allows the practitioner to assess research, clinical guidelines, and other information resources based on high quality findings and apply the results to practice.
Source: AMSN, Evidence-Based Practice
Steps in Evidence-Based Practice
The following are the basic key concepts of evidence-based practice:
- Ask a clinical question
- Search the published literature
- Appraise the articles
- Integrate the findings into your practice
- Evaluate the results
- Disseminate (share) your findings
Evidence-Based Practice Tutorial
Duke Health has created an Evidence-Based Practice Series for health care practitioners and students to provide a basic introduction to the principles of Evidence-Based Practice. The tutorial consists of six modules.
A text-based version of the tutorial is also available.
Additional Resources
- Evidence-Based Medicine Tools EBM tools for the five stages of Evidence-Based Medicine, from the University of Oxford
- Evidence-Based Practice from AMSN The Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses (AMSN) values evidence based practice (EBP) as a way to affect best patient care. This site provides information on EBP, including modules and web resources.
- Evidence-Based Practice Toolkit for Nursing From Oregon Health & Science University
- Evidence-Based Practice Tutorial This self-guided tutorial from Duke University Medical Center Library provides an introduction to EBP
- Forming Focused Questions with PICO Learn how to form a clinical question using the PICO method. From UNC Health Sciences Library.
- Trip - Clinical Search Engine Trip is a clinical search engine designed to allow users to quickly and easily find and use high-quality research evidence to support their practice and/or care.
Johns Hopkins Nursing Evidence-Based Practice Model
"The Johns Hopkins Evidence-Based Practice model for Nurses and Healthcare Professionals is a powerful problem-solving approach to clinical decision-making and is accompanied by user-friendly tools to guide individuals or groups through the EBP process."
Source: Johns Hopkins Medicine
Additional Resources:
- Evidence-Based Practice Project Database Browse examples of projects that use the Johns Hopkins Evidence-Based Practice Model.
- What is Evidence-Based Practice? An overview of EBP from Johns Hopkins Nursing Center for Nursing Inquiry.
Video Resources
- What is Evidence-Based Practice? An overview of EBP from Johns Hopkins Nursing Center for Nursing Inquiry.
