Before EBP, my perception of the nurse’s role in ethical practice was veery narrow, and only consisted of concepts like HIPAA, and patient advocacy. However, I now understand that they have a much more involved position. Nurses spend a significant amount of time with all of their patients, which means they know them on the most intimate level. In that respect, they can identify and screen potential patients for research candidacy. Therefore, they also need to make sure that patients and their families have all of the information necessary to be able to make an informed decision about participation. Much of the informed consent process is done by nurses. In terms of the research itself, nurses make sure that data and evidence is well-constructed, has relevance, significance and is valuable. They also assess the quality of the research and work to improve the methods that aren’t efficacious based on their past experiences.
Knowing the process of the research ethics is helpful, as being able to plan and execute a clinical investigation is a very valuable skill in the field of nursing. Clinical research is the reason that modern science is as advanced as it is. Nurses see firsthand what is and what is not therapeutic, and this can become a trial-and-error sort of process in itself. So, it is very important for nurses to be a part of clinical research, as they are the primary data gatherers in the patient care setting. They are familiar with patterns of symptoms and outcomes and have great intuition about their patients.
The Evidence Based Practice course allowed me to get a better sense of what clinical research looks like, as well as what the initiation process entails. I learned that nurses have far more responsibility than I originally thought, but it makes complete sense that we do, as we know the patient care process better than anyone. I feel that my confidence has grown as far as my ability to gather and evaluate journal articles. Being able to identify the strengths and weaknesses of a study is a very good skill to have moving forward!
