The Importance of Evidence-Based Practice
Nurse associates are new members of the nursing team providing care and treatment in a broad range of health and care settings. (citation NHS). The nurse associates’ role in the nursing team is to act as an intermediary between health and care assistants and registered nurses. In the clinical settings, nurse associates attend to the general population and help free up registered nurses to focus more on complex nursing duties. Nurse associates support but not substitute registered nurses. Although nurse associates will personally be accountable for their conduct in practice, they will have appropriate supervision as they will be working in teams that include nurses and other registered professionals (citation NHS). In this case, the nurse associated is under the supervision of the registered nurse.
Pneumonia is a common cause of morbidity and mortality and can have varied clinical presentations, especially for severely ill or elderly patients with several comorbidities. Therefore, there is a need for strong collaboration among the interprofessional care teams, including physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and radiologists, to improve patient outcomes (Jain & Bhardwaj, 2019). An interprofessional approach for optimizes the outcomes for pneumonia patients leading to a quicker recovery. The need for the interprofessional team in caring for Mrs. Jones is necessitated by the comorbid conditions: hypertension, paranoid schizophrenia, and pneumonia. The nurse plays a vital role in recording changes in vital signs such as temperature that a physician needs before making a diagnosis.
Nurses play an essential role in caring for the individual patient in addition to their contribution to diagnosis. They closely monitor patients allowing for the application of early interventions in the event of complications. Nursing care ensures that a patient receives the holistic care they need during treatment. After the administration of initial treatment, the nurse needs to offer supportive care and ensure that Mrs Jones also takes medications for her comorbidities. After 48 hours, Mrs. Jones needs a re-evaluation of her condition, but it may be done earlier if her condition deteriorates or new information becomes available. The nurse should ensure that the nutritional requirements of Mrs Jones are met. Often, nutrition is overlooked when patients with severe pneumonia may also be experiencing nausea and have decreased appetite. Higher calorie intake is required to fight the infection.
Among the duties of the nurse associate is to support Mrs Jones’ daughters in their care for their mother as well as her husband, especially now that pneumonia adds to her medical problems of hypertension and paranoid schizophrenia. Patient education is an integral component of treatment. Mrs Jones should be encouraged to stop smoking and instructed to seek medical attention should symptoms worsen.
The Importance of Evidence-Based Practice
EBP integrates patient values and the best available research evidence to make an informed clinical judgement (Melnyk et al., 2016). In the NICE strategy for developing quality standards and performance metrics for providers of health care services, EBP is a key element (NICE 2020). EBP is one of the four pillars of advanced nursing, described by the Royal College of Nursing (2009). The rising demand for personalized care facilitates the implementation of EBP as one of its principles is the consideration of patients’ values and preferences in their treatment. EBP requires healthcare professionals to engage in critical thinking to apple scientific knowledge (research-based evidence) and the art of nursing (practiced based knowledge) in the context of patient values and preference to deliver quality and cost-effective care (Schmidt & Brown, 2017). In the case of Mrs Jones, health professionals need to administer medication supported by strong evidence while respecting her decision not to take medications orally.
EBP improves the quality and safety of healthcare, minimizes costs, promotes equitability in care delivery, and, most importantly, improves patient outcomes for this scenario (Melnyk et al., 2016). Additionally, EBP empowers clinicians resulting in a greater level of job satisfaction and helps decrease burnout. Despite its benefits, EBP faces various challenges in its implementation such as limited knowledge among healthcare professional, the perception that EBP is time-consuming owing to the busy schedules in clinical practice, lack of adequate EBP mentors, and lack of enough focus on EBP in nurse education (Melnyk et al., 2016). Inter-professional teams are poised to benefit the most from implementing EBP due to varied educational and professional knowledge and experience of the team members. Addressing these challenges requires nurse leadership that supports a culture of inquiry and ready to embrace EBP as part of quality improvement.
Conclusion
Pneumonia can have varied clinical presentations, especially for severely ill patients with comorbid conditions, depending on the causative agent. It is a common cause of morbidity and mortality; therefore, there is a need for strong collaboration among the interprofessional care teams. The team approach optimizes the outcomes for pneumonia patients leading to a quicker recovery. Nurse associates play an essential support role in the care by ensuring that patients receive holistic care they need during treatment. The administration of initial treatment depends on the assessment of the severity of the condition. The assessment determined that Mrs Jones needed hospitalization and was prescribed intravenous medications. Evidence-based practice requires health professionals to administer medications to Mrs. Jones that is supported by strong evidence while respecting her preferences.