EVIDENCE-BASED NURSING PRACTICE 2

Evidence-based Nursing Practice

Nurses in various settings are increasingly using research findings to guide their
practices. It is hoped that this use of evidence-based practices in patient care will lead to better
health outcomes. In my work in cardiac catheterization laboratory, there are a number of
practices that we initiated after reading research findings from nursing journals.
One of these evidence-based practices that we have implemented is reducing bed rest of
cardiac catherization patients from 12 hours to 3 hours in their post-catherization care. The
previous practice was to keep patients in bed for as long as possible during post-catherization
care. The rest period often ranged from between 12 to as much as 24 hours. This prolonged bed
rest was assumed to bring the most benefits. We assumed that a shorter best would be unsafe for
patients because it would increase their bleeding.
Research we analyzed on the subject, however, showed that reducing patient bed rest did
not pose any significant health risks to the patients (Matte et al., 2016). In fact, it significantly
reduced patient discomfort as they no longer had to lie in the same position with restricted
movements for a long time (Matte et al., 2016). Additionally, it reduced patient costs as it
reduced the time that patients stayed in hospital. Equally important, it reduced the workload of
nurses (Suggs et al., 2017).
Thus, thanks to the use of these research findings we were able to improve patient
comfort, reduce patient care costs, and lower workload of nurses without compromising safety of
patients. This example proves that indeed evidence-based nursing practices lead to better
outcomes for both patients and nurses taking care of them. The example, therefore, supports

EVIDENCE-BASED NURSING PRACTICE 3
continued incorporation of research findings into nursing practices for better healthcare
outcomes.

References

Matte, R., Hilário, T. D. S., Reich, R., Aliti, G. B., & Rabelo-Silva, E. R. (2016). Reducing bed
rest time from five to three hours does not increase complications after cardiac
catheterization: the THREE CATH Trial. Revista latino-americana de enfermagem, 24.
Suggs, P. M., Lewis, R., Hart, A. C., Troutman-Jordan, M., & Hardin, S. R. (2017). What’s Your
Position? Strategies for Safely Reaching Patient Comfort Goals After Cardiac
Catheterization via Femoral Approach. Dimensions of Critical Care Nursing, 36(2), 87-
93.