Carly Macklin NURS 350 Peggy Ursuy Nursing 350 Week 10 Discussion Board Work Examples of Generalist Nursing

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Week 10 Discussion Board: Evidence Based Practice Nursing Directions: Read the article: Gerrish, K., et al. (2008) Developing evidence-based practice: experiences of senior and junior clinical nurses. Give an example of how more experienced nurses in your place of employment would use evidence for practice over personal experience or tradition. Compare this practice to the findings of the article. How can you use this information to encourage other nurses to employ evidence to enhance patient care?

While working at St. Joseph Mercy on the cardiac unit, the policy and procedure for peripheral IV line maintenance changed to include placing disinfecting SwabCap on ever hub of line access. A clinical study determined that this passive disinfection from alcohol impregnated caps reduced line contamination and organism density (Wright, et al., 2013). The nursing staff was given a quick tutorial on how to apply the device by a product rep. This was slow to catch on by a large portion of the staff as it was just another step in an already full load of work. Yet, more experienced staff those who floated between CICU and the cardiac care unit, as well as the IV team and STAT RNs, were diligent with the new procedure. It would seem that these more experienced nurses had more awareness and concern for the prevention of bloodstream infections, given the level of patient acuity they so often worked with. While this is more based in work experience rather than seniority differences in the acceptance and utilization of EBNP found inDeveloping evidence-based practice: experiences of senior and junior clinical nurses, it does relate to the studys finding that nurses draw most frequently upon experiential knowledge and work-based information to inform their practice, (Gerrish, Ashworth, Lacey, & Bailey, 2008, pg. 70). In order to promote EBNP with less experienced staff, thorough education on the importance and rationale of the new process must be taught to newer or less experienced staff by clinical educators, but also by those with more seniority and/or nursing knowledge. References: Gerrish K., Ashworth P., Lacey A. & Bailey J. (2008) Developing evidence-based practice: experiences of senior and junior clinical nurses. Journal of Advanced Nursing 62(1), 62 73. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2648.2007.04579.x Wright M., Tropp J., Schora D., Dillon-Grant M., Peterson K., Boehm S., Robicsek A., & Peterson L. (2013) Continuous passive disinfection of catheter hubs prevents contamination and bloodstream infection. American Journal of Infection Control 41(1):33-8. doi: 10.1016/j.ajic.2012.05.030