Evidence-Based Nursing (EBEC) has its antecedents in Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM), which, in the last decade of the 20th century, was presented as a new paradigm in health care.
In a broad sense, evidence-based healthcare can be seen as a change in the culture of healthcare that moves away from actions based exclusively on experience, opinions and traditional practices and promotes greater use of science and research in decision making.
The rise of healthcare based on scientific evidence (CE) is due to:
- The characteristics of the professional practice itself (variability in practices and interventions and underuse of knowledge).
- The need to optimize healthcare services (achieve maximum efficiency).
In professional performance, variability is observed in the multiple clinical, managerial and teaching practices, which is not always justified by the specific characteristics of a specific situation.
The EBEC is the systematic process of searching, evaluating and applying the most current and relevant research to the care of the individual and the community, as well as to the management of health resources.
The practice of CE is nourished by the results of research, but in making decisions that concern health, in addition to the results of the most current and rigorous research, the experience accumulated by professionals, the beliefs of Patients and available resources:
Research results : They are the basis for making informed decisions; Evidence-based professional practice is a systematic process of searching, evaluating and applying the conclusions derived from research.
Professional experience : It is made up of observation and analysis of the nurse’s daily practice, combined with the knowledge acquired. Individual experience has some limitations, since it is reduced and is conditioned by the social and cultural influences of the environment.
User preferences (educational community) : They depend on their own and other people’s experiences. Preferences may lean towards different types of therapies and treatments that are more or less close to or far from conventional lines. Currently, users can access a large amount of information through the Internet. For example, in the field of health they can consult MedlinePlus, the main database in health sciences, for free.
Available resources : It has always been reiterated, and to a greater extent in the last decade, that resources are limited; What is obvious is that they are essential to apply the most advanced and effective interventions.