To Comment:
To be honest, I have never really thought about how epidemiology has affected my career as a nurse until this week. After I finished the readings, I do realize how I have used epidemiology Clinical epidemiology is a science of medical practice that informs diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic decisions relating to individual patients (Hannaford, Smith, & Elliott, 2006).
With this definition, I realize that I have used clinical epidemiology many times without knowing it in my nursing career. The broadest way I used it was during instances of differential diagnosis in the emergency department.
The phrase "fat, fair, female, forty" comes to mind. We used this when observing a patient with a suspected acute gallbladder. However, there are many other ways I used epidemiology in the past. Most recently, I read a study on the use of antibiotics.
The current recommendation by the World Health Organization (WHO) is to "always complete the full prescription, even if you feel better, because stopping treatment early promotes the growth of drug-resistant bacteria" (Sprenger, 2015). However, studies show that there is no evidence that stopping antibiotics early increases resistance of most bacteria (Bebbington, 2017). How am I supposed to figure out who is right?
To do this, I need to be able to read and understand the studies involved, look for bias, and see if the study results are applicable to my patients.