Things you find out the longer you have been a nurse. We have obstacles and barriers where ever we turn, whether the barriers are facility related; maybe tools/supply related; or insurance coverage related; or the big one, pharmacuetical cost related.
What we sometimes forget is the barriers we make for ourselves. As nurses, we provide the biggest barriers to evidence baseed practice in nursing.
The first barrier is refusing to change. How many times have we all heard that phrase "we have always done it that way"? Medicine has evolved. So why shouldn't nursing practice evolve as well? We all know the answer to that should be it does as well. To overcome this specific barrier, education is key.
Knowing why we do something and that the outcome has a positive outcome for our patient is a no-brainer. Nurses are more action oriented so to see results after nurse education, reinforces the education and the change that is needed with evidenced based practice.
Changes made with good education and training tend to be a good building block of evidence based practice.
A second barrier is generational nursing. Evidence based practice was introduced to the medical field around 1995 and finally started being accepted and used around 2005. So nurses who paved the way for the newer nurses in our profession, were never introduced or taught this evolution in nursing practice. So, how can you practice something you don't know?
The way to overcome this barrier is for healthcare facilties to have mentor program of newer nurses to more experienced nurses. Just as these experienced nurses have passed the torch and taught us newer nurses so many things, why not return the favor and teach them?
I feel it is because of these experienced nurses that our profession has evolved into using evidence based practice. To me, educating them is saying thank you for paving the way to becoming more patient-focused and that we have become better patient advocates.
Reference
AJN The American Journal of Nursing: December 2012
Journal of Nursing Administration: September 2012